Climbing specialist Gilberto Simoni won the Giro d'Italia on Sunday for the second time in three years.

　　The Italian rider clinched the title with a pressure-free time trial after gaining a large margin on his rivals during three wins and two runner-up finishes in mountain stages.

　　Simoni finished the three-week event with a 7 minute, 6 second gap ahead of runner-up and countryman Stefano Garzelli, who held off third-place finisher Yaroslav Popovych of the Ukraine in Sunday's time trial.

　　Garzelli led Popovych by five seconds in the final standings.

　　Serguei Honchar of the Ukraine won Sunday's 21st stage, a 33-kilometer individual race against the clock that began in Idroscalo and concluded in front of Milan's cathedral. He completed the course in 38 minutes, 4 seconds.

　　Simoni finished 18th in the last stage with a time of 40 minutes, 18 seconds. His overall time for the 3,485-kilometer race, which began in Lecce on the heel of boot-shaped Italy on May 10, was 89 hours, 32 minutes, 9 seconds.

　　Besides wearing the pink jersey of overall leader, Simoni was outfitted with a pink helmet, shorts, gloves and bicycle for what amounted to a victory lap through the streets of this northern city.

　　Captain of the Saeco team, Simoni also won the Giro in 2001. He left last year's race after testing positive for cocaine, which he claimed was due to a dentist's injection. He was later cleared by sport authorities.

　　For the first time in several years, no doping incidents marred this season's Giro.

　　"For the past year, I thought about the Giro every day," Simoni said. "Those that know me know that I don't look back. I started over from zero, with humility."

　　Sunday's stage was marked, but not affected, by the crash of a small plane about 500 meters from the course. The two pilots aboard were killed.

　　Among cycling circles, the Giro is rated second only to the Tour de France in prestige. Simoni has spoken consistently in the last few days of his plans to challenge Lance Armstrong in the mountain stages of next month's Tour.

　　While Simoni's entry in the French race has already been established, the status of two other Italians hoping to ride in the Tour remained questionable and a subject of great interest on the final day of the Giro.

　　World road race champion Mario Cipollini was still awaiting an invitation for his Domina Vacanze team. Cipollini, known as the king of the sprinters, received an award on Sunday for setting the all-time record of 42 stage wins in the Giro.