Vincenzo Nibali claimed the overall victory at the Tirreno-Adriatico 2012
Vincenzo Nibali held his nerves during the final day of racing at the Tirreno-Adriatico.
He crossed the finish-line at the ninth position to secure the overall victory at the third World Tour race of the 2012 season.
It was a perfect day of cycling as the Italian fans could not have expected a better ending to the seven-day race.
The home fans were delighted to see their local hero occupying the top podium spot during the final day of racing at the Tirreno-Adriatico 2012.
He finished the 9.3 kilometre individual time trial stage in 10 minutes and 56 seconds and was 20 seconds behind the stage winner Fabian Cancellara.
However, Nibali’s overall lead was good enough to earn him the first general classifications victory of the new season.
He was delighted after the win, "I'm very happy, I felt good all morning and was confident. This season I had a lot more races in my legs than a lot of riders going into Tirreno-Adriatico, and the team was perfect".
"It's been a busy and difficult week for us as we had to play catch up almost immediately. But every day we have moved forward and yesterday was the crucial day as it put me in contention for the last stage," He concluded.
The 27-year-old claimed the overall victory with a total time of 29 hours, 38 minutes and 8 seconds after a tiring week of cycling.
Christopher Horner of Team RadioShack-Nissan finished 14 seconds behind at the second spot, while Roman Kreuziger was further 12 second behind at the third position.
Stefano Pirazzi of Team Colnago-CSF Inox topped the mountains classifications of the race with Ego Martinez De Esteban, Kristof Goddaert, Jarlinson Pantano and Diego Caccia achieving the next four spots.
Nibali also topped the point’s classifications with a total number of 32 points in his pocket.
Peter Sagan of Team Sky and Roman Kreuziger of Team Astana achieved the second and the third positions with 27 and 24 points, respectively.
Victory at the Tirreno-Adriatico has marked a perfect start for the Italian’s season. He finished second overall at the Tour of Oman and also achieved the fifth stage of the race.
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