Stage 21

The road

At the start

Thirty-one seconds and a time trial

Joaquim Rodríguez carries thirty-one seconds into the last day of the Giro d'Italia, and behind him is Ryder Hesjedal, a rider who races against the clock for a living and has never been this close to a Grand Tour. Scarponi is at 1:51 and Thomas De Gendt's Stelvio ride has lifted him to fourth at 2:18. Roadworks have cut the Milan course to twenty-eight kilometres. Rodríguez has said out loud that he needs a miracle.

How it was won

1. 120 km to go

   Twenty-nine seconds at the first check

   Hesjedal starts thirty-one seconds down and needs a miracle to be denied one. By the first intermediate time he has taken all but two of them off Joaquim Rodríguez, and the whole Giro is suddenly a formality being ridden out in public.

2. 29 km to go

   Two corners that nearly end it

   Twice through tight Milanese turns the bike steps out from under him. Twice he holds it. Nothing else in twenty-eight kilometres comes close to touching him.

3. 3At the line

   A Canadian wins the Giro d'Italia

   Marco Pinotti takes the stage from Geraint Thomas and Jesse Sergent. Sixth on the day, forty-seven seconds up on Rodríguez, is Ryder Hesjedal — and that is the 2012 Giro d'Italia, won by sixteen seconds, the first Grand Tour ever taken by a Canadian. Thomas De Gendt's Stelvio ride lifts him to third and pushes Scarponi to fourth, leaving no Italian on the podium for the first time since 1995.

The result