Here he is again the Shark of the Strait that makes a void in the dive descent of the Civiglio and goes on to win Lombardia alone. Proudly bringing out all his class, Vincenzo Nibali turns in his favor a crooked year, marked by a chiaroscuro Tour and the clamorous expulsion from the Vuelta, with an autumn season finale as a true champion: first the acute Bernocchi, then the victory at the three Valli Varesine, finally yesterday the peremptory success in the classic-monument of dead leaves which since 2008, the last of Damiano Cunego's three triumphs, has not seen an Italian first.
On the first pass from Como, at the end of the Civiglio descent, Nibali had already gotten a good lead over his immediate pursuers until he was close to 40”. On San Fermo, the leader of Astana, in the tricolor jersey, wisely managed his forces and then dived, elusive, towards the finish line, greeted by a roar of enthusiasm from the crowd who had found their champion again. The Spanish Dani Moreno was 21" second, the Frenchman Thibaut Pinot third at 32" and Alejandro Valverde fourth at 46".
For Nibali, who is one of six champions capable of winning the Giro, Tour and Vuelta, it is the first center in a classic-monument. He had previously finished second once in the 2012 Liège preceded by Makxim Iglinskij, the Astana teammate involved with his brother in a doping case which led the UCI to put all of Astana under observation. A bad mess that perhaps somehow conditioned, at least in the first part, Nibali's season itself.
