Teams & Riders Vincenzo Nibali discussion thread

[May0maniac]

3rd week Nibali is usually stronger and he looks better than 2015 Nibali at the same point of the race, today he looked like on Blockhaus last year.

 

[Carols]

Disappointed today, but the juggernaut that is UKPostal 2.0 seems to be on an insane level. Hopefully he comes Very Good soon otherwise it's pretty much done and dusted for him. Tomorrow we'll see.

 

[dfromdub]

I hope Nibs can top 3 like I said in a previous post.

 

[Eclipse]

Re:

3rd week Nibali is usually stronger and he looks better than 2015 Nibali at the same point of the race, today he looked like on Blockhaus last year.

I'm sure he'll have a good 3rd week - I just don't see how he gets to it in a shape that can contest for a win based on what we're seeing from Sky. Podium is always there but that's never the prize you want.

 

[Rollthedice]

Very good for the type of stage and early on the climbing part of tour, smart today, catenaccio with his human rivals. Sky is untouchable at the moment. He can be the best of the rest.

 

[roundabout]

Re:

after all I saw him well. the only mistake was not to follow tom in the descent

I hope it was not his decision to chase Valverde. Probably wouldn't have changed anything, but why help?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

With Dumoulin (and possibly Froome) maybe paying for the Giro efforts later a podium is really likely. But Nibali has to watch out because Roglic is far superior in the time trial

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

after all I saw him well. the only mistake was not to follow tom in the descent

I hope it was not his decision to chase Valverde. Probably wouldn't have changed anything, but why help?

Odd move but it probably didn't change his result too much.

 

[Red Rick]

Rest in Peace
Grand Tour winning days of Vincenzo Nibali
2010-2016
Forever in our hearts

 

[Rollthedice]

Re:

Rest in Peace
Grand Tour winning days of Vincenzo Nibali
2010-2016
Forever in our hearts

Cheer up, next year he'll podium another GT in the rainbow jersey.

 

[Jagartrott]

Re:

Very good for the type of stage and early on the climbing part of tour, smart today, catenaccio with his human rivals. Sky is untouchable at the moment. He can be the best of the rest.

I don't agree. He should've always gone with Dumoulin on the descent. The steady pace afterwards would've suited him better too. Missed opportunity.

 

[Forever The Best]

Re:

Rest in Peace
Grand Tour winning days of Vincenzo Nibali
2010-2016
Forever in our hearts

Time to focus on classics, maybe a shot at one nore Giro.

 

[SafeBet]

I kind of expected a time loss today, this was not a good stage for him. That said, Bahrein didn't make a single good choice. No point in helping Sky on the penultimate climb unless they believed Froome was weak (which was clearly not the case). And if you really want to make the race hard keep pushing on the descent and then follow Tom's attack. I don't think he had the legs to follow him on La Rosiere but a steady pace would have helped him lose less.

He could be better in the third week, but he could be exactly like last year in the Giro. Better if unspectacular.

 

[rlntlssly]

Re:

I kind of expected a time loss today, this was not a good stage for him. That said, Bahrein didn't make a single good choice. No point in helping Sky on the penultimate climb unless they believed Froome was weak (which was clearly not the case).

As I was watching the stage, it reminded me briefly of the Peyragudes stage last year, when Froome had his team do an impressive-looking but ultimately quite slow pace, to cover for his weakness that day. I saw Bahrain's work as attempting to put pressure on Sky, rather than helping them out. Obviously it didn't work, but I thought it was a reasonable move at the time. Certainly no worse than sitting back and waiting.

 

[Rollthedice]

Re: Re:

Very good for the type of stage and early on the climbing part of tour, smart today, catenaccio with his human rivals. Sky is untouchable at the moment. He can be the best of the rest.

I don't agree. He should've always gone with Dumoulin on the descent. The steady pace afterwards would've suited him better too. Missed opportunity.

