VINCENZO Nibali won the 101st edition of the Tour de France as he finished the final stage on the Champs-Elysees in Paris safely in the peloton. 

The Italian is the sixth man to win all three Grand Tours – the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana.
His winning margin of seven minutes 37 seconds over Jean-Christophe Peraud in second is the biggest since Jan Ullrich won by more than nine minutes in 1997.
Germany’s Marcel Kittel won yesterday’s traditional final-stage sprint finish.
The Giant-Shimano rider outsprinted Norway’s Alexander Kristoff to win his fourth stage of this year’s Tour, with Garmin-Sharp’s Lithuanian Ramunas Navardauskas in third.
For Nibali, the 21st and final stage was all about reaching the finish safely because Tour tradition dictates that the leader going into the final stage should not be challenged.
The 29-year-old Astana rider dominated the Tour from the moment he took the race lead on stage two in Sheffield and wore the race leader’s yellow jersey for 18 of the race’s 21 days.
He is the first Italian winner of the race since Marco Pantani in 1998
“It’s very difficult to make a comparison between Pantani’s victory and my victory, because Marco won his in the last week, two days before the end,” the Sicilian said.
“For me it’s the contrary – I had the yellow jersey on my back after two days.
“After winning the Vuelta, the Giro and the Tour, I’ll keep focusing on Grand Tours but I’d also like to crown it all with a world champion’s rainbow jersey one year.”
He added: “The Vuelta was perhaps the most important competition because it gave me the strength to go into the Giro and the Tour in the following year.
“The Giro was an important competition for the Italian public. Within the context of the Tour de France it’s something even greater than the Giro. It’s a more emotional, intense moment.”
Nibali won the hilly second stage in Yorkshire, that had begun in York, and strengthened his position on the cobbles of northern France on stage five, finishing more than two minutes ahead of two-time Tour winner Alberto Contador, while Britain’s defending champion Chris Froome crashed out.
Contador was then forced to pull out with a fractured leg after crashing on stage 10, as Nibali tightened his grip on the race by winning his second stage.
A third stage victory followed in the Alps and a fourth in the Pyrenees as the Italian underlined his superiority in the race.
Yesterday’s 137.5km stage began in pedestrian fashion in Evry with Nibali collecting champagne flutes from his Astana team car to distribute among his team-mates and then posing for photographs with race officials.
The pace finally quickened as the peloton reached the outskirts of Paris for eight laps of a seven-kilometre route that had earlier been used for the women’s La Course, which was won by Dutch world champion Marianne Vos.
France’s Sylvain Chavanel was the first rider to attack on the Champs-Elysees on the opening lap in Paris, while Germany’s Jens Voigt was allowed to race clear on the second lap, in recognition of it being the 42-year-old’s 17th and final Tour.
There was a slight scare for Peraud, who crashed on the third of the eight circuits of Paris, but Nibali, as Tour etiquette dictates, told the peloton to slow down to allow the Frenchman to rejoin the main bunch. (BBC Sport)