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Teams & Riders Vincenzo Nibali discussion thread

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SafeBet

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I'm not really sure his TTing has improved that much.
I mean last year he was second only to Leipheimer in a similar (identical?) ITT in San Luis. It's true competition was stiffer this time, but we need longer time trials to test him. He's always been very good in short to medium TTs.

Is Aru confirmed to ride Giro?
 
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maltiv said:
Isn't that about right? I haven't done the math, but Cunego won that Giro by 2 minutes. He had 4 stage wins, so that's at least 80 bonus seconds.
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Math is simple for this case
2 minutes = 120 seconds
80 seconds = less than 120 seconds so Cunego did not win because of time bonus.
Plus the fact that the number 2 also had time bonusses I can imagine.
 
Alphabet

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Brajkovic and Kessiakoff should be great support for Nibali. Now he won't have the problem that he had in the Tour where his only reliable domestique was Sagan.
 
Jason_Mercier

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If Aru is at the San Luis level in this beginning of season IMO he's above Seeldraeyers, Agnoli and Zeits. And i think Kessiakoff will do the TDF with Fuglsang so probably he'll got one place more empty. Nibali needs Fabio to win the Giro, Brajkovic has always failed in stages like the Dolomites and Tiralongo is a grandfather:D
 
Eshnar

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maltiv said:
No, really? My point was that he had almost 2 minutes in pure victories. I haven't checked, but I assume he also had 2nd and 3rd places, along with possible bonus seconds from intermediate sprints :rolleyes:
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He had a 2nd place too, but Honchar (who came 2nd overall) had a third place so there's little difference. Everyone who actually watched that race knows that Cunego won it in the Falzes stage. Bonuses were irrelevant.
 
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Eshnar said:
He had a 2nd place too, but Honchar (who came 2nd overall) had a third place so there's little difference. Everyone who actually watched that race knows that Cunego won it in the Falzes stage. Bonuses were irrelevant.
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I'd hardly call them irrelevant when he got more than half of his winning margin purely due to bonus seconds. But ok, the result would most likely have been the same.
 
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Jason_Mercier said:
If Aru is at the San Luis level in this beginning of season IMO he's above Seeldraeyers, Agnoli and Zeits. And i think Kessiakoff will do the TDF with Fuglsang so probably he'll got one place more empty. Nibali needs Fabio to win the Giro, Brajkovic has always failed in stages like the Dolomites and Tiralongo is a grandfather:D
Click to expand...

Only concern I have with Aru is consistency.
It's not easy for a neo pro to be consistently good for full 3 weeks.
 
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webvan said:
Well not quite and there was no LA to spoil it like for Ulle, he just never got back to the same level...
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To be honest I think Cunego could've won that Giro today as well with the same level of competition and on those parcours. The route was a joke and the competition was even worse.
 
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I'm a bit disappointed in Nibali's shape after this Tour of Oman.
I know it's february and bla bla bla, but it's february for everybody, and most of them are clearly ahead of him.

Last spring he looked much better. Maybe a different preparation in order to peak for the Giro? Or simply struggling to find the shape with the new team?

I'm not optimistic for T/A and the Ardennes anyway.
 
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cineteq said:
He hasn't been that bad, did you watch stage 4 (Eurosport long highlights)? And you just know when Nibali really cares about a race. Oman is not one of them.
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Still you gotta admit he was much better last year at this point of the season.
Plus I don't buy the thing he doesn't care about some races, not Oman anyway. He won here last year.

Today he was dropped by a lot of riders.
 
cineteq

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SafeBet said:
Still you gotta admit he was much better last year at this point of the season.
Plus I don't buy the thing he doesn't care about some races, not Oman anyway. He won here last year.

Today he was dropped by a lot of riders.
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Was he better, or the competition wasn't as good as this year's? One of Nibali's issues is sustaining his attacks and then fading away (see 2012 LB). I wouldn't be surprised if he's building on that specifically.
 
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cineteq said:
Was he better, or the competition wasn't as good as this year's? One of Nibali's issues is sustaining his attacks and then fading away (see 2012 LB). I wouldn't be surprised if he's building on that specifically.
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Competition was certainly weaker, I concur.
I was actually all right with his results until yesterday. Today's stage raised a red flag though.


In Vino we trust :D
 
maxmartin

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SafeBet said:
Competition was certainly weaker, I concur.
I was actually all right with his results until yesterday. Today's stage raised a red flag though.


In Vino we trust :D
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I would not read too much into the early season climb, simply because they all have different peaking agenda. For Nibali, MSR is a very important objective, he will try to peak for that. Oman is just training ground for that, Sagan is also smart about that not wasting energy on any climb.
 
Flamin

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SafeBet said:
I'm a bit disappointed in Nibali's shape after this Tour of Oman.
I know it's february and bla bla bla, but it's february for everybody, and most of them are clearly ahead of him.

Last spring he looked much better. Maybe a different preparation in order to peak for the Giro? Or simply struggling to find the shape with the new team?

I'm not optimistic for T/A and the Ardennes anyway.
Click to expand...

what else did you expect? Generally, Tour contenders > Giro contenders this time a year. And very few things will change come March/April.
 
Oliver

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SafeBet said:
I'm a bit disappointed in Nibali's shape after this Tour of Oman.
I know it's february and bla bla bla, but it's february for everybody, and most of them are clearly ahead of him.

Last spring he looked much better. Maybe a different preparation in order to peak for the Giro? Or simply struggling to find the shape with the new team?

I'm not optimistic for T/A and the Ardennes anyway.
Click to expand...

Last year he peaked in the beginning of the season & Tour. Now he will peak for Giro, so it's normal he isn't as good as last year at this moment. Compare him with other Giro contenders and you see it's just normal.
 
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