Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), already wearing the Maglia Rosa and only needing to ride conservatively, attacked alone on the final climb up to Tre Cime di Lavaredo this afternoon, to win stage 20 of the Giro d’Italia.
 
Fabio Duarte (Team Colombia) was second at 17 seconds. Rigoberto Urán (Sky Procycling) was third at 19 seconds.
 
On the eve of the final stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia, from Riese Pio X to Brescia, Nibali leads the second placed rider overall, Rigoberto Urán (Sky Procycling), by 4 minutes 43 seconds, and the third placed rider overall, Cadel Evans (BMC Racing), by 5 minutes 52 seconds
 
After his victory this afternoon, the stage winner and Maglia Rosa spoke to the press.
  
“I knew that the final kilometres were very hard, but perhaps I didn’t remember quite how hard they were. There were riders ahead of me with a big advantage, but I was pretty calm. In fact, my team-mate, Agnoli, was probably more nervous than I was. He was impatient to start the chase, but I told him to wait until after the descent because of the cold, which stiffens you up and makes it hard to descend. Even so, I probably attacked too early. The signs saying how far there was to go started 1800 metres from the finish, but it seemed endless.”
 

“We only really felt the snow today in the final 5km. Thankfully, the road was pretty clean, and the stage turned into a real epic, with an uphill finish in thick snow fall. The manner of my win today leaves me with feelings of immense joy. And when have you ever seen riders finish the Giro d’Italia with no sun tan, and wearing arm and leg warmers? In the cold, you have to limit yourself, with or without climbs. Not to be pretentious, but in this Giro, I’ve had something more than my rivals on the all the uphill finishes. If there had been more climbing, I’d have managed the finishes the way I did today.
 

Comparing his overall win in the Giro to that in the Vuelta, Nibali, as you would expect, sees the former as being something quite unique. “Only something truly great could cap my Vuelta win, and this Giro d’Italia victory gives me that extra something. Tomorrow is the final stage, but it’ll end in a sprint, so I’m already very happy. However, I’ll need some time to put it all together and make sense what I’ve achieved. By this time tomorrow, I’ll have won the Vuelta and the Giro, and I also have good placings in the Tour de France to show for myself, so I’ve proved that I’m a good Grand Tour rider. This win in the Giro is special, though.”