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TOUR DE FRANCE

Italian Nibali wins 2014 Tour de France

Italian Vincenzo Nibali won the 2014 Tour de France on Sunday after the final stage that ended on the famous Champs-Elysees avenue. Frenchmen Jean-Christophe Peraud and Thibaut Pinot finished second and third.

Italian Nibali wins 2014 Tour de France
Italy's Vincenzo Nibali (R) wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey toasts champagne with Astana teammates. Photo: Jean-Paul Pelissier/AFP

Vincenzo Nibali completed his victory in the 2014 Tour de France on Sunday as German sprinter Marcel Kittel won the final stage on the Champs Elysees in Paris.

Nibali finished safely in the peloton to succeed Briton Chris Froome as Tour champion.

Jean-Christophe Peraud was second with fellow Frenchman Thibaut Pinot third.

Kittel matched Nibali's four stage wins on this year's Tour with Norway's Alexander Kristoff second in Paris and Ramunas Navardauskas of Lithuania third.

Nibali went straight to his wife and baby daughter after crossing the finish line to embrace both and celebrate with his family.

The 29-year-old Italian first took the yellow jersey on the second stage and although he lost it on the ninth stage, he claimed it straight back on Bastille Day, 24 hours later.

Sunday's 137.5km 21st and final stage from Evry was always likely to end in a bunch sprint, with Nibali's Astana team manager Alexander Vinokourov the last person to win from an escape in 2005.

Australian Richie Porte gave it a go with a loan break but Kittel's Giant-Shimano team and fellow German Andre Greipel's Lotto-Belisol squad led the chase.

When it came into the final few hundred metres, Kittel launched first but was overtaken by Kristoff, himself a winner of two stages at this Tour.

But the German found a second wind and came back at the Katusha sprinter to charge through and match exactly his feat from last year.

Then too he won four stages — including both the first and last — and wore the yellow jersey for a day on stage two.

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SPORT

Inaugural Women’s Tour de France to start at Eiffel Tower

The route for the inaugural women's Tour de France was unveiled on Thursday with eight stages, embarking from the Eiffel Tower on July 24th next year.

French cyclist Marion Rousse delivers a speech next to Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme during the presentation of the first edition of the Women's Tour de France cycling race.
French cyclist Marion Rousse delivers a speech next to Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme during the presentation of the first edition of the Women's Tour de France cycling race. Photo: Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP.

The first complete edition of the women’s version of cycling’s iconic race starts on the day the 109th edition of the men’s Tour ends.

After a route that winds through northern France, the race culminates in the Planche des Belles Filles climb in the Vosges mountains.

Danish cyclist Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig said she was over the moon to be taking part.

“I want it to be July now so we can get stared,” she said actually jumping up and down.

“The Tour de France is a reference and when you say you are a cyclist people ask about that. Now I can say I race the Tour de France,” she said after the presentation.

MAP: Details of 2022 Tour de France (and Denmark) revealed

Race director Marion Rousse, a former French cycling champion and now a TV commentator, told AFP it would be a varied course that would maintain suspense over the eight days.

“It is coherent in a sporting sense, and we wanted to start from Paris,” she said of the 1,029km run.

“With only eight stages we couldn’t go down to the Alps or the Pyrenees, the transfers would be too long.

“The stages obviously are shorter for the women than for the men’s races. The men can go 225 kilometres. For the women the longest race on our roster is 175km and we even needed special dispensation for that,” she said. “But it’s a course I love.”

Christian Prudhomme, the president of the Tour de France organisers, was equally enthusiastic.

“The fact it sets off from Paris the day the men’s race ends gives the new race a boost because it sets the media up to follow it more easily.

“It also means that with the Tour de France starting on July 1st and the women’s race ending on the 31st, there will be cycling on television every day of July.”

The men’s race is broadcast in around 190 countries.

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