Egan Bernal seals Giro d'Italia victory

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Egan Bernal was crowned winner of the Giro d’Italia after avoiding incident in the final time trial.

Although he conceded 30 seconds to nearest challenger Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious), Bernal's victory never looked in doubt, and he had time to lift his arms in celebration as he crossed the line.

Caruso sealed second overall, while Simon Yates (BikeExchange) comfortably held on to third overall to complete the final podium.

On what was a great day all-round for Ineos Grenadiers, Filippo Ganna won the stage ahead of Remi Cavagna (Deceuninck-QuickStep) in second and Edoardo Affini (Jumbo-Visma) in third.

Ganna had to overcome a puncture towards the end of his ride, but still posted a very quick time that averaged 53.8km per hour.

"When I saw the puncture, I thought: 'today's unlucky, I've lost the race'. But I know I had a good gap to the second rider. I changed the bike really well, really fast, like a formula one race! And then when I crossed the line I thought: 'OK, now we will wait for Cavagna,' because he's a really good rider and time trialist."

Ganna was right to fear Cavagna, as the Frencham posted the second-fastest time, but he also lost significant time in the finale when he crashed after getting a corner wrong. He managed to remount his bike and finish with a time just 12 seconds slower than Ganna's, but the crash might just have cost him the stage win.

"When I saw his crash, I thought: 'we have played with the same card, I punctured, he crashed!'," replied Ganna at the finish when asked about Cavagna's crash.

Elsewhere in the GC, Dani Martinez gave Ineos Grenadiers something else to celebrate by overtaking Romain Bardet (Team DSM) to move up to fifth overall, while João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) leapfrogged both Bardet and Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Nippo) to move from eighth to sixth.

The battle that really mattered though was between Bernal and Caruso, but the Italian never really came close to troubling the pink jersey. He had gained nine seconds at the first intermediate time check, and 23 at the second, which was nowhere near enough the rate needed for a change of leader.

By the finish Bernal had lost 30 seconds, meaning he wins the Giro by 1:29 — the biggest winning margin at this race since 2015.

It's the Colombian's second Grand Tour overall victory following his success at the 2019 Tour de France, and he joins an elite club to have won both the Giro and the Tour in the last decade that includes only himself, Vincenzo Nibali, Chris Froome and Alberto Contador.

"I was just focussed on my effort," he said when asked about how he approached the time trial. "I was thinking I can't do a mistake, I don't want to lose the Giro in one corner. I pushed in the parts I could push, so in the corners, I don't have to take any risks.

"It's the first time trial I actually enjoyed! I'm always suffering in the time trials, but today was a special one.

"It was special, looking at a lot of Colombian flags everywhere, and people cheering for me."

Still only 24, he also seals overall viceroy in the young riders' classification, while Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R Citroën) were also confirmed as winners of the points and mountains classification respectively.

How it unfolded

Milan once again hosted the final stage of a Giro d'Italia, in the form of a 30.3km individual time trial finishing against the grand backdrop of the Duomo.

Filippo Ganna was among the first 25 riders to set off at one-minute intervals, and as widely expected, set what was easily the best time.

But his ride did not go as smoothly as hoped, as a puncture towards the end of his ride forced him to change bikes and lose a handful of seconds.

Prior to that Ganna had been flying, setting easily the fastest time at the intermediate sprints and passing four riders who had started before him. Thankfully for the world champion, it was a quick bike change, but he shook his head with disappointment upon crossing the line.

The impact of that bike change quickly became apparent when Edoardo Affini (Jumbo-Visma) reached the finish a few minutes later. As the rider who finished second behind Ganna at the opening time trial three weeks ago in Turin, he was among Ganna's main rivals today for the stage win but had posted a time 30 seconds slower at the second intermediate check.

By the finish, that deficit had been reduced to twelve seconds — not enough to beat Ganna's time, but enough to indicate just how much time Ganna lost in the final part of the route due to the puncture.

Remi Cavagna (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was the next big major contender to give Ganna a worry, and the Frenchman was initially challenging his time, at 18 seconds down at the intermediate time check. But the Frenchman totally misjudged a corner near the finish line, and couldn't quite break quick enough to avoid hitting the barrier. He was unhurt, but the time lost was enough to ensure he posted the second-fastest time, twelve seconds behind Ganna.

Cavagna's second place was put under pressure by a surprise name, Matteo Sobrero of Astana-Premier Tech. But the 24-year-old was also slowed down by an incident, this time through no fault of his own as he was caught up in traffic on the finishing straight, almost being squeezed into a barrier by a team car. He lost only perhaps a few seconds, but it was enough to finish behind both Cavagna and Affini's times.

Once the likes of Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Gianni Moscon and Jonathan Castroviejo (both Ineos Grenadiers) had finished their riders without getting near the leaders, the riders towards the top of the GC were all that were left to threaten Ganna's time.

Of those GC men, Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was the quickest, but couldn't quite reach the level of the specialists. He posted the fifth-fastest time, which was enough to leapfrog both Romain Bardet (Team DSM) and Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Nippo) into seventh and eighth overall.

That left Ganna as the stage winner, extending his remarkable winning run of Giro d'Italia time trials to five in a row. With Bernal also taking overall victory, it was the perfect end to the race for Ineos Grenadiers.