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Teams & Riders Vincenzo Nibali discussion thread

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Re: Re:

tobydawq said:
Gigs_98 said:
tobydawq said:
He isn't that bad at English IMO. Certainly better than Contador.
Maybe his English has improved but still I doubt it is better than contador's

Contador's is horrible. I'd rather listen to nails on a chalkboard.

my sister became a Contador fan when she watched the interview in "english" on Eurosport after he won in Mende at Paris-Nice 2007 :D
 
Re: Re:

SafeBet said:
Red Rick said:
SafeBet said:
The problem with Nibali is that he's not particularly proficient in Italian to begin with.
:D :D

Nibali only proficient in letting his legs do the speaking, no?
I guess so.
I'm not expecting a pro cyclist to be the new David Foster Wallace, especially if he's from Italy.

Does coming from Sicily and leaving his home at 16 to pursue his cycling dream rather than school add to this?
 
Jun 30, 2014
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No idea, I find many dialects from Northern Italy harder to understand.
There's one big question, what's better, Nibali's English, or Horner's Spanish? :D
 
Re:

Red Rick said:
Don't mind me man, I can't frigging follow Adam Yates' English

But in the words of the most memed Spanish English speaker, Chris Horner is ombillibable.


I don't think I've heard Adam interviewed so can't comment specifically on him. However as an American Australian and New Zealand English is easier for me to understand than British English. Canadian English is easy to understand. Of course there is some American English that is impossible to understand as well.

I didn't know Nibali actually spoke any English at all, although am not surprised he knows a little and I'd guess speaks it to other members of the peloton. As for Contador, I've never had any issues understanding his English.
 
Re: Re:

Koronin said:
Red Rick said:
Don't mind me man, I can't frigging follow Adam Yates' English

But in the words of the most memed Spanish English speaker, Chris Horner is ombillibable.


I don't think I've heard Adam interviewed so can't comment specifically on him. However as an American Australian and New Zealand English is easier for me to understand than British English. Canadian English is easy to understand. Of course there is some American English that is impossible to understand as well.

I didn't know Nibali actually spoke any English at all, although am not surprised he knows a little and I'd guess speaks it to other members of the peloton. As for Contador, I've never had any issues understanding his English.
It's in the behind the scenes material of Mitchelton Scott. Simon has an accent, but is understandable, Adam just mumbles stuff.

I think I've seen one interview with Nibali in English and I guess he understands more than he speaks, but it's still bad.

He kept saying 'nothing' instead of 'you're welcome'

For Contador it helps that he's a pretty upbeat guy, so even if the English might be poor it's less cringy.
 
Re: Re:

Red Rick said:
Koronin said:
Red Rick said:
Don't mind me man, I can't frigging follow Adam Yates' English

But in the words of the most memed Spanish English speaker, Chris Horner is ombillibable.


I don't think I've heard Adam interviewed so can't comment specifically on him. However as an American Australian and New Zealand English is easier for me to understand than British English. Canadian English is easy to understand. Of course there is some American English that is impossible to understand as well.

I didn't know Nibali actually spoke any English at all, although am not surprised he knows a little and I'd guess speaks it to other members of the peloton. As for Contador, I've never had any issues understanding his English.
It's in the behind the scenes material of Mitchelton Scott. Simon has an accent, but is understandable, Adam just mumbles stuff.

I think I've seen one interview with Nibali in English and I guess he understands more than he speaks, but it's still bad.

He kept saying 'nothing' instead of 'you're welcome'

For Contador it helps that he's a pretty upbeat guy, so even if the English might be poor it's less cringy.

I've heard Simon interviewed and never had an issue understanding him. Yeah, if Adam mumbles it's going to be hard to understand what he's saying.

I'm sure Nibali understands more than he speaks, as that's the case with a few Spanish riders as well.

I'd guess "your welcome" in Italian is similar to "your welcome" in Spanish. In Spanish "your welcome" is "de nada" which directly translates as "It's nothing". My guess is he's doing a direct translation which isn't accurate for that.
 
My English teacher at the Liceo used to say to me "if you keep thinking in Italian you will never be able to speak English", at the time I was really bad because I've never really studied English in elementary and middle school since it wasn't considered an important subject and I need to go to a private institute to really learn it.
I think that the poor consideration of English in Italy is almost endemic and if you don't go to a language school you can't really go beyond a very basic level, not to mention the fact that lot of Italian didn't even speak proper Italian so it's not to blame Nibali for his language problems.
 
Re:

Logic-is-your-friend said:
De nada... de rien... I think Sagan also says "is nothing" from time to time.


Thank you, I figured it would be something similar. I think you're right that Sagan has said that a few times as well. Gaviria also has. Funny enough the only words Valverde has ever said in English in an interview was actually "You're welcome". Which caused all the reporters to start laughing and when the one who was doing the interview in Spanish and interrupting into English told him what everyone was laughing he started laughing because he didn't even realize he'd said "You're Welcome" in English. Nibali saying "it's nothing" or "nothing" instead of "you're welcome" wouldn't surprise me at all.
 
Re:

Nirvana said:
My English teacher at the Liceo used to say to me "if you keep thinking in Italian you will never be able to speak English", at the time I was really bad because I've never really studied English in elementary and middle school since it wasn't considered an important subject and I need to go to a private institute to really learn it.
I think that the poor consideration of English in Italy is almost endemic and if you don't go to a language school you can't really go beyond a very basic level, not to mention the fact that lot of Italian didn't even speak proper Italian so it's not to blame Nibali for his language problems.


