Katusha rider Joaquim Rodriguez lost the Giro d’Italia to Canadian rival Ryder Hesjedal on the final individual time trial on the streets of Milan on Sunday.
Hesjedal beat the Spaniard by 16 seconds in the general classification to deny him and his Katusha team their maiden Grand Tour victory.
The win made Hesjedal Canada’s first ever winner of a Grand Tour event and the first for his Garmin-Barracuda team.
Rodriguez saw his previous 31-second lead over Hesjedal erased as he finished 47 seconds slower than the Canadian, while Marco Pinotti of BMC won the 28.1 kilometer stage in a time of 33 minutes and six seconds, 69 seconds faster than Hesjedal’s time.
The tour win overshadows Hesjedal’s previous achievements, including stage wins at the Giro, Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana.
Rodriguez had worn the leader’s pink jersey since the 10th stage last week, with Hesjedal shadowing him all the way.
Third place went to Belgian rider Thomas De Gendt, the surprise breakaway winner of Saturday’s 20th stage in the Dolomite mountains.
Matteo Rabottini of the Farnese Vini team dominated in the Alps and Dolomites to take the mountains classification by a 40-point margin from his nearest rival, fellow Italian Stefano Pirazzi of Colnago-CSF.
Rodriguez, 33, joined Katusha in 2010 and won the eighth stage of the Tour de France that year.
In a racing career stretching back to 2001, he has also won the 2007 Spanish road race title, the mountains classification at the 2005 Vuelta a Espana and the La Fleche Wallonne race in Belgium in April 2012.
