Teams & Riders Vincenzo Nibali discussion thread

[Red Rick]

Expecting him to go nuts on the Grappa descent. Unfortunately, the one time he raced it and won, it was wet. Don't see that happening

 

[Rollthedice]

Re:

Is anybody expecting him to try on Grappa already?

I think his Giro has been good, if unspectacular, thus far. I wasn't expecting much better than this. One thing to consider is that weather has always been perfect in these first 19 stages. Nibali normally benefits from a couple of cold/rainy days, he tends to recover very well while others might get sick or suffer from bad weather. My feeling is that he's fading a bit, but I had the same feeling during the 2013 Vuelta and then he delivered one of his finest performances up the Angliru.

I also wish he'll ride the Vuelta.

Normally no. He is not in a desperate situation, the GC is too close and one wrong move can be deadly. It also depends on how Tom is going, he needs only maybe 20-30 sec to Nairo and Tibo for the last TT but much more on Dumoulin. It also depends if Pellizotti has really turned into Michele and is up the road with another teammate. There is no rain as you said it, just beautiful weather all this race which makes his performances here to look even better.

Anyway, apart from the coincidence that, as in 2016 there's a Colombian in pink and a Dutch above him on the podium before stage stage 20, today Sheikh Nasser is at the race, same as the Kazakh "royalty" who came to "support" him before stage 20 last year.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

Is anybody expecting him to try on Grappa already?

I think his Giro has been good, if unspectacular, thus far. I wasn't expecting much better than this. One thing to consider is that weather has always been perfect in these first 19 stages. Nibali normally benefits from a couple of cold/rainy days, he tends to recover very well while others might get sick or suffer from bad weather. My feeling is that he's fading a bit, but I had the same feeling during the 2013 Vuelta and then he delivered one of his finest performances up the Angliru.

I also wish he'll ride the Vuelta.

Even if he doesn't Movistar have to and Zakarin and Pinot will certainly try something maybe later in the stage. I think Nibali will wait for Movistar to kick things off then see how Dumoulin reacts.

 

[Mr.White]

Zaka and Pozzo will try on the climb I think. That will split the group and it's game on

 

[Forever The Best]

Not this year.

 

[Carols]

Re:

Not this year.

But he was a Gladiator and gave it all he had!

 

[SafeBet]

I think he made a couple of tactical mistakes during this Giro. The latest was not trying to follow Zakarin and Pozzovivo when they attacked on Foza. It probably wouldn't have changed much, but it was worth a try. Not sure he's got the legs to keep his podium spot tomorrow.

 

[the_cutter]

Nibbles tried and those seconds lost on Blockhaus and Oropa will haunt him. Then again voodoo still worked with Poopgate and Quintana hitting the deck, but it wasn't enough. Now do me proud and take second tomorrow!

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

I think he made a couple of tactical mistakes during this Giro. The latest was not trying to follow Zakarin and Pozzovivo when they attacked on Foza. It probably wouldn't have changed much, but it was worth a try. Not sure he's got the legs to keep his podium spot tomorrow.

Not sure that he could follow. If Dumoulin wins the race he's done it the hard way considering his brain fade two days ago and Crapgate which I suppose was unavoidable. The question now is how have the past few stages affected Dumoulin's recovery ? I still tend to think that he will win but not by much.

 

[Red Rick]

Nibali lost this Giro starting by sucking on Blockhaus and Oropa. If he'd been better there, he should've been sitting on 1'30" over Dumoulin going into this TT.

 

[Gloin22]

By that logic, if Dumoulin didnt *** hed have Giro won by 2 minutes already.

What happened happened.

 

[Rollthedice]

Grande Vincenzo, one beautiful queen stage win and fighting for the maglia rosa until the last drop of energy and the last day. While we witnessed the rise of one Tom Dumuolin a rider tailor-made for this parcours, Nibali showed us once again, this time with a new team built from scratch, mediocre for now and with Navardauskas and Moreno missing, that he is still capable to fight for the win in a Grand Tour, something that looked almost impossible during all these months when he was worse than ever before a GT. It ain't over till it's over but now the best would be to get the second place. It doesn't matter much but he will fight till the end.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

I want to see Nibali in proper shape against Valverde and Chaves again in the Vuelta like last year's Giro, along with Froome and probably even Alberto?

This, please. Maybe we could even get a resurgent Aru and an off the leash Landa to contend with as well if we're really lucky.

