Tinkoff Saxo's Alberto Contador has won the 98th edition of the Giro D'Italia.
The Spaniard went in to the final 178km stage from Turin to Milan with a 2.02 margin of victory and simply needed to finish to claim top spot on the podium.
The stage with 163 riders taking part, started as it's usual procession with Tinkoff Saxo owner Oleg Tinkov resplendent with pink hair, handing over a glass of Prosecco to Contador on the road.
With Contador having bagged the Pink jersey, Fabio Aru in the white young rider's jersey and Giovanni Visconti in the blue King Of The Mountains jersey, the only thing left to decide was the red points jersey.
This saw Giacomo Nizzolo of Trek Factory Racing with 159 points ahead of Lampre-Merida's Sacha Modolo by seventeen points.
The peloton were still together for the first hour of racing which was riden at 37kmh as the race headed towards Milan for the 85th time.
Philippe Gilbert of BMC took the first ten sprint points as he attacked with Max Richeze (Lampre-Merida) and team mates Marcus Burghardt and Silvan Dillier.
This quartet allowed the peloton, which included Marco Coledan, the last man in the general classification, who was fined 500 Swiss Francs after waiting on the finish line on stage twenty to ensure his last place.
Into Milan with seven laps of a 5.2km circuit to complete and Keisse and Luke Durbridge opened up a twenty second lead wih 27.8kms left watched by big crowds.
Giacomo Nizzolo took three points into the second sprint behind Keisse who took the ten points and Durbridge who took six points.
Team Sky went to the front of the peloton as Keisse and Durbridge opened up a thirty second lead going into the final sixteen kilometres.
Luka Megzec and Team Sky's Leopald Konig suffered a mechanical as the lead went out to first thirty five seconds and then forty six seconds with twelve kilometres left. A kilometre later and the lead was out to a minute, so Tinkoff Saxo went to the front.
Philippe Gilbert, Heinrich Haussler plus Houle, Hepburn and Chevrier punctured as concerns grew as to what was exactly on the road which had caused this spate of mechanicals.
The gap did come down to 36 seconds with 6.8kms to go and making the most of the lack of organisation amongst a number of the main sprint teams.
Onto the bell lap and the gap to Iljo Keisse and Luke Durbridge stood at thirty two seconds. AG2R's Patrick Gretsch went after the two leaders with 2.7kms left but was brought back by the peloton.
Going under the flam rouge and the gap was twenty seconds. The peloton closed on them so Durbridge tried to go but round him came Iljo Keisse of Etixx Quick Step to win in 4.18.38 ahead of Durbridge and Roger Kluge in third, followed by Porsev, Nizzolo, Mezgec , Viviani, Hofland, Appollonio and Favilli.
Alberto Contador finished safely in the peloton and won the race overall with a 2.02 victory over Fabio Aru, the Young Rider with Giaocoma Nizzolo the points leader and Giovanni Visconti, the KOM winner.
Keisse, said: "We had a kind of a plan to do something in the sprint. I saw there was a gap when we came into Milan. Luke Durbridge was my partner in crime and we worked well together. I am so happy with the win and for my team.
"I have seen how Mark Cavendish does it and I used that experience to win."
Source: DSG
