Nibali Wins Il Lombardia

Vincenzo Nibali won Il Lombardia in style on Sunday to claim his first Monument one-day classic victory. The Astana rider, who was thrown out of the Vuelta last month for holding on to a team car, attacked on the penultimate descent and never looked back.

Spain’s Dani Moreno (Katusha) and the Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), who jumped away from the group of favourites on the last climb to lead the chase, finished second and third, 21 and 32 seconds back respectively after 245km from Bergamo.

“It was a fantastic day, the whole team worked very well,” said Nibali, who was sheltered by Diego Rosa in the last part of the race, one of the five Monument classics along with Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Nibali’s previous best result in the Monuments was third place on Milan-San Remo and second in Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2012.

“I tried to attack on the climb but I realised I had to do it differently,” he added.

Nibali attacked on the ascent of the Civiglio but was reined in by Pinot. He attacked again on the downhill and no rider was able to follow the Italian, one of the best descenders in the world. Pinot and Moreno were stronger than the rest of the top riders on the final climb but failed to close the gap, which increased on the last downhill.

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Stage 16 - Schleck Wins Climb

Frank Schleck dug deep to win a brutally mountainous 16th stage of the Vuelta a España on Monday while Joaquim Rodríguez leapfrogged Fabio Aru at the top of the overall standings.

However, it was arguably the Dutchman Tom Dumoulin, who is not recognised for his climbing prowess, who put in the most impressive performance on the third of three consecutive summit finishes as he again avoided losing too much time on his main rivals and is now the clear favourite.

Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) is just under two minutes behind Rodríguez in fourth heading into Tuesday’s rest day and is expected to surge into the lead after Wednesday’s time trial in Burgos, a discipline he excels in.

“That was much better than expected,” Dumoulin said. “I didn’t feel so good on the first [category] climb. It went really fast but I was never really in trouble and I thought, ‘Ah, we’ll give it a go on the last climb.’ I had really good legs. To lose [only] 28 seconds is really, really good. Still everything is open.”

Rodríguez (Katusha), who won Sunday’s 15th stage to close to within one second of Aru, finished almost nine minutes behind in ninth, trying desperately to put some distance between himself and Aru, who hung on desperately. Rodríguez finished two seconds ahead of Aru to claim the leader’s red jersey.

The Trek rider Schleck, whose impressive victory came 45 years after his father Johny won a Vuelta stage in Madrid, was part of a small group that broke away near the start of the 185km slog from Luarca to Ermita de Alba, which included seven punishing climbs and some eye-watering gradients.

By the time the 35-year-old reached the final ascent after nearly six hours in the saddle he had dropped all his rivals except Rodolfo Torres (Team Colombia) and he surged away to cross the line one minute and 10 seconds ahead of the Colombian.

“I was very nervous, Torres was tough,” said Schleck, who missed the Tour de France with a knee injury. “I didn’t really know much about Torres or what he could do.”

Poland’s Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) is in third overall, just over one and half minutes behind Rodríguez and Aru. The three-week race ends on Sunday in central Madrid.

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Quintana Set for Giro d'Italia Title

Movistar rider Nairo Quintana is on the brink of Giro d'Italia victory after maintaining his lead over Rigoberto Uran on the penultimate stage.

The 24-year-old leads fellow Colombian Uran by three minutes seven seconds ahead of Sunday's race into Trieste.

Australia's Michael Rogers won stage 20, from Maniago to Monte Zoncolan, ahead of Italy's Franco Pellizotti.

Another Italian, Francesco Bongiorno, was challenging Rogers for victory until he was pushed by a spectator.

The Bardiani Valvole rider was on Rogers's wheel with three kilometres to go when a fan pushed him on the back, forcing him to take his left foot off the pedal.

Bongiorno recovered to finished the stage third, ahead of Ireland's Nicolas Roche.

He said: "I'm very bitter. On a climb like that, when you lose your balance, it's impossible."

Race leader Quintana kept close to Uran on the final ascent of Monte Zoncolan, a gruelling climb of more than 10.1km.

With the final stage relatively flat, he is all but guaranteed overall victory ahead of his compatriot, with Italian Fabio Aru set to finish third.

"It's 99% done," said Quintana. "I've achieved one of the big goals in my life."

Tinkoff-Saxo rider Rogers, meanwhile, said he was "proud" to win a second stage in this year's Giro.

The 34-year-old, cleared of a drug violation in April after eating contaminated meat, added: "It's been a dream of mine to win a mountain-top finish like that."

The Giro ends with a 172km flat route from Gemona del Friuli to Trieste.

Stage 20 result:

1. Michael Rogers (Aus/Tinkoff - Saxo) 4:41:55"

2. Franco Pellizotti (Ita/Androni Giocattoli) +37"

3. Francesco Bongiorno (Ita/Bardiani Valvole) +48"

4. Nicolas Roche (Ire/Tinkoff - Saxo) +1:34"

5. Brent Bookwalter (USA/BMC Racing) +1:36"

6. Robinson Chalapud (Col/Colombia) +1:46"

7. Georg Preidler (Aus/Giant) +1:54"

8. Maxime Monfort (Bel/Lotto) +2:13"

9. Dario Cataldo (Ita/Team Sky) +2:23"

10. Simon Geschke (Ger/Giant) +2:38"

General classification:

1. Nairo Quintana (Col/Movistar) 83:50:25"

2. Rigoberto Uran (Col/Omega Pharma - Quick-Step) +3:07"

3. Fabio Aru (Ita/Astana) +4:04"

4. Pierre Rolland (Fra/Europcar) +5:46"

5. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita/AG2R) +6:41"

6. Rafal Majka (Pol/Tinkoff - Saxo) +7:13"

7. Wilco Kelderman (Ned/Belkin) +11:09"

8. Cadel Evans (Aus/BMC Racing) +12:00"

9. Ryder Hesjedal (Can/Garmin) +13:35"

10. Robert Kiserlovski (Cro/Trek) +15:49

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