Greig Leach

Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) safely crossed the line in the peloton, the rider who had barely put a pedal wrong through the 21 days of the Tour de France had successfully negotiated the final obstacle, the pave of the Champs Elysees, to achieving his dominate win of the Tour de France. He now joins a very short list of Italians who have won the Tour, and a only slightly longer list of those who have won all three of the Grand Tours. There are many who discredit his win, claiming that if those who had crashed out were here, then things would have been different. But the Tour de France is a hard race that must be survived as well as raced. Nibali stayed upright, other did not, Nibali was fast up the mountains, others were not, and Nibali flew around the final Time Trial, and yet again others did not. So it is with great relief that he was shepherded across the final finishing line in Paris by his teammates, with the Maillot Jaune firmly on his shoulders.