After three weeks on the roads of southern France, Andorra and Spain and many, hard climbs Vincenzo Nibali could celebrate at the end of the Tour of Spain as second overall. With third place in the Giro d'Italia and second place in the Tour of Spain, Nibali once again proved his uncanny class.
After the tough mountain finish at los Machucos, in which Vincenzo Nibali was able to make up 42 seconds on the overall leader Chris Froome as stage fourth, the Tour of Spain did not seem to be decided yet: After all, the gap was again only 1.16 minutes, which was not a reassuring cushion in view of the following stages. But just one day later, the captain of the BAHRAIN MERIDA PRO CYCLING TEAM again lost 21 seconds to his rival on the short final climb. From the team's point of view, it was little consolation that Giovanni Visconti had ridden in the breakaway group all day and finished the stage almost ten minutes ahead of Nibali in third place. The following day, Ivan Garcia Cortina was again in the lead group in dark blue, red and gold, which was to decide the victory among themselves. The young Spaniard even attacked 20 kilometers before the finish in his hometown of Gijon, but was caught up again. In the sprint of the fastest nine escapees, Garcia Cortina finished third - a great result in his first professional year.
The highlight of the last week of this year's Tour of Spain was the short mountain stage up to Alto de l'Angliru. In the last 50 kilometers, this offered hardly a flat kilometer, and the crowning glory was a climb of almost 1,300 meters in altitude and with ramps as steep as 24%. In addition, the second last stage of the tour was held in low temperatures, and the wind was joined at times by heavy rain. The BAHRAIN MERIDA PRO CYCLING TEAM tried everything once again to give Vincenzo Nibali a last attack on Chris Froome. In the descent from Alto del Cordal, the team ensured a high pace, but on the wet road it was Vincenzo Nibali, of all people, who came down, but fortunately did not injure himself. On the enormously steep ramps of the Angliru, Franco Pellizotti then worked tirelessly to reduce the group of classification contenders. But in the final three kilometers, Nibali lacked the strength to attack - instead he had to focus on defending second place in the overall standings, which he managed to do with stage six and thanks to the help of Pellizotti.
On the final day, nothing changed in the overall standings on the way to Madrid. Thus Vincenzo Nibali was allowed to climb on the podium as second overall. This placement and the third place in the overall standings of the Giro d'Italia show that Nibali is still one of the strongest circuit specialists.
72 Tour of Spain
Overall rating:
1st Chris Froome, GBR, in 82:30.02 hours
2 Vincenzo Nibali, ITA/BAHRAIN MERIDA PRO CYCLING TEAM, + 2.15
3 - Ilnur Zakarin, RUS, + 2.51
English 
Deutsch 
Français 
Español 
Italiano