The 100th anniversary Giro d'Italia finished today with a 15km(9-mile) individual time trail around the streets of central Rome. The course passed a number of Rome's most famous landmarks including the Colosseum, Saint Peter's Basilica and Circus Circus. In the end, Denis Menchov's overall victory appeared to be a relatively easy affair, but that was far from the case.

It was a drama-filled final stage as the organizers seemed to try to heap additional difficulties on the riders by running the race on just about every poorly-cobbled street in central Rome. In fact, almost 7 miles of the 9-mile course was on cobbles and bad ones at that. It was a bumpy ride for all the contenders and with rain falling on and off, the outcome was far from certain.

Many riders not in contention for a high placing chose to ride a regular road bikes so as to have more control on the twisty, turny route which also included significant ups and downs. Also, riders looking to the Tour de France like Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer decided not to take any chances on the slick cobblestones and definitely rode within themselves.

The drama was provided by the rain which caused race leader Denis Menchov to crash in the final turn, but he was up quickly and lost little time. In the end Menchov was a deserving winner. He gained the bulk of his time in the race's 61km Cinque Terra time trial, but he rode consistently in the mountains, avoiding a single bad day, to keep his margin all the way to Rome.

Here are some photos. Race leader Denis Menchov(Rabobank) with 1.5 miles to go.

Danilo Di Luca(LPR Brakes), who finished second overall, negotiates a turn in the first kilometer.

Carlos Sastre(Cervelo Test Team) win two hard mountain stages and finished fourth overall.  Look for him to be a factor in the Tour de France.

Lance Armstrong took it easy in the final TT. He will head to a high altitude training camp in the USA in the next few days.

The Roman Colosseum was the backdrop for both the start and finish of the stage.

Bruce

ps - I shot a lot of photos and did a bunch of interviews. Look for them to be popping up once I get back to the states.