Teams & Riders Vincenzo Nibali discussion thread

[Rollthedice]

Slongo has the strategy in place:

"We'll keep jabbing away at Carapaz's ribs, in the hope he starts to suffer. Vincenzo will race to win all the way to Verona."

 

[Carols]

Re:

Slongo has the strategy in place:

"We'll keep jabbing away at Carapaz's ribs, in the hope he starts to suffer. Vincenzo will race to win all the way to Verona."

I expect nothing less!!! Forza Vince!

 

[HelloDolly]

So Max Sciandri told The Cycling Podcast that Movistar used Nibali today'as a bulldoser' to get rid of Roglic ?
The same Max that says all the Movistar improvements at this Giro are down to him having come to the team ???

The Cycling Podcast also said that this is the best Nibali since 2014 as did Unzue teh Movistar head

Looks like Carapaz is leaving Movistar for Ineos ..deal doen before Giro

 

[Climbing]

Feeling pessimistic this morning.
Totally taken the shape of an Horner 2.0...

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

In a way Nibali has been unlucky with Dumo falling away, as the latter one would have never given Carapaz 4 minutes. And that means Nibali would now be in pink or very close to.

Anyway, with his usual 3rd week and seemingly best form since 2014 I still think he has a huge shot. But a lot will depend now on Carapaz form. If the latter keeps it then it's not going to be possible. Nibali will keep him under pressure regardless but needs a bad day

 

[Blanco]

Re:

In a way Nibali has been unlucky with Dumo falling away, as the latter one would have never given Carapaz 4 minutes. And that means Nibali would now be in pink or very close to.

Anyway, with his usual 3rd week and seemingly best form since 2014 I still think he has a huge shot. But a lot will depend now on Carapaz form. If the latter keeps it then it's not going to be possible. Nibali will keep him under pressure regardless but needs a bad day

But then Dumoulin would be in pink, maybe. Anyway it's a pure speculation, it is what it is, lucky or unlucky he's almost 2 min behind and must find a way to chip at least a minute, if not even more from Carapaz. He'll attack, that's sure, and he's probably stronger than him, but bad news is that Landa seems to be if not the strongest, then at least on par with Nibali uphill. He will drag Carapaz all the way, so I don't know will Nibali be able to gain something from them. As a team, Movistar also looks the strongest, although Bahrein isn't bad either. Maybe descends are his best opportunity.

 

[Rollthedice]

Re: Re:

In a way Nibali has been unlucky with Dumo falling away, as the latter one would have never given Carapaz 4 minutes. And that means Nibali would now be in pink or very close to.

Anyway, with his usual 3rd week and seemingly best form since 2014 I still think he has a huge shot. But a lot will depend now on Carapaz form. If the latter keeps it then it's not going to be possible. Nibali will keep him under pressure regardless but needs a bad day

But then Dumoulin would be in pink, maybe. Anyway it's a pure speculation, it is what it is, lucky or unlucky he's almost 2 min behind and must find a way to chip at least a minute, if not even more from Carapaz. He'll attack, that's sure, and he's probably stronger than him, but bad news is that Landa seems to be if not the strongest, then at least on par with Nibali uphill. He will drag Carapaz all the way, so I don't know will Nibali be able to gain something from them. As a team, Movistar also looks the strongest, although Bahrein isn't bad either. Maybe descends are his best opportunity.

Again Landa looks to be stronger than his captain in the last week of a GT. He is the key. If he can and wants to drag Carapaz to Verona then chances are slim for Nibali. On top, Movistar has a better team. On the other hand there is no guarantee that Carapaz will be able to keep up, he was never in this position. Today another test.

 

[Lequack]

Re:

Looks like Carapaz is leaving Movistar for Ineos ..deal doen before Giro

Darn, how can we root for him now?

 

[Brullnux]

I'm surprised that out of all the riders, he seemed to have recovered worst since yesterday.

 

[Carols]

Disappointing day He made the best of bad legs to fight on another day. It's Not Over until it's over!

 

[Sestriere]

Hopefully just a bad day. In that case it would be succesful damage limitation, I'd say.

