Cancellara wins the stage, Van Avermaet takes overall by a second
Fabian Cancellara (Trek Segafredo) on his way to winning the final time trial at Tirreno-Adriatico (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
The final stage of Tirreno-Adriatico was packed with drama from start to finish. Fabian Cancellara (Trek-Segafredo) set the winning time more than an hour before the overall favourites would start. The Swiss star in his final season topped Johan Le Bon (FDJ) and Tony Martin (Etixx-Quickstep) to win the stage, but the real battles came at the end of the start list.
Coming into the stage, Greg Van Avermaet and Peter Sagan were just eight seconds apart. Sagan, who won the Tour of California last season in part thanks to a stellar time trial over a similar distance, put down a strong effort but narrowly missed the mark.
Van Avermaet sailed into the finish watching the time of Sagan go past - 11:32 - in the final 100m - but he did just enough to hold onto a slim one second lead over Sagan to win the overall classification.
