Teams & Riders Vincenzo Nibali discussion thread

[portugal11]

Nibali shouldn't have stopped... he is always waiting for contador to tire the skyborgs and then he launches his attack to drop froome. His team has to be able to put some riders in the break and help nibali further. Tomorrow is the perfect stage for him

 

[Climbing]

Well, it appears that the race is developing as many expected, Nibali getting stronger and maybe Froome fading a bit, not much at the moment.
That could be caused a bit from the crash as well, though he looked fine both yesterday and today.
If he gain time tomorrow we can expect some very nervous racing in the last week.

Probably needs some allies, the only possible one at the moments seems Lopez.
We'll see.

 

[bob.a.feet]

Looking forward to the post race interview with Nibali and Daniel Friebe

 

[Põhja Konn]

With Lopez improving by the day, The Shark could have an invaluable ally in the shape of his former team. Tomorrow should be all out war, with the stage being so short and hard. Recovery is the biggest weapon he has right now and making every day as hard as possible would mean maximising its potential effectiveness. Having another team actively helping as it fits their own goals can only be welcomed. Whether it is actually enough to overtake and beat the terminator that is Froome in the end is anything but certain though.

 

[dfromdub]

Re:

Looking forward to the post race interview with Nibali and Daniel Friebe

Does somebody have a link to the Nibali one? I bet he was particularly grumpy after this stage :twisted:

 

[killswitch]

Hopefully all those stop-start attacks didn't take more out of him than Froome who was following a predetermined pace all the way.

 

[bob.a.feet]

Re: Re:

Looking forward to the post race interview with Nibali and Daniel Friebe

Does somebody have a link to the Nibali one? I bet he was particularly grumpy after this stage :twisted:

To be fair it's nice to see a rider not so robotic in interviews

 

[Rollthedice]

Re: Re:

Looking forward to the post race interview with Nibali and Daniel Friebe

Does somebody have a link to the Nibali one? I bet he was particularly grumpy after this stage :twisted:

With Friebe it was after stage 12. Now there's a short video with him after this stage, he's tranquillo. Nothing bad about Contador, said that when you are on the limit it's hard. When asked if he's now in top form as Slongo said, he was smiling, Froome is very strong and he'll keep up the work.

 

[the_cutter]

Could've perhaps won the stage today, they gifted Majka about 45'' when Lulu was pacing the group (unless the live gap thingy was being iffy again). Froome was in full control the whole time though.

Bahrain is not strong enough to disrupt the Sky train and letting them control the race until 5km to go isn't going to cook Froome tomorrow. Alliance with Astana would be ideal, but what can they offer them?

 

[Brullnux]

He was quite clearly stronger than Froome today, but not enough to gain more than 10 seconds, into what seemed like a headwind(?). Tomorrow has to be all out. But this form, with a tailwind as well, on the Angliru could lead to half a minute there.

 

[bambino]

Re:

Could've perhaps won the stage today, they gifted Majka about 45'' when Lulu was pacing the group (unless the live gap thingy was being iffy again). Froome was in full control the whole time though.

Bahrain is not strong enough to disrupt the Sky train and letting them control the race until 5km to go isn't going to cook Froome tomorrow. Alliance with Astana would be ideal, but what can they offer them?

Podium for Lopez

 

[Carols]

Vince we Need you to save us from the Infernal Sky Machine! Find allies where you can and take it to them! Bring down the Machine!

 

[huge]

Re: Re:

Looking forward to the post race interview with Nibali and Daniel Friebe

Does somebody have a link to the Nibali one? I bet he was particularly grumpy after this stage :twisted:

With Friebe it was after stage 12. Now there's a short video with him after this stage, he's tranquillo. Nothing bad about Contador, said that when you are on the limit it's hard. When asked if he's now in top form as Slongo said, he was smiling, Froome is very strong and he'll keep up the work.

Being diplomatic?

