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Judging by this pattern next year is a GT win?
2013: Giro
2014: Tour de France
2015: Lombardia
2016: Giro
2017: Lombardia
Though LBL will clearly be a serious target and of course WCRR.
2013: Giro
2014: Tour de France
2015: Lombardia
2016: Giro
2017: Lombardia
Though LBL will clearly be a serious target and of course WCRR.
Don't want to think about it.Laplaz said:Vincenzo, what are we going to do without you in a few years?
With all the Contador/Froome arguments on here I think Nibali has been really underrated. He's never talked as big as Contador with the whole "2nd place is not good", and he's never really attacked any climb that he hits, and he's really stopped contesting the smaller races (Cav approves), but he's up there in every race he targets, and he always animates it because he's can't rely on his sprint. He's won all the GTs, podiumed the three non-cobbled monuments, animated GT stages on the cobbles, top 5 in the Worlds and would-be top 3 in the Olympics were it not for risking all on a descent in an ultimate attempt to win.
He's the best all rounder in the world. Hands down.
Red Rick said:Don't want to think about it.Laplaz said:Vincenzo, what are we going to do without you in a few years?
With all the Contador/Froome arguments on here I think Nibali has been really underrated. He's never talked as big as Contador with the whole "2nd place is not good", and he's never really attacked any climb that he hits, and he's really stopped contesting the smaller races (Cav approves), but he's up there in every race he targets, and he always animates it because he's can't rely on his sprint. He's won all the GTs, podiumed the three non-cobbled monuments, animated GT stages on the cobbles, top 5 in the Worlds and would-be top 3 in the Olympics were it not for risking all on a descent in an ultimate attempt to win.
He's the best all rounder in the world. Hands down.
Judging by what we saw yesterday he has a few more years in him so let's enjoy it while it lasts. Actually I think he was around TdF 2014 level in this Lombardia, could have won in any scenario. He was the marked man, no teammate in the decisive stages, everybody knew when and where he will attack and he still pulled it off. He managed to put Pinot in the red on the descent, powered away at over 50 Km/h on the flat and increased his gap on San Fermo. Capolavoro.
Absolutely brilliant. Well deserved happy ending for a very good season. I look forward to seeing what he deservesan do next year =)
Rollthedice said:Red Rick said:Don't want to think about it.Laplaz said:Vincenzo, what are we going to do without you in a few years?
With all the Contador/Froome arguments on here I think Nibali has been really underrated. He's never talked as big as Contador with the whole "2nd place is not good", and he's never really attacked any climb that he hits, and he's really stopped contesting the smaller races (Cav approves), but he's up there in every race he targets, and he always animates it because he's can't rely on his sprint. He's won all the GTs, podiumed the three non-cobbled monuments, animated GT stages on the cobbles, top 5 in the Worlds and would-be top 3 in the Olympics were it not for risking all on a descent in an ultimate attempt to win.
He's the best all rounder in the world. Hands down.
Judging by what we saw yesterday he has a few more years in him so let's enjoy it while it lasts. Actually I think he was around TdF 2014 level in this Lombardia, could have won in any scenario. He was the marked man, no teammate in the decisive stages, everybody knew when and where he will attack and he still pulled it off. He managed to put Pinot in the red on the descent, powered away at over 50 Km/h on the flat and increased his gap on San Fermo. Capolavoro.
Nibali seems to get a lot of super compensation from hard racing, and needs a lot of racing to get the engine going. Problem is you can't really go into a GT with too much fatigue, and if you're undercooked you have to go in the red consistently to not lose chunks, so magical 3rd weeks are always hard.
I agree that this was probably his best racing day since 2014. I really hope he doesn't go for the slow build up next year. Nibali peaks best when he has some form to work with
Red Rick said:Don't want to think about it.Laplaz said:Vincenzo, what are we going to do without you in a few years?
With all the Contador/Froome arguments on here I think Nibali has been really underrated. He's never talked as big as Contador with the whole "2nd place is not good", and he's never really attacked any climb that he hits, and he's really stopped contesting the smaller races (Cav approves), but he's up there in every race he targets, and he always animates it because he's can't rely on his sprint. He's won all the GTs, podiumed the three non-cobbled monuments, animated GT stages on the cobbles, top 5 in the Worlds and would-be top 3 in the Olympics were it not for risking all on a descent in an ultimate attempt to win.
