Germany’s Marcel Kittel celebrated his 26th birthday with his second successive Giro d’Italia stage win on the final day of the race in Ireland on Sunday.
The Giant-Shimano rider had to come from a long way back to pip British rider Ben Swift of Sky Procycling after the 187km third stage from Armagh, Northern Ireland, to Dublin.
In a sprint finish for the line Italy’s Elia Viviani crossed third after 4 hours, 28 minutes, 43 seconds in the saddle.
Photo: AFP
“We tried to do the sprint preparation pretty early today [Sunday],” said Kittel, who collapsed to the road just beyond the finish, exhausted after an effort he described as “more like an attack than a sprint.”
Approaching the final kilometer there were two 90? bends and Kittel disappeared from the front.
“I lost the wheel of [teammate] Tom Veelers because riders were coming from left and right, and I was sandwiched,” he said. “Afterwards the bunch was in one long line and I was back in 10th or 12th, but I thought: ‘I can’t give up.’ I was on the wheel of [Nacer] Bouhanni, who thought the same.”
Just when Swift seemed poised to raise his arms in victory, the huge figure of Kittel appeared on his shoulder and passed him in the final meters.
Michael Matthews, the young Australian with the Orica-GreenEdge team, survived a spill to keep hold of the maglia rosa of overall race leader, which he will be wearing when the event resumes in Italy today.
Matthews said he believes that Kittel is now the world’s best sprinter, ahead of countryman Andre Greipel and Britain’s Mark Cavendish, both of whom are missing the Giro.
“On a flat sprint he’s pretty incredible,” Matthews said. “With the lead-out he has, and the amount of power he has, he’s pretty unbeatable. I guess he’s shown he’s the fastest man in the world.”
It was another stage run under gray clouds and frequently heavy rain, which saw the riders wrapped up and involved in several crashes. Most were minor, but there was a big pileup with 60km remaining, with the Astana team coming off worst.
Five of the Kazakhstan squad went down, including their leader, Michele Scarponi, but they were all quickly back up.
More serious was another crash as the peloton negotiated a tight roundabout with 35km to go with a five-man breakaway holding on to a 1 minute, 30 second lead. Cameron Meyer of Australia, a key member of Orica’s winning team in Friday’s team time trial, looked dazed, but he too was able to finish the stage.
The third stage concluded the Giro’s three-day stay in Ireland, with Riccardo Taranto, chief executive of race organizers RCS, paying tribute to the crowds and their enthusiastic support of the Grand Tour.
The start in Ireland was first mooted in 2009 and since then the race has started in Amsterdam and Copenhagen, and it is strongly rumored that it will start in Dubai in 2016.
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