MILAN: Colombia’s Egan Bernal won the 2021 Giro d’Italia on Sunday, the Ineos Grenadiers leader given a hero’s welcome in front of Milan’s Duomo cathedral at the end of the 21st stage time-trial.
The 24-year-old Colombian won two individual stages and completed the 3,479km course 89 seconds ahead of Italy’s Damiano Caruso while Briton Simon Yates was third.
The last day 30.3km individual time-trial was won by Bernal’s teammate, the time-trial world champion Filippo Ganna, who also won the opening day time-trial.
The Giro win marks a return to form for Bernal who flopped when the cards were stacked against him at the 2020 Tour de France.
“The Maglia Rosa (leader’s jersey) is special. It’s the most beautiful race in the world’s most beautiful place,” Bernal said. “I’ll never forget this Giro, and the way I won it, with attacks and sprinting on the flat for bonus seconds against Remco Evenpoel. That is who I am and the cycling I like,” said the champion. The climb specialist who grew up in the Andes took the overall lead on stage nine on a dirt track finish that would have suited this former mountain biker.
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