Teams & Riders Vincenzo Nibali discussion thread

[Gigs_98]

I'm very optimistic about his giro shape but after todays effort I have a hard time seeing him being among the best in LBL.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

It's not easy to assess Nibali's shape at the moment. Yes, he has looked better than in any prep race since forever but there was nobody remotely close to a Top5 GT candidate in this race. I would use Mattia Cattaneo as an indicator of how weak the competition was.

Liegi will tell us more.

I think Majka would categorize as that. Dont want to underestimate good Sky/Astana, in this case Siva and Tao, doms peaking/being in great shape for week long stage races.

Realistically, 42-44 hours of his bike should be close to enough before Liege (after all its only 5 days and NOT long stages), but I'd very curious to know if anyone know more than me on this subject.

Just as a sidenote, I think and idea of a super short stage on the last day in Trentino (lets say 80-100 km and slightly longer to compensate the other days) would make the race appeal a bit more to this strategy.

 

[Laplaz]

Nibali said he felt good at the end, and that he is pretty confident for LBL and Giro.

 

[Rollthedice]

Caught a short bit with Slongo. The team will be all in for Vincenzo, confirmed mountain helpers Pozzo, Caruso and Antonio. Rest of the squad to be decided.

 

[Red Rick]

Here's to hoping Antonio, like his brother, also makes a big leap from prep race to main target. By the way, I think he descended like and old lady again yesterday, he finished behind Pernsteiner who was dropped way before him.

 

[whittashau]

I doubt he is ever going to take risk against on a descent ever again, but understandable so

How will the teams of the other Giro contenders stack up against Bahrain?

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

I doubt he is ever going to take risk against on a descent ever again, but understandable so

How will the teams of the other Giro contenders stack up against Bahrain?

Better than Sunweb, worse than Sky.

Signed,

Captain Obvious.


It's still not great. Most of the other main contenders will have stronger teams. Don't know what team MS brings, but I imagine Astana, Jumbo Visma and the likes will all be stronger than Bahrein.

A lot does depend on how Pozzovivo recovers though.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Honesty, i don't expect that much from Astana.
Their riders have been flying all season long anfld the Giro only gets hard durning the 2nd half, so them fading badly wouldn't surprise me.
I think only Sky should really be clearly stronger than his team on paper, but their strongest guys are all really young and have limited experience when it comes to riding gts.
Antonio Nibali, Pernsteiner, Caruso and Pozzovivo is a strong team for the mountains. They will also have less amambitions to ride their own race than Ion, Visconti and Fuglsang in recent years...

 

[rick james]

Re:

It's not easy to assess Nibali's shape at the moment. Yes, he has looked better than in any prep race since forever but there was nobody remotely close to a Top5 GT candidate in this race. I would use Mattia Cattaneo as an indicator of how weak the competition was.

Liegi will tell us more.

 

[Rollthedice]

Let us all remember this team: Valerio Agnoli, Manuele Boaro, Ivan Cortina, Javier Moreno, Antonio Nibali, Domen Novak, Franco Pellizotti and Giovanni Visconti. Moreno disappeared almost instantly and Nibali finished as a runner-up to Puff Daddy.

That being said, on paper the Giro team should be good enough. Regarding him not taking risks anymore on descents as far as I remember last time he was taken out it was uphill.

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Let us all remember this team: Valerio Agnoli, Manuele Boaro, Ivan Cortina, Javier Moreno, Antonio Nibali, Domen Novak, Franco Pellizotti and Giovanni Visconti. Moreno disappeared almost instantly and Nibali finished as a runner-up to Puff Daddy.

That being said, on paper the Giro team should be good enough. Regarding him not taking risks anymore on descents as far as I remember last time he was taken out it was uphill.

That was a very sketchy conversation where somebody was talking about Vincenzo, others of Antonio. I couldn't really make sense of what was meant there.

 

[yaco]

Astana's support riders at GT's in 2018 were a touch disappointing, though they achieved two podiums - It definitely wasn't at 2015 levels - Think there will be four of five teams that will provide decent support for their leaders at the Giro such as Ineos, Jumbo, Mitchelton Scott , Movistar, Astana. Sunweb

 

[Rollthedice]

The stars are aligned, the signs are there. Vincenzo's bike in Liege with the rainbow. But the crucial detail is number 31. It is his winning number.

 

[Red Rick]

It is known.

Nothing can stop it now

 

[rick james]

Amazing, he's going to do the race without a front wheel

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Amazing, he's going to do the race without a front wheel

Weight reduction and only half as much friction.

 

[Mayomaniac]

At least he raced a decent amount of the week with bad weather and low temperatures, so that won't be a big change for him.

 

[Rollthedice]

Re: Re:

Amazing, he's going to do the race without a front wheel

Weight reduction and only half as much friction.

Without a wheel, fingers in the nose and with one leg. It's in the bag already. Latest after recon:

"This is a very fast finale. It's completely different compared to the past. With this redesigned final part, riders will attack inevitably earlier"

 

[Sestriere]

Just rewatched the 2012 race and I have to say this surely has to be one of Vincenzo's most exciting performances. He took the bull by the horns on the Roche aux Faucons, dragging a small group clear and then attacked over the top, a move of maximum determination. While on his solo move he looked like pure class on the bike, propper old school and taking every corner perfectly.
The time gap was going bananas that day. When he entered Saint Nicholas it was showing 40 s. When Iglinski dropped Purito it showed 46 s and the time pretty much froze from that moment on. At 5 km to go the was a right-left-shicane where it became apparent that the GPS was dead wrong as the gap was 15 s at max at that point. Tomorrow, there is no Saint Nicholas-Ans-combo, though...

 

[Red Rick]

Nibali's 2012 is one of the more underrated seasons in the last decade of cycling imo.

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Just rewatched the 2012 race and I have to say this surely has to be one of Vincenzo's most exciting performances. He took the bull by the horns on the Roche aux Faucons, dragging a small group clear and then attacked over the top, a move of maximum determination. While on his solo move he looked like pure class on the bike, propper old school and taking every corner perfectly.
The time gap was going bananas that day. When he entered Saint Nicholas it was showing 40 s. When Iglinski dropped Purito it showed 46 s and the time pretty much froze from that moment on. At 5 km to go the was a right-left-shicane where it became apparent that the GPS was dead wrong as the gap was 15 s at max at that point. Tomorrow, there is no Saint Nicholas-Ans-combo, though...

And definitely no Iglinskiy.

But there might still be an Astana rider that will spoil his party.

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Nibali's 2012 is one of the more underrated seasons in the last decade of cycling imo.

Or in your case, overrated. He won Tirreno. That's pretty much it.

 

[Rollthedice]

Re: Re:

Nibali's 2012 is one of the more underrated seasons in the last decade of cycling imo.

Or in your case, overrated. He won Tirreno. That's pretty much it.

Vino certainly saw something more.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Nibali's 2012 is one of the more underrated seasons in the last decade of cycling imo.

Or in your case, overrated. He won Tirreno. That's pretty much it.

I didn't even say how I rated it.

 

[tobydawq]

What was so great about it apart from second in LBL, third in the weakest Tour I can remember and a third place in MSR as a result of the most foolish tactical decision of this decade?

I really don't see why that season should merit complaints of being underrated.