Vincenzo Nibali will chase the world champion’s rainbow jersey after completing a hat-trick of grand tour victories by winning the 101st Tour de France in Paris on Sunday.
The Italian, winner of the 2010 Vuelta a Espana and 2013 Giro d’Italia, became the sixth rider to win all three grand tours, joining Jacques Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx and Alberto Contador.
Now Nibali, 29, is targeting the rainbow jersey, awarded annually to world champions in specific disciplines.
“After winning the Vuelta, the Giro and the Tour, I’ll keep focusing on grand tours, but I’d also like to crown it all with a rainbow jersey one year,” said Nibali, who does not believe this September’s Vuelta circuit in Ponferrada, Spain, suits him.
The Astana rider wore the fabled yellow jersey for 18 of the Tour’s 21 race days this month, taking the race lead on Day 2 in Sheffield with the first of four stage victories. He is the first Italian winner of the Tour since Marco Pantani in 1998.
“It’s very difficult to make a comparison between Pantani’s victory and my victory, because Marco won his in the last week, two days before the end,” Nibali said.
“For me, it’s the contrary. I had the yellow jersey on my back after two days.”
Marcel Kittel of Giant-Shimano won the final stage on the Champs-Elysees for a second successive year to bookend the race after his opening-stage win in Harrogate. Germans won seven of the 21 stages.
But Nibali was the race’s dominant rider, winning by seven minutes, 52 seconds over Jean-Christophe Peraud, 37.
Peraud and Thibaut Pinot, 24, finished second and third, respectively, to ensure there were two Frenchmen on the Tour podium for the first time since 1984, when Laurent Fignon won ahead of Hinault.
“The Vuelta was perhaps the most important competition, because it gave me the strength to go into the Giro and the Tour in the following years,” Nibali said.
“The Giro was an important competition for the Italian public. Within the context of the Tour de France, it’s something even greater than the Giro. It’s a more emotional, intense moment.”
Nibali was seventh in the traditional Tour warm-up, the Criterium du Dauphine, leaving some to question whether he would challenge in the Tour.
“The first part of the season was very difficult,” Nibali said. “My daughter was born. I’m not saying it’s a problem, of course. It’s a great source of happiness, and I preferred to stay with my family, my wife and it slowed down my preparation.
“I was a bit late in maturing this season, but I still continued to believe in reaching this objective, the Tour.”
Nibali’s four stage wins represents a feat not equalled by a Tour winner since the now-discredited American star Lance Armstrong won five a decade ago.
Moreover, Nibali’s comprehensive winning margin is the largest in Tour de France annals since Jan Ullrich of Germany beat second-place Richard Virenque by just over nine minutes in 1997.
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