Tomorrow is a very hard stage, still a long way to Paris. He is fourth now just by being able to keep the pace with the best. Third week he'll hit the form which will allow him to have ideas. Now there are a few stronger guys and you don't want to pick a fight with them.

 

[Serpentin]

Chased down movistar and then didn`t even take a pull and help Q in the chase. Stupid tactics, lost me as a fan today.

 

[rlntlssly]

Re: Re:

I kind of expected a time loss today, this was not a good stage for him. That said, Bahrein didn't make a single good choice. No point in helping Sky on the penultimate climb unless they believed Froome was weak (which was clearly not the case).

As I was watching the stage, it reminded me briefly of the Peyragudes stage last year, when Froome had his team do an impressive-looking but ultimately quite slow pace, to cover for his weakness that day. I saw Bahrain's work as attempting to put pressure on Sky, rather than helping them out. Obviously it didn't work, but I thought it was a reasonable move at the time. Certainly no worse than sitting back and waiting.

Nibali has said pretty much this.

Andrew Hood
‏@EuroHoody
He said they pulled on final HC bc they saw Sky giving Valverde 2mins and he thought CF was in trouble

https://twitter.com/EuroHoody/status/1019676435022336000

 

[Valv.Piti]

Chased down movistar and then didn`t even take a pull and help Q in the chase. Stupid tactics, lost me as a fan today.

In the end it didnt matter but yeah, disappointing performance by Nibali today seemingly riding for a podium. Which to be fair is what he can get out of the race

 

[bambino]

Chased down movistar and then didn`t even take a pull and help Q in the chase. Stupid tactics, lost me as a fan today.

He was in glowing red at that point and he even admited it in the interview. Once he recovered a bit, he was actually the main guy getting the remaining 5 to work together to manage the loss at least a bit. And was taking quite a few pulls.

 

[bambino]

Chased down movistar and then didn`t even take a pull and help Q in the chase. Stupid tactics, lost me as a fan today.

In the end it didnt matter but yeah, disappointing performance by Nibali today seemingly riding for a podium. Which to be fair is what he can get out of the race

If he really thought Froome was struggling, he wasn't riding for podium wasn't he? It was a mistake of course now when you look things back.

And it wasn't that dissapointing wasn't it in relation to Movistar?

 

[Valv.Piti]

Chased down movistar and then didn`t even take a pull and help Q in the chase. Stupid tactics, lost me as a fan today.

In the end it didnt matter but yeah, disappointing performance by Nibali today seemingly riding for a podium. Which to be fair is what he can get out of the race

If he really thought Froome was struggling, he wasn't riding for podium wasn't he? It was a mistake of course now when you look thinga back.

If Froome is struggling then you do something yourself instead of letting a 40 year old pull the peloton so Sky still has 6 riders

 

[bambino]

Chased down movistar and then didn`t even take a pull and help Q in the chase. Stupid tactics, lost me as a fan today.

In the end it didnt matter but yeah, disappointing performance by Nibali today seemingly riding for a podium. Which to be fair is what he can get out of the race

If he really thought Froome was struggling, he wasn't riding for podium wasn't he? It was a mistake of course now when you look thinga back.

If Froome is struggling then you do something yourself instead of letting a 40 year old pull the peloton so Sky still has 6 riders

Or send almost 40y old into road alone to burn himself for nothing?

You can of course use the doms to test first whether someone is actually struggling. The 40y old and another 38y old did drive that 4km quite a bit faster than Sky before them.

 

[Valv.Piti]

At least thats better than closing him down cause you are afraid of your podium, I don't buy the Froome thing. Very half-hearted if that was the case.

 

[bambino]

Re:

At least thats better than closing him down cause you are afraid of your podium, I don't buy the Froome thing. Very half-hearted if that was the case.

I do understand your frustration. Keep the head up.

 

[Carols]

FWIW-On NBCSN Voight said he spoke with BM DS who said that Nibali wasn't feeling all that well yesterday and they went to the front to control the pace and keep it even at a pace Nibali could recover at.