David Millar wins final stage and Alberto Contador takes overall lead in 2011 Tour of Giro d’ltalia
Garmin-Cervelo team’s David Millar won the 21st and final stage of 2011 Tour of Giro d’ltalia on Sunday, May 29. Alberto Contador of Saxo-Bank SunGard team maintained his overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The 34-year-old, Millar took a total of 30 minutes and 13 seconds to cover the distance of 26 kilometres.
Alex Rasmussen of HTC-Highroad was the runner-up with seven seconds behind David. The overall race leader, Alberto Contador grabbed the third place with 36 seconds.
Previously, David won the Time Trial Commonwealth Games and also took a lead in overall Three Days of de Panne in 2010.
After winning the stage, David said, "I'm delighted, it has taken me thousands of kilometres to get here and I'm very happy with this win."
With six kilometres to go, Vincenzo Nibali took a 13-second lead on Michele Scarponi. However, Scarponi tried his best to take the lead, but Nibali had good legs and grabbed the 11th position with 1 minute and 18 seconds down on Millar.
The group of four riders made first break Yaroslav Popovych of the RadioShack team, Alex Rasmussen of the HTC-Highroad Team, Alberto Contador of the Saxo Bank Sungard team and David Millar of the Garmin-Cervelo team. All of them took a lead of few seconds
over the peloton.
Alberto Contador was in good form and gained three seconds as an advantage. In the last kilometres, three cyclists were caught by the peloton and with the help of his Garmin Cervelo team’s, David Millar was crossed the finish-line without any difficulty.
Three time tour de France champion, Alberto Contador retained his overall classification with timing of 84 hours, 5 minutes and 14 seconds.
Alberto Contador said, "It has been an incredible end to the Giro, It is a dream finish with so many people in the square. The result has been good and as a cyclist sometimes you have good moments in your career and other times you don't. I've had great
moments here and I'm very happy."
Michele Scarponi of Lampre-ISD was the runner-up with 6 minutes and 10 seconds behind Alberto. Vincenzo Scarponi of Liquigas-Cannondale was in third with 6 minutes and 56 seconds.
The stage winner, David Millar, was in 100th place with a difference 3 hours, 14 minutes and 39 seconds. David also took a lead in points classification, ahead of Alex Rasmussen.
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