 

[SafeBet]

I'm not sure this is an off day, bad recovery or the usual allergy to 3 km explosive MTF. Remember Vuelta 2017?

 

[Carols]

Re:

I'm not sure this is an off day, bad recovery or the usual allergy to 3 km explosive MTF. Remember Vuelta 2017?

He said it was his legs.
EDIT:
Nibali just said on RAI that he wasn't on a good day and he's happy to have limited his losses.

 

[Climbing]

 

[Rollthedice]

Re:

I'm not sure this is an off day, bad recovery or the usual allergy to 3 km explosive MTF. Remember Vuelta 2017?

That's a good point. Actually Pozzo said Nibali was feeling good during the stage only on the final climb he didn't have good sensations.

 

[Red Rick]

One chat with Alberto and he's begun speaking about sensations

 

[SafeBet]

We'll know more on Friday I guess.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Kinda funny how Nibali again and again shows some of his absolutele best climbing on a climb like Civilgio while he is notoriously known for not performing well on explosive climbs..

Will be hard now. Only chance is all in on Saturday

 

[Alexandre B.]

If this was his bad day then it was kinda good.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Re:

Kinda funny how Nibali again and again shows some of his absolutele best climbing on a climb like Civilgio while he is notoriously known for not performing well on explosive climbs..

Will be hard now. Only chance is all in on Saturday

It's the amount of racing that comes before Civiglio that benefits him, his endurance is just on another level. A hard tempo on the climbs before Civiglio also suits him really well, it wears down the punchier riders that lack his endurance.

 

[Red Rick]

Still has the record on San Luca.

 

[Blanco]

Saturday is do or die. He ain't going nowhere on Friday.

 

[Lequack]

Nibali surprised Roglic is not in his wheel and chasing Landa

 

[Rollthedice]

Oddly enough, in the end today's disappointment doesn't change a thing. He had two stages to repair that stupid mistake, yesterday's gone so there's only one left. And mister Carapaz doesn't seem to care.

 

[Nirvana]

Re:

It's genuinely really difficult to drop people on a descent. If you don't have a gap, people will just follow your wheel - remember that stage at the Tour 2015 when Nibali kept attacking on a very technical descent, but because he didn't already have a gap he earned nothing? Now carapaz isn't a great descender but he isn't bad either, and the main reason why Nibali dropped him down the civiglio isn't because carapaz isn't a good descender, but rather because nibali knows that one better than anyone else. Same can't be said for the Mortirolo (or the san carlo, on which carapaz did a mighty job on the technical bit even if he then lost a bit of time on the false flat). Nibali attacks on the descent - cool - amador follows with ease, landa (another very good descender) follows, and Carapaz has three wheels to follow - the risk far outweighs the potential reward.

We'll see, recovery might trouble carapaz after today so he might be weak tomorrow. Stage 20 is too far away to understand where people are at form wise, but no matter how strong movistar are there is a lot of time to be gained there.

That's not true, it's Nibali limit if he can't open a gap on a descent when he has someone on his wheel and needs to be already alone to gain something else, in the history of cycling there are plenty of riders able to drop others off their wheel while descending, someone even in a couple of turns, and then gain also minutes.
Staying on the Mortirolo nine years ago there was a great showing from Arroyo that almost catched Nibali himself, Basso and Scarponi that were two minutes in front on the top, and in the process catched and dropped easily at least half a dozen of other riders including pretty good descenders like Evans and Vinokurov.

Anyway Nibali was wise not risking to crash like he has done in the past on the wet especially considering that Carapaz had Amador that is a better descender than him and probably one of the best in current peloton. This first two days of third week has gone as i was expecting, Carapaz was in control on the Mortirolo and the stage shortened and easier without Gavia was a damage for Nibali that then even suffered on an easier and shorter stage like today. Tonorrow is flat, on friday probably nothing will happen (bar very bad days) so there is only the Manghen left, if no one will try hard on Manghen the Giro is done.
Nibali would have liked the Manghen after 200 kms but he has to try something if he wants to win, otherwise the only hope for a great stage is Landa unleashing his second fiddle superpowers and abandoning Carapaz.