MILAN (AFP) - Spain's Alberto Contador of Astana won the Tour of Italy on Sunday following the final stage, a 28.5 km time trial won by Italian Marco Pinotti of High Road.
Contador, the Tour de France champion, was never in danger of losing his 4sec overnight lead over SDV challenger Riccardo Ricco of Italy, who struggled on the final day, as he added another major race win to his burgeoning portfolio.
The Spaniard thus snapped an 11-year Italian winning streak in the event - Russia's Pavel Tonkov was the last non-Italian to lift the crown in 1996.
Contador also triumphed in his first showing here at the age of 25 as he came in ahead of a trio of home hopes.
Ricco, a year his junior, placed second but his travails on the final day saw him end up 1min 57sec adrift while Marzio Bruseghin was third, 2min 54sec off the pace as he booted compatriot Franco Pellizotti off the overall podium by 2sec.
Outgoing champion Danilo Di Luca finished eighth after giving Contador a run for his money in the penultimate mountain stage.
Contador did not land a stage win throughout but showed great consistency throughout the three weeks of racing to shrug off his initial uncertainty going into the event at Palermo on May 10.
"I was only told I was in a week beforehand," explained the champion, whose Astana team was only invited officially those few days before the start having initially been barred by organisers.
Giro organisers recognised the team had attempted to clean up their act. after being plagued by doping scandals.
Organisers of the Tour de France, run by the Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO) said earlier this year that the doping scandals which plagued Astana at last year's French race had left them with little choice despite the team undergoing a mass clear-out.
But the Italians decided to relent. The team's former leader, Alexandre Vinokourov, was fired after testing positive for a blood transfusion during last year's Tour de France.
Weeks after the Vinokourov controversy his fellow Kazakh Andrey Kashechkin also tested positive for blood doping. Other teams riders, including Matthias Kessler and Eddy Mazzoleni, were also involved in doping affairs.
A steeper than usual 91st edition was marked by rainy conditions and gave the sprinters relatively little room to shine whereas Italian climber Emanuele Sella bagged three stage wins for an impressive CSF.
A flat final time trial saw the leaders with little left in the tank and 30-year-old shared in the final day plaudits by seeing off German teammate Tony Martin by 7sec with Russian Mikhail Ignatiev third.
Contador was happy to keep the gap to 40sec as Ricco's challenge slid away.
