In the end, Egan Bernal didn't let anything go wrong and was allowed to receive the winner's kiss from his girlfriend right after crossing the finish line.
With a 24th place in the final individual time trial, the 24-year-old professional cyclist from Colombia made his overall victory at the 104th Giro d'Italia in Milan on Sunday and lived up to his role as a favorite at the first major national tour of the year.
“Today I was always focused on my performance and didn't want to lose the Giro on the last day,” said Bernal after his triumph and added: “It was very special for me to make the Giro victory here today perfectly. When I drove in here, I saw a lot of Colombian flags. "
For the captain of the British Ineos team, it was the second overall victory in a Grand Tour - in 2019 the climbing specialist from South America became the first rider in his country to win the Tour de France.
In the overall standings, Bernal was finally able to prevail with 89 seconds ahead of the Italian Damiano Caruso, who was able to take a few seconds off Bernal the day before in his stage win.
Third place in the final score went to Briton Simon Yates, 4:15 minutes behind Bernal.
For the second time after Nairo Quintana in 2014, a professional cyclist from Colombia with the pink jersey was on the final podium of the Tour of Italy.
Max Walscheid best German
The day's victory on the 21st stage was secured by the Italian Filippo Ganna. The time trial world champion had already won the opening time trial and rounded off the final triumph of the Ineos team in Milan. With a lead of twelve seconds over the French Rémi Cavagna, Ganna was able to assert herself. The best German in the final fight against the clock was Max Walscheid, 33 seconds behind Ganna. Bernal was the last of the 143 remaining drivers to cross the finish line 1:53 minutes behind his team-mate Ganna - both team-mates were then able to cheer.
Bernal laid the foundation for his triumph in the Italian fashion metropolis in Lombardy with two stage wins in the mountain finishes in Campo Felice on the ninth stage and in Cortina d'Ampezzo on the 16th stage.
In his triumph at Camp Felice, Bernal took on the pink jersey and, despite a brief period of weakness, did not give up on the 17th stage to Milan.
From a German perspective, the Giro 2021 turned out differently than expected.
Ravensburger Emanuel Buchmann (28), who started three weeks ago in Turin as one of the contenders for overall victory, had to give up the race injured during the 15th stage.
On the flat track, the Tour de France fourth in 2019 was involved in a mass fall and suffered a slight concussion and several bruises on his face and hip.
Two third places and a fourth place for Nikias Arndt from the DSM team were ultimately the best placements for German professional cyclists. Peter Sagan also won a stage for the Buchmann team Bora-hansgrohe and was the first Slovak to win the points classification.