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Gilberto Simoni overall winner of Giro d'Italia

The Giro d'Italia overall winner Italian Gilberto Simoni celebrates after arriving at the end of the final stage of the cycling race, in Milan. PHOTO: AFP

Climbing specialist Gilberto Simoni won the Giro d'Italia on Sunday for the second time in three years.

The Italian rider clinched the title with a pressure-free time trial after gaining a large margin on his rivals during three victories and two runner-up finishes in mountain stages.

Simoni finished the three-week event with a 7 minute, 6 second gap ahead of runner-up and countryman Stefano Garzelli, who held off third-place finisher Yaroslav Popovych of the Ukraine in Sunday's time trial.

Garzelli led Popovych by five seconds in the final standings.

Serguei Honchar of the Ukraine won Sunday's 21st stage, a 33km individual race against the clock that began in Idroscalo and concluded in front of Milan's cathedral. He completed the course in 38 minutes, 4 seconds.

Simoni finished 18th in the last stage with a time of 40 minutes, 18 seconds. His overall time for the 3,485km race, which began in Lecce on the heel of boot-shaped Italy on May 10, was 89 hours, 32 minutes, 9 seconds.

Besides wearing the pink jersey of overall leader, Simoni was outfitted with a pink helmet, shorts, gloves and bicycle for what amounted to a victory lap through the streets of this northern city.

Captain of the Saeco team, Simoni also won the Giro in 2001. He left last year's race after testing positive for cocaine, which he claimed was due to a dentist's injection. He was later cleared by sport authorities.

For the first time in several years, no doping incidents marred this season's Giro.

"For the past year, I thought about the Giro every day," Simoni said. "Those that know me know that I don't look back. I started over from zero, with humility.

"The 2001 Giro was a dream. This year I came in with a different mentality. I was ready to win it, giving more space to my thoughts than my instincts.

"Before, I used to ride with too much instinct. Through my errors, I learned how to win."

Simoni recalled a race in 1999 when he broke away from the pack on a mountain stage, only to get tired after 300m. "Now, before I break away, I work out my adversaries and give them a good look in the face.''

Sunday's stage was marked, but not affected, by the crash of a small plane about 500m from the course. The two pilots aboard were killed, said Giuliano Semeraro, a police officer in Peschiera Borromeo, the town where the plane went down.

Among cycling circles, the Giro is rated second only to the Tour de France in prestige. Simoni has spoken consistently in the last few days of his plans to challenge Lance Armstrong in the mountain stages of next month's Tour.

While Simoni's entry in the French race has already been established, the status of two other Italians hoping to ride in the Tour remained questionable and a subject of great interest on the final day of the Giro.

World road race champion Mario Cipollini was still awaiting an invitation for his Domina Vacanze team. Cipollini, known as the king of the sprinters, received an award on Sunday for setting the all-time record of 42 stage wins in the Giro.

After eclipsing the 70-year-old record previously held by Alfredo Binda, Cipollini withdrew from this year's race after a fall.

Marco Pantani, who won both the Giro and Tour in 1998 before becoming the subject of numerous doping investigations, had his best Giro of the past few seasons, finishing 14th despite falling during an icy mountain descent in one stage. Pantani said on Sunday that he was hoping to ride in the Tour with either Jan Ullrich's newly formed Bianchi team, or possibly with Garzelli's Vini Caldirola squad. Pantani helped Garzelli win the 2000 Giro when Garzelli was still a member of Pantani's Mercatone Uno team.

"I'm happy just to have seen so many of my fans along the roads," Pantani said. "I'm still not at my best, though."

Pantani said Simoni could challenge Armstrong when the American attempts to tie Spain's Miguel Indurain with a record fifth straight Tour victory.

"Armstrong rides differently in the mountains," Pantani said. ``Simoni uses more muscles, while Armstrong is more fluid. If he rides like he did last year, Armstrong's the favorite. But [Simoni] has a chance.''

Simoni was still rejoicing in his Giro victory and did not have to much to say about the Tour on Sunday, although he did offer some words to Armstrong.

"Why not come to the Giro?" he said. "Indurain won it. Armstrong could do the same."
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