 

[SafeBet]

Is the Vuelta parcours a bit better than the last few years. Because this new diesel Nibali really doesn't stand a chance on a standard Vuelta route.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Is the Vuelta parcours a bit better than the last few years. Because this new diesel Nibali really doesn't stand a chance on a standard Vuelta route.

There are still a lot of muritos, particularly in the first week or so. I think the Vuelta though will be decided by who copes best with the heat. There are three tough high mountain stages in Andalucia, where it could easily be up around 40°C. Angliru gets the headlines, but I think Pandera, Cala Alto and Veleta will decide the race. Probably the best chance yet for Froome.

 

[Red Rick]

They're not going close to the Veleta. They're climbing to 2500 something meters on the Sierra Nevada

 

[DFA123]

Re:

They're not going close to the Veleta. They're climbing to 2500 something meters on the Sierra Nevada

Well obviously they're not going to the peak itself. The road kind of begins to fall apart after the Guardia Civil barrier (I actually rode up to 2700m a couple of months ago) - there is absolutely no way they could race much further than that without some serious (and kind of pointless) resurfacing.

edit. Incidentally, when I did ride up there, Katusha were training on it, maybe doing a bit of a recon. Is Zakarin going to the Tour or Vuelta this year?

 

[Valv.Piti]

The Vuelta route is top notch (and soooo much better than the Tour..), the best climber will win, I think, but there still is a pan flat 42 km time trial. Vincenzo has always been better in Italy, he will need luck to win, but its rather pointless to go to the Tour de France so I fully expect him lining up and fighting for the podium places.

 

[Oliver]

Going for a stage or 2 in Le Tour would be great also I'm visiting Le Tour again so would be great. It's possible Vuelta isn't his thing anymore with al the steep walls.

 

[skippo12]

His team was weak...with last years Astana team he would have won. Bahrain wasn`t able to send riders in the break on nearly all important mountain stages. Pelizotti was the only useful help he had.
Today I was really disappointed with both Movistar and Bahrain. An attack on Grappa would have most likely gaped Tom considering the fact that he was on his limit when Katusha pushed the pace.

Nevertheless the same can be said about Dumoulin so the dutch deserves the win.

 

[Gigs_98]

The Vuelta route should suit Nibali better than the ones of the last few years. Still many mtf's but less one climb stages and crazily steep muritos. So I really hope he will go there. There isn't really anything big to win for him in the tdf anyway. He won't be let into breakaways in the first week and after that there are only 4 mountain stages left.

 

[the_cutter]

How many times of having a camera motorcycle blatantly pace him can Nibbles get away with? I'm thinking that only 2-3 - in short, not enough to win it. Still, I'll be kinda disappointed if the Italians don't try it at least once.

 

[hfer07]

No matter what happens tomorrow in the ITT and what podium spot Nibs steps on in the final GC, overall I'm really pleased with his performance, considering he's leading a brand new team, perhaps not as powerful as his former Astana, but he managed to win a stage and get the most of it.

Grande Nibali !

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

No matter what happens tomorrow in the ITT and what podium spot Nibs steps on in the final GC, overall I'm really pleased with his performance, considering he's leading a brand new team, perhaps not as powerful as his former Astana, but he managed to win a stage and get the most of it.

Grande Nibali !

What's great about him is that he rarely goes into a big race generally seen as the very best at any important discipline (except descending if you only count GC relevant riders), but you can never, ever assume that he can't win. He is clever, dogged, opportunistic and ruthless. Of the currently active big champions he is the greatest overachiever. Unfortunately some people think that's a criticism.

 

[SafeBet]

No matter what happens tomorrow in the ITT and what podium spot Nibs steps on in the final GC, overall I'm really pleased with his performance, considering he's leading a brand new team, perhaps not as powerful as his former Astana, but he managed to win a stage and get the most of it.

Grande Nibali !

I genuinely think he would have won this Giro if riding with a team as strong as Astana in 2016. Bahrain had some issues (Navardauskas injury, Moreno DQ) but was overall disappointing as well. Not Sunweb level maybe, but not much better. It reminded me a bit of his Liquigas days (TdF 2012 in particular).

He also made a couple of tactical mistakes which cost him some time here and there. He wasn't the strongest rider in this Giro, but he's won GTs before without being the strongest.

A fine performance, the kind of performance which will lead him to focus on GTs for some more time. Which is kind of sad, because there's a good chance he'll never win one again, and this approach takes away the best part of Nibali, ie racing at top level in one week stage races and classics. I guess we'll never see him giving a shot to cobbles.