Teams & Riders Vincenzo Nibali discussion thread

[FCKAC]

It is the time for Boom to do something.

 

[whittashau]

Yep, definitely. Froome will be pretty unbeatable this Tour given how strong he looks unless he *** bike handling gets the better of him

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

Goodbye Tour De France? I say yes unless he can get back the time on the cobbles.

Nah, AC will fade. So only Froom is the biggest winner. Astana can pull back some time in TTT and possibly on cobble. But today, Astana team wise, the performance is horrible. I will reserve my judgement after the cobble and TTT.

Like I said, AC won't be a factor in this Tour. Nibali really has to think how to derail Froom.

Tomorrow it's his best chance, together with the Pra Loup stage. Astana must go all in on the cobbles.

Saint Jean Maurienne stage -- Contador and Nibali isolate Froome after Team Sky found out they cannot deal with rain + aggressive riding at the same time. Contador and Nibali make Froome, Tj, Pinot and Quintana chase on the descent but to no avail, as Pinot is a useless descender (he may not be afraid anymore but he is still crap) NQ isn't that good and Dawg, well, is Dawg. Time can be gained tehre. Stage 19 should be fun too, loads of climbing straight away and not much flat roads, too bad for the big MTF. Don't forget Cauterets too. But stage 10 is Froome all the way, flat hen a big climb is where Froome's unbeatable. When climbing all day, however, he struggles a bit more, like the Alpe stage in 2013. Nibali excels on unpredictable stages and must go all out on all stages where Froome on paper will struggle. Lucky for him, he will have Contador and Saxo's help, as AC doesn't look that strong so will also try to make up time anywhere. Very lucky too, considering Astana are being crap, maybe saving themselves for tomorrow?

 

[SafeBet]

I don't know if they were saving some energy today. They sure look overmatched thus far.

I agree there are many chances to take some time back anyway.

 

[Miburo]

Re:

I don't know if they were saving some energy today. They sure look overmatched thus far.

I agree there are many chances to take some time back anyway.

Allos man, that one Gonna get 2 minutes on froome.

And gap too. And there are other descends too.

 

[markene2]

Re: Re:

I don't know if they were saving some energy today. They sure look overmatched thus far.

I agree there are many chances to take some time back anyway.

Allos man, that one Gonna get 2 minutes on froome.

And gap too. And there are other descends too.

Think he will claw back time tomorrow at the cobbles. And he could do a Vino at Gap, big potensial to gain time there.

 

[cineteq]

Re: Nibali discussion thread

It definitely looked like that Nibali was saving energy for the big day ahead!

 

[Carols]

Big day tomorrow. Hopefully The Shark has his teeth sharpened he needs to make up some time!

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Nibali discussion thread

Manse, Allos and Glandon are the three descents where nibali could get time on froome. Maybe tourmalet too, but the descent isn't really technical and there is some false descent before the final climb

 

[whittashau]

Nibali fans - we better start doing rain dances otherwise Froome looks other worldly

 

[Rollthedice]

Re:

Nibali fans - we better start doing rain dances otherwise Froome looks other worldly

It was raining on that doomed second stage. We might look back and understand that it was there where the Tour was lost. On the other hand the team looks weak. If they will also fail in TTT Vino can fire himself.

 

[Eclipse]

It was a good ride today, glad to see him take the attack to the rest, just a shame they couldn't make anything stick.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re:

It was a good ride today, glad to see him take the attack to the rest, just a shame they couldn't make anything stick.

Cobbles were just too easy. Shame, as Nibali clearly deserved to gain some time

 

[SeriousSam]

Good ride today, at least he tried something.

 

[Jspear]

I think it was a mixture of things. 1st off there wasn't any rain. I think that took away most of the "superior bike handling" skills that he has over the other GC riders. 2nd, his team....didn't seem as strong as last year on the cobbles. 3rd, I think the other teams were better prepared. What he did last year was epic. You can't expect to see that every time he is on cobbles. He was heavily marked. At least he tried. What else could he do?

 

[qwer]

game over for nibali...

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re:

I think it was a mixture of things. 1st off there wasn't any rain. I think that took away most of the "superior bike handling" skills that he has over the other GC riders. 2nd, his team....didn't seem as strong as last year on the cobbles. 3rd, I think the other teams were better prepared. What he did last year was epic. You can't expect to see that every time he is on cobbles. He was heavily marked. At least he tried. What else could he do?

Improve his rain dance, as it clearly didn't work

 

[SeriousSam]

Re:

game over for nibali...

Not really. While it doesn't seem likely he'll get the better of Froome when it comes to anything involving power, if he can avoid losing time in the mountains, he can throw the dice some more with descending/risk taking. That's an option Quintana doesn't have.

 

[djpbaltimore]

At some point in the tour, Nibali will execute a maneuver that puts Froome and SKY on the back foot. The key is that he has to leverage the situation for maximal time gain and climb well enough on other stages to be close enough on GC to make that time gain meaningful.

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

game over for nibali...

Not really. While it doesn't seem likely he'll get the better of Froome when it comes to anything involving power, if he can avoid losing time in the mountains, he can throw the dice some more with descending/risk taking. That's an option Quintana doesn't have.

I agree. But Nibali does look very strong. To get a bike length or two over Degenkolb and others in almost every attack he made on dry cobbles is a very good sign. Also without help from a real cobbles specialist is even more impressive, Froome followed G's wheel 24/7, Contador had Sagan but Nibali, like last year, had Fugslang (slightly hurt) who is a climber. I'm not sure Nibali can match Froome on climbs, but as I've already said, the game is far from over. He should at least come second though, NQ looks not as good.

 

[DBotero]

Re: Nibali discussion thread

Nibali's not done yet.He looks in great shape,he'll try to get time on every opportunity.Still a long way to Paris.

 

[Son of Amsterhammer]

Nibs looks good. He gave it his best today, but the others were ready this time. That was to be expected, I think. Long way to go, he's not going to lay down and let Froome take it, you know that much.

 

[Carols]

I think Nibs looked very strong today, much stronger than his team. Had Astana been able to get together and do something I really think he would have ridden away. But the cobbles weren't hard enough and the head wind didn't help. Game Not over, he is in great shape and will be very aggressive. At some point he will break the elastic!

 

[Publicus]

He was super strong today, but so was Froome and the other GC candidates. I think he might be a bit demoralized after today, because he has a real uphill climb to take time back from Froome and Contador (to a lesser extent)--especially if Tinkoff and Sky are as strong in the TTT as I expect.

 

[FCKAC]

“He was strong yesterday and maybe even stronger today. I thought before that Quintana was the man to beat, but now Froome is really the strongest at this moment,” Martinelli said. “Right now he’s certainly the strongest.”

Interesting, before today's stage Martinelli thought Q is the man to beat.