Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) took a convincing stage victory at the top of the Sega di Ala climb in today's final stage of the Giro del Trentino and secured the overall win in the process. Despite the lull from the Kazakh team in the opening half-stage which allowed Maxime Bouet (Ag2r) to gain a big advantage, the Italian insisted that the plan had always been to win the race.

The prospects were bleak for the race favourites in the Giro del Trentino after the morning half-stage on the opening day of the Giro del Trentino. Maxime Bouet - a renowned climber who was 7th in the Criterium International less than a month ago and 20th in last year's Vuelta a Espana - had managed to slip into the early break and taken out more than 7 minutes on the race favourites.

Since then the favourite teams have faced a daily task of gaining back time on the Frenchman and at the start of today's crucial stage Vincenzo Nibali trailed the Ag2r rider by 3.57. A big challenge was ahead of the Italian if he wanted to take the overall victory.

However, the Italian succeeded as he used his strong teammates Tanel Kangert and Paolo Tiralongo to put Bouet under pressure before he soloed off to take the overall victory. With an unfortunate mechanical for Bradley Wiggins (Sky), the Italian was superior among the climbers and Bouet struggled in more than 4 minutes after the Tirreno-Adriatico winner.

After the opening half-stage, Sky insisted that the overall victory was more of a possible bonus than a target as the race was mainly preparation. However, Nibali insisted that the win had been his goal from the beginning. The second objective was to give the talented Italian Fabio Aru a chance to express himself of the climb and as the Italian took home the young rider's jersey and a 4th place overall, it was mission accomplished for Nibali.

"The plan from the beginning of the Giro del Trentino was to win the race and also to put Fabio Aru in a good position on the climbs, where we know he has a very strong pedaling style and we know he can do well," he said. "Today Fabio responded like a champion under the pressure."

Unsurprisingly, sports director Alexandr Shefer was overjoyed at the end of a race in which his team had shown an amazing strength in numbers. Today's show on the final climb was just the icing on the cake in an event which has been dominated by the blue-clad riders and the team can now approach the major goal of the Giro d'Italia with confidence.

"Astana had some brilliant work catching the breakaway," he said. "First with Tanel Kangert and then Paolo Tiralongo. Our training camp in Tenerife was a very good preparation for this race and the next events on our schedule. Vincenzo is just coming to his peak form, and so are the rest of the riders in the long list ahead of the Giro d'Italia."

Nibali will now travel to Belgium as he will line up Sunday in Liege-Bastogne-Liege as one of the major favourites.