 

[May0maniac]

Nibali isn't the guy who's really diplomatic (that seems to be Aru's thing) the thing with Contador probably just happened in the heat of the moment and after calming down a bit it was no longer a big deal for him.

 

[the_cutter]

Re: Re:

Podium for Lopez

Possible, at least for tomorrow. Lopez needs minutes on Zakarin and Kelderman and going balls out early could work for Astana. They have to be willing to use Aru as a superdom if they're serious about it though.

 

[bambino]

Re: Re:

Podium for Lopez

Possible, at least for tomorrow. Lopez needs minutes on Zakarin and Kelderman and going balls out early could work for Astana. They have to be willing to use Aru as a superdom if they're serious about it though.

Vino has never been afraid to make bold decisions. Dauphine again.

 

[huge]

Re:

Nibali isn't the guy who's really diplomatic (that seems to be Aru's thing) the thing with Contador probably just happened in the heat of the moment and after calming down a bit it was no longer a big deal for him.

I agree.
Just seen the video and he looked totally relaxed. He confirmed that he had looked for some help from Alberto, then added that when everyone is close to his limit, that's going to be difficult.

 

[Climbing]

Astana and Nibali didn't really go separate ways as friend though.
Working together could be in common interest, so that might end up being not so important.
But does Lopez feels like risking it all? Cause till now he mostly tried at the very end of the stage.
He is still very young, even being a such a talent, completely blowing out is not such a remote possibility.

 

[bambino]

Re: Re:

Nibali isn't the guy who's really diplomatic (that seems to be Aru's thing) the thing with Contador probably just happened in the heat of the moment and after calming down a bit it was no longer a big deal for him.

I agree.
Just seen the video and he looked totally relaxed. He confirmed that he had looked for some help from Alberto, then added that when everyone is close to his limit, that's going to be difficult.

This. Everyone is so high level, that it is impossible to destroy the field alone. Has been already couple of years.

Nibs is doing fairly well for a guy who has been doomed to be fading star for last 2 years.

 

[SafeBet]

I don't think Nibali went all out today. But tomorrow he will. If he doesn't gain some time tomorrow it's gonna a be very hard to break Froome in the third week.

 

[bambino]

Re:

I don't think Nibali went all out today. But tomorrow he will. If he doesn't gain some time tomorrow it's gonna a be very hard to break Froome in the third week.

True. After Berto's failure to contribute he softpedaled the last 3,5km save the last 500m. Tomorrow is going to be interseting at least. Though I would hope 1 more climb and 30km more in distance.

 

[Sestriere]

With how much time gain would he be pleased though? Certainly not with a minimal gain like today. I would say he can be content if he takes red tomorrow, be it only for a few seconds. After the TT Froome would propably be back in the lead and Bahrain would not have to defend the jersey.
IMO, he has to gain as much time tomorrow as he is going to lose in the TT. With a 55 second deficit on Tueasday evening he would have a somewhat realistic chance to win this whole thing.

 

[dacooley]

Re:

Astana and Nibali didn't really go separate ways as friend though.
Working together could be in common interest, so that might end up being not so important.
But does Lopez feels like risking it all? Cause till now he mostly tried at the very end of the stage.
He is still very young, even being a such a talent, completely blowing out is not such a remote possibility.

Helping Nibali to win the race is a common interest? Quite a strange approach.

 

[lenric]

Great Nibali! He's looking like the kind of rider who could thrive if GTs had 4 weeks.

 

[bambino]

Re:

With how much time gain would he be pleased though? Certainly not with a minimal gain like today. I would say he can be content if he takes red tomorrow, be it only for a few seconds. After the TT Froome would propably be back in the lead and Bahrain would not have to defend the jersey.
IMO, he has to gain as much time tomorrow as he is going to lose in the TT. With a 55 second deficit on Tueasday evening he would have a somewhat realistic chance to win this whole thing.

TT is not the end of Vuelta, there are hard stages between that and Angliru. But he has to be inside a minute before Angliru to have even distant chance to win. Less than 30 sec would be fantastic.