The Isle of Man sprinter, who announced on the rest day last Monday that he was retiring at the end of the season, raised his arms at the foot of the Colosseum where Slovenian Primoz Roglic won the overall standings.

"I'm incredibly happy," said the Briton of Team Astana, at a loss for words to comment on his 17th Giro victory, 54th Grand Tour and 162nd overall.

It is a dream outcome for "the Cav", 38 years old, who then fell into the arms of half the peloton, delighted to see one of the best sprinters of all time offer himself such an outing.

One man in particular gave him a serious hand, and it was none other than Geraint Thomas, second in the general classification who turned into a luxury pilot fish less than two kilometers from the finish, while they are not in the same team.

"I was in the corner and I saw that Mark only had Luis Leon Sanchez (as a teammate). So I said to myself: let's go help an old brother," said the Ineos leader, after giving the hug on arrival to his former partner in the Great Britain team.

"My friends have been amazing, I'm very moved. The first time I won in a Grand Tour was at the Giro in 2008," Cavendish said.

Before putting away the bib shorts, the Briton has set himself one final goal: to win a 35th stage victory in July on the Tour de France to beat the record he currently shares with the best cyclist of all time, the Belgian Eddy Merckx.

© 2023 AFP