Italy's Vincenzo Nibali of Team Liquigas-Cannondale earlier today won the 2012 Tirreno-Adriatico race on home turf, securing victory with a strong ride in the final 9.3 kilometer individual time trial along the coastal line in San Benedetto del Tronto.

Team RadioShack-Nissan's Fabian Cancellara won the time trial in a time of 00:10:36. Nibali was six seconds behind Cancellara's Chris Horner before today's time trial, but beat the American by 20 seconds and thereby secured the victory.

Horner held onto to second place overall, finishing 14 seconds back. Roman Kreuziger (Astana Pro Team) was third at 26 seconds.

"This is an important win. I've always dreamed about winning Tirreno-Adriatico. I've won stages but now I've won overall too, so I'm really happy," a proud Nibali told Roadcycling.com after the finish.

"Today was about concentrating on the nine kilometer time trial. Prati di Tivo was about attacking and I managed to earn a lot of time quickly. The time trial was about mental strength."

When asked about his expectations for the 2012 Milano-San Remo classic on Saturday, Nibali said "My Liquigas-Cannondale team is very strong for Milan-San Remo this coming Saturday. Sagan and I will be the team leaders. He'll focus on the final sprint, while I'll have to do something before that. There are always a lot of surprises at Milano-San Remo. Of the Italian contenders, Oscar Gatto is going well. Cavendish is on form and so we'll have to make some allies and make it a hard race right from the start in Milano."

Fabian Cancellara was happy to win the final time trial today, but was also proud of teammate Chris Horner's ride and the performance of the whole RadioShack-Nissan team.

"Even though Chris (Horner) didn't win, it was a great week for us. He's happy and we're happy as team because we all did our best," Cancellara commented.

Commenting on his time trial performance Cancellara said "It was a tough one. Especially when I had in mind my best time from last year. But the conditions today were totally different. We had a tailwind to go out but a full headwind to come back. I see that I did three seconds slower than last year's ride but I still think I did a great ride. I also wanted to provide good split times for Chris to compare. I didn't feel under pressure to win this. I know where my form is now after 30 hours on the bike in this race and I have a lot of confidence."

"Chris has been recovering from his lung embolism for the last eight months and this was his first race. This week has given us confidence for the spring classics coming up. Now I'm looking forward to resting up and being ready for Milan-San Remo on Saturday."

After realizing he'd lost the overall race victory, Horner told Roadcycling.com "I have no mixed feelings about this. It's been a fantastic week. The team did a great TTT to set me up to take the jersey and I defended it for a few days. Tactically I think we did a brilliant race. This is not a course that is ideal for me, but to stay on the podium is good for me. I was concerned that I might not stay in the top three."

"The only feeling I have about this is one of feeling great. Great about the way the team worked this week and great about the way my legs feel. After what happened in the Tour de France last year and to be out of racing for so long, for me there was always a little bit of doubt how I would feel to come back. I held the jersey for three days in my first race in eight months. I'm coming out of this very satisfied. My form is fantastic and I look forward to the next stage races."

Watch video highlights from every stage of the 2012 Tirreno-Adriatico in our video section. Video highlights from the 2012 Milan-San Remo will be published in our video section after the race on Saturday.