Teams & Riders Vincenzo Nibali discussion thread

[Red Rick]

Re:

Time to worry after one very short TT?

Contador is retired. The hypochondriacs gotta go somewhere

 

[movingtarget]

A lot of good TT riders find the prologues too short which is often why sprinters do well in them.

 

[Rollthedice]

No problemo. The idea for the Dauphine is to finish safely the race. Then on the San Pellegrino camp the final prep will take place. Teide was more on volume, resistance and aerobic training, quality follows in the Dolomites. He should be good in the Italian Championships, if not then it's worry time. Slongo says he needs to shed another kilo and a half and gain another 10 watts or so.

 

[Climbing]

Re:

No problemo. The idea for the Dauphine is to finish safely the race. Then on the San Pellegrino camp the final prep will take place. Teide was more on volume, resistance and aerobic training, quality follows in the Dolomites. He should be good in the Italian Championships, if not then it's worry time. Slongo says he needs to shed another kilo and a half and gain another 10 watts or so.

He’s doing another altitude block as usual before the NC (13-24 june, no Ionica race), so I don’t think he’ll be that good there.

 

[Rollthedice]

Re: Re:

No problemo. The idea for the Dauphine is to finish safely the race. Then on the San Pellegrino camp the final prep will take place. Teide was more on volume, resistance and aerobic training, quality follows in the Dolomites. He should be good in the Italian Championships, if not then it's worry time. Slongo says he needs to shed another kilo and a half and gain another 10 watts or so.

He’s doing another altitude block as usual before the NC (13-24 june, no Ionica race), so I don’t think he’ll be that good there.

The road race is on June 30, one week before the start of Le Tour and it will be a difficult parcours which could suit him well enough. It will be held in Darfo Boario Terme, 238 km total and quite different from when Giacomo Nizzolo won in 2016. Cassani asked for a tougher race so first there will be four laps of a circuit 25.4 each with the climbs Gianico 1.2 km at 6.5% and the murito Via Cornaleto 330m at 17% for eight times. Then the second circuit again four times with the climb Berzi Inferiore, 2Km at 6% with 10% parts and again the murito, last time at 2.5 km to finish. I think Nibali must go for it and he should be ready, there's one week since he'll come down from altitude.

 

[Climbing]

Yeah, mostly competition will not be impossible, though the course isn't that hard even with Cassani's changes, so Nibali isn't the main favorite imho.
I expect a decent performance and be up there with the best for sure.

 

[Red Rick]

26th today. About where we expected him?

 

[JosephK]

Didn't Nibali look really bad in some spring races before the 2014 TDF? Or am I thinking about another year? His strategy seems to have been to get race hours in but to delay buildup in form till the brink of Le Tour.

And I realize he won another monument, this year -- one of my favorite performances at MSR. I just think he's holding his cards close, this year.

 

[skippo12]

Re:

26th today. About where we expected him?

He build the aerobic base in the previous altitude camp but lacks anaerobic ability. Pretty much what I saw today.
He had no problem hanging on early but couldn`t follow the best on the final km. He was still in the front group with 1km to go and lost 30s in the uphill sprint.

 

[SafeBet]

He looked exactly like this in Tirreno Adriatico and then won Sanremo a week later. I think he could follow accelerations, but chooses not to. Wouldn't be surprised to see him in the break on Saturday.

 

[Rollthedice]

All good. Italian Championships on the 30th is were I expect him to put in a good performance, even win it if everything falls into place.

 

[movingtarget]

One rider where prep races don't indicate much.

 

[Eclipse]

Bang on expectations so far imo. He'll probably take one punt over the rest of the race which will give a little more indication on where he's at.

 

[Gigs_98]

I absolutely expect a Col du Pre attack tomorrow.

 

[bambino]

I absolutely expect a Col du Pre attack tomorrow.

Tomorrow might be too early. I think he will test his real legs only once in Dauphine and if he follows his normal pattern it will be last day, by the time he is 5-7 minutes behind the leader of the race.

 

[Jspear]

A minute behind....I know he’s not expected to do very well, but I still hoped for more.

 

[Nirvana]

IMHO today was better than expected, 16th in a 130 kms long stage with an almost _____/ design is good for him even in top shape. And he was even clearly easing in the finale.

 

[Brullnux]

I wouldn't say it's a good result for him if he were in top shape, but there's still a month to go so there's no issue at all.

 

[SafeBet]

All right guys I'm ready to hit the panic button.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

All right guys I'm ready to hit the panic button.

1 month stil the Tour starts, 1 month and 10 days till the first mountain stage. Thats 40 days. He could finish 50th overall and I wouldn't even begin to think to start panicking when it comes to Nibali.

 

[Red Rick]

I'm less worried than when he won Croatia last year before the Giro

 

[Gigs_98]

Where did he finish today? If he was minutes down maybe he'll go in the break tomorrow. His first two mtf's weren't that bad after all

 

[Netserk]

37th 12 minutes back. Obviously taking it easy, but a '14 showing would be more promising, for sure.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

37th 12 minutes back. Obviously taking it easy, but a '14 showing would be more promising, for sure.

True, this doesn't look as good as '14, but then again who expected that. And at the same time this also doesn't look any worse than what came after '14

 

[Valv.Piti]

Funny how commentators talking about this is very standard Nibali and he did the exact same thing in 2014 when he won - forgetting that he played with peak Froome and peak Contador on Col du Béal....