Cycling: Contador seals easy victory in the Giro d'Italia

(REUTERS)

Alberto Contador secured his second Giro d'Italia title yesterday with a comfortable third-place finish in the 21st and final stage, beating his closest rival by more than six minutes.

The Spaniard and pre-race favourite finished the 26km individual time trial around the streets of Milan 36 seconds behind stage winner David Millar's time of 30min 13secs.

"It is an amazing feeling to win the Giro here today and it is a dream finale," Contador said.

With his hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport pushed back to late summer, he could now try for a clean sweep of Giro, Tour de France and Vuelta a Espagna. Contador's overall time was 84hrs, 5min 14secs. He was 6mins, 10secs ahead of Michele Scarponi, and 56 secs ahead of Vincenzo Nibali of Liquigas and took the red jersey for points winner with a total of 202, 80 ahead of Scarponi.

However, if he is found guilty of doping offences by the CAS he could be stripped of the title, meaning Scarponi would be promoted to first place.