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Vincenzo Nibali won the 101st edition of the Tour de France as he finished the final stage 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, 52 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 on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.

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.

The 137.5km stage began in pedestrian fashion in Evry with Nibali, 29, 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.

Peraud stayed upright for the remainder of the race to finish second overall, ahead of compatriot Thibaut Pinot, who also won the white jersey as the quickest under-25 rider.

It is the first time in 17 years that a home rider has finished in the top three — Richard Virenque was second in 1997 — and the first time in 30 years that two Frenchmen will finish on the podium — Laurent Fignon beat Bernard Hinault to the title in 1984. Hinault was also the last French winner in 1985.

Richie Porte, who took over as Team Sky’s leader after Britain’s defending champion Chris Froome crashed out on stage five, was responsible for the day’s biggest break, building an advantage of more than 20 seconds with Tinkoff-Saxo rider Michael Morkov and Lampre’s Jose Serpa.

Porte raced clear on his own with two laps remaining. However, there was no fairy-tale ending for the Australian — who has endured a torrid Tour — or his British-based team, which has won the previous two editions with Froome and Sir Bradley Wiggins. Porte was caught with 7.5km remaining.

The final lap was all about the sprinters and Kittel was fastest as he won the final stage in Paris for a second successive year.  — BBC Sport