Hesjedal confirms his victory - Giro d'Italia Final Stage

Today's stage: The time trial to solve it all in Milan.

Final Race Results – Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin) finished 6^th place on the stage and took 47 seconds from Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) to win the Giro d'Italia on the final day. His win is his first Grand Tour victory (previous best 6^th in 2010 Tour de France), the first for Canada (previous best: Steve Bauer, 4^th in 1988 Tour de France) and the first for the Garmin team (previous best 4^th from Christian Vandevelde in 2008 Tour de France and Bradley Wiggins in 2009 Tour de France). It is also only the second time the pink jersey has changed hands on the final day (1984 previously when Francisco Moser overtook Laurent Fignon). Rodriguez, to his credit in defeat, finished 25^th on the stage in one of the better time trial performances of his career. In all likelihood, he will enter the August Vuelta a Espana as the second favorite behind the returning from suspension Alberto Contador (team undecided, likely Saxo Bank). Further behind, Thomas De Gendt (Vaconsoleil) finished 5^th on the stage and overtook Michele Scarponi (Lampre) for the 3^rd spot on the final podium. This completed the final podium with no Italians on it in their home Grand Tour for the first time since 1995 and only the 4^th time ever.

Who won today's stage? Still, it was a happy day for Italy. Former national time trial champion Marco Pinotti (BMC) won today's stage with a dominating performance.

What matters in the other competitions?

Red Jersey (Points) – Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) was unable to finish in the top 15, and for that matter was unable to beat Rodriguez in the time trial and therefore was unable to beat Rodriguez. This is the second Grand Tour in a row that Rodriguez has won this competition along with the Vuelta last year.

Blue Jersey (King of the Mountains) – Matteo Rabottini (Farnese Vini) only had to finish the time trial today to finish off his King of the Mountains classification victory. He did so and sealed the final blue jersey.

White Jersey (Best Young Rider) – Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky) lost some time to teammate Sergio Henao, but it was nowhere near enough to lose this jersey in the end.

Biggest surprise: Rodriguez was as good as he was today. Rodriguez gave it a good go today. This was a far cry from the horrible performance in the 2010 Vuelta time trial when Rodriguez lost over 5 minutes to stage winner Peter Velits and lost 3'30”-4' to all of the other GC contenders. What an improvement even if it wasn't enough to take the top prize today.

Biggest disappointment: Where was Roman Krueziger (Astana) today? While he lost a bunch of time on that one awful day earlier in the race, he was thought to be among the better time trialers among the overall contenders. Today, he didn't bother to try, finishing 85^th on the stage. Part of that is there was no overall placing to protect and none to gain. He was sitting in a no man's land in the standings. Still, given that Krueziger is much better than Hesjedal in the time trial and Hesjeda finished 6^th, Krueziger might could have won this stage entirely had he tried.

Other items of note: There were two other short stage races finishing around Europe today. At the Ronde van Belgie (Tour of Belgium), Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) recovered from his injuries suffered when he was hit by a car in training in April and won the race overall. Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) earlier had won the first three stages... At the Bayern Rundfahrt, Michael Rogers (Team Sky) finished off an overall victory that included two stage wins. Also notable there was Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre) winning the other three stages that Rogers didn't win.

What is coming next for the peloton? Most of the top contenders at the Giro will take some time off before returning for the Vuelta a Espana in August. Others will join the rest rest of the peloton in preparation mode. The Tour de France starts in five weeks. In that time, most of the contenders will be racing in either the Criterium du Dauphine or Tour de Suisse. In addition, many countries have their national championships between now and the Tour de France with France, Belgium, UK, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands all racing four weeks from now. The United States is racing this weekend. David Zabriskie (Garmin) won his 7^th time trial championship yesterday and the national championship road race is tomorrow in Greenville, South Carolina. Blogwise, I will be updating weekly about cycling until the Tour de France begins on June 30, then it is back to daily coverage.