Contador Claims Second Giro d'Italia

Contador wins 2011 Giro

Alberto Contador claimed his second Giro d'Italia crown on Sunday, after holding off his closest rival by more than six minutes as the 21-stage  concluded in Milan.

The Saxo Bank-Sungard rider, who also won the Giro in 2008, had the victory all but sealed before Sunday and carefully negotiated the streets of Milan to ensure there were no late surprises on the final time trial of the three-week race. 

Britain's sprint specialist David Millar of Garmin Cervelo won the final 26-kilometres individual time trial in 30 minutes 13 seconds to clinch his first stage in this year's competition. 

"I'm delighted," said Millar. "It has taken me thousands of kilometres to get here and I'm very happy with this win." 

Contador, who finished third today - 36 seconds behind Millar - was all smiles as he crossed the line at Milan's Piazza Duomo, cheered by thousands of fans. 

"It has been an incredible end to the Giro," said Contador, a three-time winner of the Tour de France. 

"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." 

Contador captured two stage wins and held the leader's pink jersey for 13 days en route to the title. 

Some outstanding performances in the mountains meant the Spaniard finished six minutes and 10 seconds ahead of Italy's Michele Scarponi of Lampre. 

Despite gaining 10 seconds over Scarponi today, Vincenzo Nibali of Liquigas had to settle for third place in the final standings, finishing 46 seconds behind his compatriot. 

With defending champion Ivan Basso skipping the Giro to concentrate on July's Tour de France, Contador was favourite to dominate the 94th edition of the race and took the leader's jersey from Rabobank's Pieter Weening with 11 stages remaining. 

The top overall British finisher was Peter Kennaugh of Team Sky in 87th place.

Contador Takes Giro Stage 16

Alberto Contador

Alberto Contador has won stage 16 of the Giro d'Italia after the Spanish rider put over half-a-minute into his nearest rivals, Italy's Vincenzo Nibali and Michele Scarponi, in the mountain time trial on Tuesday.

Contador, 28, completed the 12.7-kilometre course in 28 minutes and 55 seconds, 34 seconds ahead of second-placed Nibali while Scarponi finished four seconds further back.

Great Britain's David Millar came in 24th, one minute and 56secs adrift of Contador.

There was a minute's silence before Tuesday's stage in honour of Spanish rider Xavier Tondó of Movistar, who died on Monday in a domestic accident back home.

Contador wore a black armband and later dedicated the victory on the podium to his compatriot.

The 12.7km stage that started at Belluno was one of the most eagerly anticipated and there were plenty of fans on the road to cheer the riders.

The first five kilometres were flat and on gravel before the climb to Nevegal. There was an average gradient of 8.3 per cent, with the last four kilometres hitting a leg-sapping 14 per cent as the riders approached the summit.

Despite losing 13 seconds on Nibali in the first check, Contador made up for it in the mountain climb to take one step closer to his second Giro overall triumph.

Contador, who won the Giro in 2008, leads the general standings by four minutes 58 seconds over Scarponi.

Nibali, who struggled in yesterday's harsh 229-kilometres stage, lies third - five minutes 45 seconds behind Contador - but took back four seconds from compatriot Scarponi, with just five stages left.

General classification: 

1. Alberto Contador (Spa - Saxo Bank-SunGard) 62 hours 43mins 37secs, 

2. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita - Liquigas-Cannondale) 4mins 58secs, 

3. Michele Scarponi (Ita - Lampre-ISD) 5mins 45secs, 

4. John Gadret (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale) 7mins 35secs, 

5. José Rujano (Ven - Androni Giocattoli) 9mins 18secs,

6. Mikel Nieve (Spa - Euskaltel-Euskadi) 9mins 22secs, 

7. Denis Menchov (Rus - Geox-TMC) 9min 38secs, 

8. Roman Kreuziger (Cze - Astana) 9min 47secs, 

9. Joaquim Rodríguez (Spa - Katusha) 10mins 25secs, 

10. Igor Antón (Spa - Euskaltel) 10min 58secs.

Selected others: 

55. Philip Deignan (Irl - RadioShack) 1hr 16mins 21secs, 

70. Peter Kennaugh (GB - Team Sky) 1hr 35mins 18secs, 3mins 6secs, 

104. David Millar (GB - Garmin-Cervelo) 2hrs 8mins 19secs, 

147. Russell Downing (GB - Team Sky) 2hrs 43mins 28secs.

Cavendish Ends Giro with Stage 12 Win

Mark Cavendish signed off from the Giro d'Italia in style as he sprinted to victory in Stage 12 to secure his second win of the 2011 edition, escaping a late pile-up which split the field and hit the front with 350m left.

He held off Davide Appollonio's charge with Alessandro Petacchi third.

The Giro now tackles the mountains as it moves into the Alps and Cavendish confirmed: "I'm going home tonight to recuperate for the Tour de France."

The Isle of Man rider added: "This was the last sprint in this Giro and it's really big for me and the team - we controlled the entire stage, the team did an incredible job.

"It was a successful Giro for me and the team."

Cavendish said he had managed to avoid the late crash because his HTC-Highroad team had predicted there could be problems.

"We had seen before the stage, in the route-book, that it might be difficult, we knew we had to be close to the front, and we got through it OK," he said.

Alberto Contador retained the pink jersey of the overall leader.

