Vincenzo Nibali put his lungs and legs to work one last time, marching up to the winner’s podium of the Tour de France and sighing deeply before the Italian anthem echoed over the Champs-Elysees.
Chants of “Vin-cen-zo!” rang across the famed avenue for the Sicilian, who dominated the race nearly from the start three weeks ago and on Sunday became the first Italian to win cycling’s greatest race since Marco Pantani in 1998.
Marcel Kittel of Germany won Stage 21 in a sprint, his fourth victory this year. Nibali cruised in 24 seconds later, easily retaining a lead of more than seven minutes on his closest rival. He received pats on the back, kissed his wife and infant daughter and was mobbed by cameras.
“Now that I find myself on the highest step on the Champs-Elysees podium, it’s more beautiful than I ever imagined,” Nibali, the Arc de Triomphe behind him, told the crowd. “I’ve never been this moved in all my life.”
Nibali, likened by some as the emperor of the pack, conquered where others did not- notably Chris Froome of Britain, the 2013 Tour winner, and two-time champion Alberto Contador of Spain. Both crashed out with injuries before the halfway mark.
Now that I find myself on the highest step on the Champs-Elysees podium, it’s more beautiful than I ever imagined. I’ve never been this moved in all my life.
Nibali, who calls himself “a flag-bearer of anti-doping,” noted that his success came through pinpoint focus on this race as the season began and opportunistic attacks in which he was able to nibble seconds on his rivals. There were no eye-popping performances, as was the case when doping was so prevalent.
The Astana team leader is only the sixth rider to win all three Grand Tours France, Italy and Spain. His win comes 16 years after Pantani, a flamboyant rider, died from a drug overdose.
Nibali won four stages, a feat not equalled by a Tour winner since Lance Armstrong won five a decade ago. The Italian wore the yellow jersey for all but two stages since Stage 1. His 7-minute, 37-second margin over runner-up Jean-Christophe Peraud equals that of Armstrong over Swiss rider Alex Zulle in 1999, a result nullified because of doping. Before that, the biggest margin was that of Germany’s Jan Ullrich- he beat Richard Virenque by just more than nine minutes in 1997.
In one of the subplots of this race, Peraud and third-placed Thibaut Pinot became the first Frenchmen to reach the Tour podium since Virenque in that year - a fact not lost on many home-grown fans. Pinot was 8-15 behind.
Armstrong, Ullrich and Virenque were caught in nearly a generation of doping scandals. Armstrong, in cycling’s biggest scandal, admitted to doping and was stripped of his record seven Tour titles.
