Nibali claims first Tour win
ITALY’S Vincenzo Nibali safely negotiated the final stage on the Champs-Elysees to win the 101st edition of the Tour de France in Paris yesterday.
Despite German Marcel Kittel claiming victory in the sprint finish, Nibali became only the sixth man in history to win the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana.
His winning margin of seven minutes and 37 seconds over second-placed Jean-Christophe Peraud was the largest since Jan Ullrich’s in 1997.
The 29-year-old Astana rider dominated the Tour and is the first Italian winner since Marco Pantani in 1998, although Nibali refused to draw any similarity with his compatriot’s success.
“It is very difficult to make a comparison between Pantani’s victory and my own, because Marco won his in the last week,” said Nibali.
“For me it was the contrary. I had the yellow jersey on my back after two days.”