RICHARD CARAPAZ CAME through the final stage unscathed to win the Giro d’Italia general classification as Chad Haga claimed Sunday’s 21st stage.
Movistar rider Carapaz had led since winning stage 14 – his second victory of the race – and all but sealed the pink jersey on Saturday when he retained a healthy advantage over Vincenzo Nibali.
The Ecuadorian needed only to finish within one minute and 54 seconds of Nibali in the time trial, a task he took to with ease.
There was no drama to speak of at the front of the race as Carapaz came home in 23 minutes and 19 seconds, with Nibali having finished in 22:30.
Carapaz finished fourth last year in just his second Grand Tour finish, with this his first such title triumph.
For the stage victory, Haga’s benchmark of 22:07 could not be matched, but he was joined on the podium by Victor Campenaerts and Thomas de Gendt.
Giulio Ciccone was a long way out of the picture on Sunday but was officially crowned the King of the Mountains in the blue jersey.
Bora-Hansgrohe’s Pascal Ackermann came out on top in the points classification.
Primoz Roglic did enough to steal third place overall in the only real GC action, finishing 10th in the stage to move eight seconds ahead of Mikel Landa.
Miguel Angel Lopez was nudged down to seventh as Rafal Majka moved up a place, but the rest of the top 10 finished unchanged.
Stage result
1. Chad Haga (Team Sunweb) 22:07
2. Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) +0:04
3. Thomas de Gendt (Lotto Soudal) +0:06
4. Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Merida) +0:09
5. Tobias Ludvigsson (Groupama-FDJ) +0:11
Classification Standings
General Classification
1. Richard Carapaz (Movistar) 90:01:47
2. Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) +1:05
3. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) +2:30
Points Classification
1. Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) 226
2. Arnaud Demare (Groupama) 213
3. Damiano Cima (Nippo-Vini Fantini) 104
King of the Mountains
1. Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) 267
2. Fausto Masnada (Androni Giocattoli–Sidermec) 115
3. Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Merida) 86
Subscribe to our new podcast, The42 Rugby Weekly, here:
Think he’d been 80/1 before the race. Wish I’d had a few quid on him.
@Brendan Heery: very hard to even see him as a potential winner at that point man. I’d keep an eye on him for the vuelta.
Hindsight! Some excellent Cycling tipsters online so may well have been tipped up. I think Porte may be a bit of value for the Tour. Good to see squeaky clean skyboys or team Ineos as they are now get a comeuppance. Criterium Dr Dauphine should be a good pointer.
@Bryn Capstan: I’ve a feeling alaphillipe might go for the GC in the tour and could be a dark horse. Haven’t studied the course but I know he has a decent enough team around him to get up there.
@Andrew Tuite: I can’t see Alap lasting the pace day after day in the high mountains with the GC boys, he’d do well to finish top 15. He would be foolish not to ride for stages and polka dots like last year. Mas will be DQS’s GC man. You could be on to something though, they could potentially be a formidable duo.
@Andrew Tuite: might have a shot at the points jersey and will be value as Sagan will be no odds. More of a puncheur, classics rider but could turn into a GC contender down the line as our own Sean Kelly did. Hard to look outside top 10 in the betting, Nibali apparently just going for stages despite his Giro 2nd. Bardet may be France’s best hope still for a tour they have not won since ’85 I believe. Mas looks a man for the future though as is 24 and white jersey could be on his particular radar.
@Bryn Capstan: bardet wont win it. He does not have it in him in my opinion. Maybe put a tenner on him though just in case