Four riders - Miguel Minguez Ayala, Davide Ricci Bitti, Stefan Clement and Michal Golas - broke clear of the peloton after only four miles.

The quartet led by more than three minutes at one point but were caught by the pack with nine miles (14 km) to go.

HTC-Highroad set the pace for the final few miles and when the crash occurred just outside the final kilometre Cavendish was safely out of harm's way near the front, lying third in a train of three HTC riders.

Within sight of the line lead-out man Mark Renshaw peeled off and Cavendish powered on, although Appollonio briefly looked like he might get on terms.

Stage 13 on Friday is a 104m (167km) leg from Spilimbergo to Grossglockner, Austria, featuring four climbs, including an uphill finish.

Saturday's Stage 14 is perhaps the toughest of the race, a 130m (210km) leg from Lienz, Austria, to Monte Zoncolan.

It features five climbs, plus the Crostis descent, and ends with one of the toughest climbs in Europe, Monte Zoncolan.

Cavendish Wins Stage 1 Accusations

Mark Cavendish 

Mark Cavendish earned his first stage win of the Giro Italia hours after he was accused of cheating by two rivals.

The Manxman won the 159km 10th stage from Termoli to Teramo after outsprinting Francisco Ventoso and Alessandro Petacchi at the finish.

But Ventoso claimed Cavendish had been towed up Mount Etna by a car in Sunday's stage after finishing 25 seconds inside the race cut-off point.

Garmin rider Murilo Fischer also accused Cavendish of receiving help.

"Incredible, he says he wants to win a stage at any cost and he does 10km holding on to a car," said the Brazilian.

And Ventoso criticised race organisers for not disqualifying Cavendish.

"It's shameful, everyone else kills themselves to get to the top inside the cut-off time while someone else holds on to a car without the authorities intervening," said the Team Movistar rider.

Cavendish's HTC-Highroad team refused to comment on the allegations, but the Manxman brushed them aside.

"We rode like madmen to try and stay inside the time limit," said Cavendish. "It's always the same, if I'm dropped but I finish inside the time limit it means I cheat. But I challenge Ventoso to spend a day with me in the peloton on a mountain stage.

"If I stop to pee, if I crash and change a wheel, I always have a race official - as well as an ice cream truck and a marching band - all watching me. If I can cheat then I'm stage magician David Copperfield."

Cavendish won the rolling stage in four hours and 49 seconds despite having to drop to the back of the peloton for a wheel change 50km from the finishing line.

"I am delighted to win my first stage," said Cavendish after earning his sixth career Giro stage victory.

"It was a good route and a perfect finish. In the final metres, I knew I had to be behind Petacchi´s wheel and then timed it well."

Three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador retained the leader's pink jersey.

The controversial Saxo Bank-SunGard rider maintained a 59-second advantage over HTC-Highroad's Kanstantsin Siutsou, with Garmin's Christophe Le Mevel a further 20 seconds adrift.

MIllar Unhappy with News Leaks

David Millar

Cyclist David Millar said "heads should roll" within the sport's governing body, the Union Cycliste International [UCI], after a list it drew up to estimate the "doping risk" of each rider at last year's Tour de France was leaked.

"This list should never have been released, never. The UCI, some of their people should be fired for this," the Briton said before the start of stage seven of the Giro d'Italia. "It's shocking ... A major investigation should go on into what exactly they are doing with this model."

The French sports daily L'Equipe unveiled the doping-suspicion index, in which riders are given a rating of suspicion scaling from 0 – not suspicious – to 10 – highly suspicious. 

The UCI said the list is a working document helping to steer testing, not a list of riders who have done any wrong. While the average index of the 198 riders from the 2010 Tour de France is 2.434, the Garmin-Cervelo rider Millar said he had a rating of 4, with Mark Cavendish a 2 and Bradley Wiggins a 5. 

"To see us in the middle of the list, it's like – are you joking? It's scandalous.""I understand I'm number four because of my misdemeanours in the past," he said referring to the two-year ban he received in 2004 for taking a banned performance-enhancing substance.

"They should never release it because there's always going to be anomalies, and people who are going to be badly judged even if it's a perfect model. What is it based on? It doesn't add up."I'm as clean as a whistle, my team [are] the cleanest guys and I have 100 percent faith in what we do. It's a bit mad."To see us in the middle of the list, it's like - are you joking? It's scandalous."

Other team officials were also angered. "It's an abuse of trust and it seems that anybody can filter what they like and the price gets paid by the riders, not by the guy who does the leak," Garmin's sports director, Bingen Fernandez, said reporters.

"If it's confidential, it has to stay confidential. If somebody in a bank revealed the equivalent sort of details about bank accounts, they'd be sacked."

Wouter Wellandt Dies in Giro d'Italia

Belgian rider Wouter Weylandt has died following a crash during the third stage of the Giro d'Italia on Monday, according to Italian media reports.

Leopard-Trek rider Weylandt, 26, crashed badly on the descent of the dangerous Passo del Bocco climb and received emergency treatment including cardiac massage at the scene of the accident.

Television shots showed the rider bleeding heavily and lying unconscious on the ground.

Doctor Giovanni Tredici told Rai Television 'Despite immediate treatment there was nothing we could do.'

The stage was won by Spain's Angel Vicioso but his victory was overshadowed by the sad events earlier.