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Nibali crosses the finish line on the 20th stage of the Tour de France.
Champion

Italian Nibali all but confirms Tour de France victory on penultimate stage

Tony Martin won the 20th stage, but it is Nibali who will succeed Chris Froome as champion.

THREE-TIME WORLD time trial champion Tony Martin won the 20th stage 54km individual race against the clock at the Tour de France this afternoon.

Race leader Vincenzo Nibali of the Astana Pro Team finished fourth on the stage between Bergerac and Périgueux to ensure he will win the Tour after tomorrow’s final stage finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

On a great day for the French, Jean-Christophe Peraud took seventh on the stage to all but confirm second position overall, while compatriot Thibaut Pinot of FDJ.FR ended up third and also on the podium.

Irishman Nicolas Roche, representing the Tinkoff-Saxo team, stands 39th in the general classifications after a 97th-place finish on stage 20, 7min and 34sec behind Martin.

Dutch time trial champion Tom Dumoulin was second at 1min 39sec off the irrepressible Martin, with Czech Jan Barta third at 1:47.

Martin, who finished in 1hr 06min 21sec, was always expected to win this and he didn’t disappoint. But behind him the true drama was seeing who would join Nibali on the final podium.

Pinot started the day second but was only 13sec ahead of Peraud and 15sec ahead of Spanish time trial champion Alejandro Valverde.

Cycling Tour de France Nibali is poised to wrap up his title on tomorrow's race into Paris. Peter Dejong Peter Dejong

However, by the first time check it was obvious Valverde wasn’t having a good day as he had lost 43sec to Pinot and more than a minute to Peraud.

Pinot was supposed to be the weakest of the three in the race against the clock but he put in a stunning performance to finish 12th on the stage and secure third place overall.

Peraud, 37, had a scare after 33km when he punctured but it didn’t stop him and by the end he had finished 44sec quicker than Pinot to claim second stop.

But there was disappointment for another Frenchman, Romain Bardet, who lost fifth place by 2sec to American Tejay Van Garderen after puncturing like his AG2R teammate Peraud.

Nibali is poised to wrap up his first-ever Tour de France victory on tomorrow’s traditionally processional race to Paris, adding to his 2010 Vuelta a Espana and 2013 Giro d’Italia titles.

- © AFP, 2014

- Additional reporting by TheScore.ie

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