Teams & Riders Vincenzo Nibali discussion thread

[Forever The Best]

I honestly have Kruijswijk as worse at everything than Nibali, though he has put out some surprising ITTs a few times. But the main thing about Kruijswijk is he's such a liability going down there is no way Nibali can't destroy him in that alone.

Kruijswijk is one of the worst descenders among the GC contenders imo, and I'm not saying this solely based on 2016 Agnello. He was awful on Grosse Schiedegg at Tour de Suisse 2011 ( I may be wrong about this though ) and I also remember him almost crashing into Majka on the descent of Pian del Falco at 2016 Giro.

( Also an interesting note about 2016 Giro is that whenever one of Nibali, Valverde and Chavez made a little dig on a descent, that trio ( Nibali-Valverde-Chavez ) formed up and dropped the rest before sitting down. And on the descent of Agnello, Kruijswijk crashed trying to follow Nibali and Chavez. )

 

[thiscocks]

I'm not sure he thought about dropping anybody, probably also a heawind. The Slongo magik is programmed to kick in a bit later.

Yes, I dont think his aim was to drop anyone. That wind also looked pretty damn strong at the top. Looked like a healthy cross headwind. With rain

 

[skippo12]

There is no dominant team but I was really suprised by Treks performance. Every single member of the team is a solid climber. They still had 6-7 riders in a group of 50-60. Did most of the work in the lead up to the final climb and burned some guys but still had Antonio and Brambilla in the main group when Yates lost contact. When Brambilla was dropped the group was reduced to 10-12 riders and it was Nibali himself who attacked.
If Ciccone is able to at least somewhat recover over the next few stages he probably has the best supporting cast among the remaining contenders. That´s certainly not what I expected prior to the race.

 

[Gigs_98]

Actually think Nibali was on the limit today.

I honestly have Kruijswijk as worse at everything than Nibali, though he has put out some surprising ITTs a few times. But the main thing about Kruijswijk is he's such a liability going down there is no way Nibali can't destroy him in that alone.

Yeah, I feel like Kruijswijk would have to be significantly better than Nibali to win it and after today I just don't see that happening. You never know though. We all are just assuming Nibali will only become better from here on but realistically we don't know that with certainty. The days where I expect Nibali to easily win a gt are simply over.

 

[SafeBet]

There is no dominant team but I was really suprised by Treks performance. Every single member of the team is a solid climber. They still had 6-7 riders in a group of 50-60. Did most of the work in the lead up to the final climb and burned some guys but still had Antonio and Brambilla in the main group when Yates lost contact. When Brambilla was dropped the group was reduced to 10-12 riders and it was Nibali himself who attacked.
If Ciccone is able to at least somewhat recover over the next few stages he probably has the best supporting cast among the remaining contenders. That´s certainly not what I expected prior to the race.

Yeah Ciccone will be key in the third week.
Considering he had no racing days in well over a month before the Giro, I'm not surprised he is a bit rusty at the moment. I think he'll come good.

 

[Red Rick]

Actually think Nibali was on the limit today.

Yeah, I feel like Kruijswijk would have to be significantly better than Nibali to win it and after today I just don't see that happening. You never know though. We all are just assuming Nibali will only become better from here on but realistically we don't know that with certainty. The days where I expect Nibali to easily win a gt are simply over.

During the short bursts I think they're all on the limit. Like he and Bird could have put more time into some other guys if they worked together, but maybe not really solo or something, so that's when you get surges like these.

There's no easy GT wins, no, but Nibali has the intangibles, and the rest of the contenders are so lacking in those intangibles that I am optimistic. Kruijswijk is an overrated climber IMO, because he doesn't really have the big positive outliers and his best days are only like 3rd best, except for one Giro with a questionable field where Nibs was outdoing God for mysterious ways.

It's not gonna be easy, but we also have one single reference in almost 3 years, where he got 2nd and could've won. And I do think Val Thorens last year was a world class performance.

 

[Eclipse]

but Nibali has the intangibles, and the rest of the contenders are so lacking in those intangibles that I am optimistic.

This for me is always the big big one, and especially in this edition.

You could put Vincenzo 2 minutes down going into the last week and climbing worse than everyone, and I'd still feel that he can find a way to make it work. It might be on a descent, it might be early, it might just be finding great legs but he's always been capable of making things happen.

If you put Fuglsang or Majka a minute down at the same point I feel like they're far more likely to just ride to plan and possibly settle for a podium if it was there rather than risk it for a win.

 

[gregrowlerson]

I just had a horrible thought!

For the first time on yesterday's stage, Vincenzo Nibali was using a bottle that wasn't sticky.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Instead of spraying champagne on the podium in Milan, the Shark shall spray a bidon.

 

[Merckx index]

Could set a record for most GT gifted with.

 

[Red Rick]

Could set a record for most GT gifted with.

Nibali giveth.

Nibali taketh away

 

[TourOfSardinia]

The trophy isn't in the cabinet
until Stage 21 is over.

 

[Pippo_San]

The trophy isn't in the cabinet
until Stage 21 is over.

There was a fat lady who sang on the Etna.
Bag is full of trophies and the night full of X-ray scans.

 

[gerundium]

made the split today in the sprint, was ahead of the gap around place 20-30. Also very prominent on the somewhat dangerous descent. He looks like he's really on it with every stage. good hope that he will take the trophy home to the cabinet.

 

[italoc]

Positive me: in the bag.

Negative me: losing to Pozzovivo (Horner), Almeida (Carapaz-lite) or Zakarin (Iglinsky?) would be the most Nibali thing ever.

 

[Rollthedice]

Could set a record for most GT gifted with.

Gifts are rare in this sport and so are champions like Nibali.

 

[ice&fire]

Positive me: in the bag.

Negative me: losing to Pozzovivo (Horner), Almeida (Carapaz-lite) or Zakarin (Iglinsky?) would be the most Nibali thing ever.

Yeah, he's playing with fire riding for the team of Porte and Mollema

 

[Red Rick]

Ciccone is getting better.

 

[skippo12]

Ciccone is getting better.

But Weening is out. From a team strength standpoint today wasn´t good. Once the group was down to 40-50 riders they basically only dropped themself. Maybe the climb wasn´t steep enough but that wasn´t encouraging.

 

[Red Rick]

Gifts are rare in this sport and so are champions like Nibali.

One follows the other generally.

 

[Forever The Best]

Moving forward day by day, but his rivals look strong, as well.
And Sunweb may have a better team imo.

 

[Climbing]

He has to do with Brambilla for a while, hoping Ciccone will be ready for 3rd week.

 

[Gigs_98]

He doesn't really need Ciccone till Piancavallo on stage 15 anyway. I don't think the medium mountain stages before that are gonna have a big influence on the gc and I don't think they are the place to attack for Nibali.

 

[Lo squalo di messina]

Y all are forgetting about secret agent pozzo.

 

[Red Rick]

He doesn't really need Ciccone till Piancavallo on stage 15 anyway. I don't think the medium mountain stages before that are gonna have a big influence on the gc and I don't think they are the place to attack for Nibali.

I don't think so either. They're about being ready for what happens.