By Kev Newton
Chris Froome secured second place overall with a sixth place finish in the final stage of Tirreno-Adriatico on Tuesday.
Froome completed the 9.2-kilometre time trial around the streets of San Benedetto del Tronto 11 seconds faster than overall winner Vincenzo Nibali (Astana).
Nibali, however, held a 34 second lead going into the stage, enough to take the overall victory for the second year in a row.
World Time Trial Champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) claimed the stage win by six seconds from Lampre-Merida’s Adriano Malori.
Froome (Team Sky) was ultimately undone on the vicious 30% climbs of stage six to Porto Sant’Elpidio, losing 50 seconds and the leader’s jersey to Nibali.
The Brit will take heart from the fact that he got the better of two-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) for the second time this season.
The Spanish rider finished third and is expected to be Froome’s most dangerous opponent over France’s longer but less severe climbs this summer.
Mark Cavendish pulled out of the race, along with one third of the peloton, during Monday’s aforementioned sixth stage.
Incredible scenes saw many riders pushing their bikes up the steepest sections, prompting apologies from the race organisers for the difficulty of the route.
Picture Credit: Michelle Cound via Wikipedia Commons