Sounds like the way any language that isn't English is treated in the US. Personally I'm impressed with anyone who can speak 2 languages competently enough to hold a conversation in a language that isn't their native language as learning a 2nd language is not easy.
 
Re: Re:

Koronin said:
Nirvana said:
My English teacher at the Liceo used to say to me "if you keep thinking in Italian you will never be able to speak English", at the time I was really bad because I've never really studied English in elementary and middle school since it wasn't considered an important subject and I need to go to a private institute to really learn it.
I think that the poor consideration of English in Italy is almost endemic and if you don't go to a language school you can't really go beyond a very basic level, not to mention the fact that lot of Italian didn't even speak proper Italian so it's not to blame Nibali for his language problems.


Sounds like the way any language that isn't English is treated in the US. Personally I'm impressed with anyone who can speak 2 languages competently enough to hold a conversation in a language that isn't their native language as learning a 2nd language is not easy.
I think depends what language and how you study it, when I was at school I used to think that was difficult to learn English but when I started to study properly at the private institute I found it way more easy, the only thing I struggled more is to understand British native people, they speak a lot faster and in a less clear way than American or Australian ones and their accent is usually stronger and that doesn't help.

Two languages that I really can't understand are French and German, I've tried to study both because could help with my work but I had to give up because I wasn't able to learn, on the other hand I find very easy Spanish, despite I've never studied it I was able to learn it to a good level while only reading it and speaking with Spanish speaking people at work. In a minor way I'm doing the same with Portuguese even if the opportunities to meet with Portuguese speaking people are limited.

Anyway there are some of my colleagues that work exclusively as tourist guides that are able to speak more than ten languages, including Japanese, Chinese, even Arabic, something unbelievable for me.
 
Re: Re:

Nirvana said:
Koronin said:
Nirvana said:
My English teacher at the Liceo used to say to me "if you keep thinking in Italian you will never be able to speak English", at the time I was really bad because I've never really studied English in elementary and middle school since it wasn't considered an important subject and I need to go to a private institute to really learn it.
I think that the poor consideration of English in Italy is almost endemic and if you don't go to a language school you can't really go beyond a very basic level, not to mention the fact that lot of Italian didn't even speak proper Italian so it's not to blame Nibali for his language problems.


Sounds like the way any language that isn't English is treated in the US. Personally I'm impressed with anyone who can speak 2 languages competently enough to hold a conversation in a language that isn't their native language as learning a 2nd language is not easy.
I think depends what language and how you study it, when I was at school I used to think that was difficult to learn English but when I started to study properly at the private institute I found it way more easy, the only thing I struggled more is to understand British native people, they speak a lot faster and in a less clear way than American or Australian ones and their accent is usually stronger and that doesn't help.

Two languages that I really can't understand are French and German, I've tried to study both because could help with my work but I had to give up because I wasn't able to learn, on the other hand I find very easy Spanish, despite I've never studied it I was able to learn it to a good level while only reading it and speaking with Spanish speaking people at work. In a minor way I'm doing the same with Portuguese even if the opportunities to meet with Portuguese speaking people are limited.

Anyway there are some of my colleagues that work exclusively as tourist guides that are able to speak more than ten languages, including Japanese, Chinese, even Arabic, something unbelievable for me.


I do understand. 2 years of Spanish in high school and 1 year of French in college and I only learned a handful of words. Learned more Spanish as a kid watching the Disney TV show Zorro than I learned in high school. I've definitely learned a lot more Spanish from social media and talking with Spaniards who are more than happy to help me try to learn their language. My friends have told me just learn what you can now and when you get over here (they want us to move to Spain) they'll teach us and are confident we can eventually speak it fluently.

I can't imagine learning 10 languages. Congrats to those who can do that. I find that amazing.
 
Vincenzo Nibali and his lawyer arrived this Saturday morning at the police and customs cooperation center of Freney, near Modane. The winner of the Tour de France 2014 was heard by the gendarmes of the research section of Grenoble. Remember that Nibali filed a complaint against X after his crash in the stage of L'Alpe-d'Huez during the Tour de France 2018, caused by a spectator. But the question also arises of the responsibility of the organization of the Tour de France, ASO.

vincenzo-nibali-a-son-arrivee-au-centre-de-cooperation-policiere-et-douaniere-de-modane-en-compagnie-de-son-avocat-1541860508.jpg


https://www.ledauphine.com/savoie/2018/11/10/chute-lors-du-tour-de-france-a-l-alpe-d-huez-nibali-entendu-par-les-gendarmes
 
Re:

Singer01 said:
Just looking at his palmares, has any multiple grand tour winner ever been so disdainful (not a criticism) of other stage races?
Menchov, Heras, probably quite a few others. Pantani, Ullrich, Armstrong all never peaked for them. I think the GT specialists going for them is actually more of a recent thing.

I think it's basically been standard for a very long time for the pure climbers/GT riders to not peak in the spring for races like PN/TA and that stuff. Also, Nibali has the 2 wins in TA and Trentino.

So I don't think he's been that bad in that regard. It's only after 2014 that he's stopped trying to win and even now he usually shows up at least once in like Oman or Romandie depending on schedule.

Froome has largely abandoned the spring stage races too. And I think Contador and Quintana have given them too much attention, possibly to the detriment of their GT results.