He's the best all rounder in the world. Hands down.
I am a Nibali fan, and don't mean to take anything away from him, but I think he does have competition as an all-rounder in Valverde. And the two make for an interesting contrast as well. They have much different strengths, but are each remarkably reliable in races that they target. My contention has been that what distinguishes Nibali is that he makes the most of what he has more often than anyone else, a function of both intelligence and will, and I find that to be worth celebrating. But Valverde is also predictable in winning Flèche Wallon and Liege Bastogne Liege and similar races. He has done fairly well in GT's - not to Nibali's level, but I think their records nearly balance each other when you weigh Nibali's GT's against Valverde's Ardennes and one-days.
Perhaps what will make it clearer for me is if Nibali can win the RR at Innsbruck next year.
Despite clouding the issue here, I still think, even with results as they are now, that Nibali is the better all-rounder, but I don't think he is head and shoulders above Valverde.
He very much trusts Slongo to reach the desired peak. Will be interesting next year, after a long time, how he'll prepare Liege for the win. After the race yesterday he said it would be nice to fight with Alaphillippe in LBL. Then peak for Tour, ride Vuelta easy as a prep race for Innsbruck.
He should go all-out for Ardennes and WCRR next year. He'll be a legend if he wins LBL and WCRR as well.
Awesome performance from Vincenzo. Huge freshness, courage and determination By my calculations he climbed San Fermo almost 30 seconds faster than he did in 2015. Can't wait for the next season and really hope he will shine in Liege and the Tour.
Re:
Who was the last rider to win All 3 GTs plus a monument or 2?
I can't think of anyone since Hinault.
Bravo Shark, still writing his story in a dramatic way!
As I was traveling I missed Lombardia, off to watch it now.
Red Rick said:
Who was the last rider to win All 3 GTs plus a monument or 2?
I can't think of anyone since Hinault.
Bravo Shark, still writing his story in a dramatic way!
As I was traveling I missed Lombardia, off to watch it now
.
Definitely the greatest shark of all time. The shark from Jaws ain't got nothing on him. Heck, even if you'd put all of the sharks of Sharknado together, they couldn't reach Lo Squalo!
The way he just destroyed Quintana, Uran, Pozzovivo and Pinot in the mountains was amazing to watch. Sure, Pinot got gapped on the descent, but he lost most of his time on the San Fermo.
This was the most spectacular climbing performance of the year. He'd have dropped anyone from 2017 with that form.
This was the most spectacular climbing performance of the year. He'd have dropped anyone from 2017 with that form.
rick james
BANNED
Re: Re:
No need to. Did you see the pathetic Tour? Every mountain stage a group of 10+ riders finished together (exaggeration, but you get my point). Froome couldn't even drop guys like Meintjes at some point.
rick james said:
No need to. Did you see the pathetic Tour? Every mountain stage a group of 10+ riders finished together (exaggeration, but you get my point). Froome couldn't even drop guys like Meintjes at some point.
rick james
BANNED
Re: Re:
I always find difficult to make comparisons, what I know is he dropped everybody on that race, that is enough for me. A strong performance, in the Vuelta we saw him struggling on short steep climbs, saturday he was the strongest on that terrain, I start to believe he really neeeds very long and very hard races to emerge as the best. Time will tell.
El Pistolero said:
I always find difficult to make comparisons, what I know is he dropped everybody on that race, that is enough for me. A strong performance, in the Vuelta we saw him struggling on short steep climbs, saturday he was the strongest on that terrain, I start to believe he really neeeds very long and very hard races to emerge as the best. Time will tell.
Re: Re:
I guess you didn't watch the Giro then. Dumoulin on Oropa was incredible.
El Pistolero said:
I guess you didn't watch the Giro then. Dumoulin on Oropa was incredible.
Nibali has one (1) good climbing performance the entire season and suddenly it's the best of the year, sure :lol:
Best for him, but that was a low bar so far
Best for him, but that was a low bar so far
Re:
Plenty better and solid performances. Nibali generally wins when the best competition doesn't participate/crash. Fact.El Pistolero said:
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