Teams & Riders Vincenzo Nibali discussion thread

[cineteq]

bmc has a big italian contingent so it wouldn't be a problem.

but i think jens said this bmc rumors are a mistranslation from the gazzeta article. it's nibali and agnoli to astana and oss and szmyd to bmc

Can you quote the article here? I'm not a premium user with Gazetta.

 

[Parrulo]

Can you quote the article here? I'm not a premium user with Gazetta.

that's what jens said so i can't quote it myself.

 

[jens_attacks]

Can you quote the article here? I'm not a premium user with Gazetta.

nibali to astana is already done
gazzetta says oss and szmyd to BMC
here you have it:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/liquigas-and-saxo-bank-to-merge-in-2013

 

[dlwssonic]

no way he will go to BMC. He will have to contend with leadership in the GTs with evans and in the classics with Gilbert.
Its a smart move to go to astana, he will be an outright leader now. No sagan to fight with.

 

[airstream]

no way he will go to BMC. He will have to contend with leadership in the GTs with evans and in the classics with Gilbert.
Its a smart move to go to astana, he will be an outright leader now. No sagan to fight with.

No. Nibali is not obsessed with the Tour and would be a great option for Giro and Vuelta. At that, Evans has only 1 [to my mind] or 2 year to compete on a high level in GT's and then Nibali could replace him. As for classics, two captains would even be better for the team.

 

[pedaling squares]

Some of you's need to think like a DS and not like a trophy giving parent of a kid who never showed up to practice for some random kids' sport.

Exiting UCI points to qualify or maintain ProTour status are not to be given away or allowed to exit stage left. Instead riders staying in 2013 would serve the team better or help maintain the ProTour status. Just imagine if something unbelievable happened to Sagan or Basso they'd be without those points as well possibly pushing them out of the ProTour range.

True, but there is more to managing than that. JV manages individuals as well as a team, and sometimes it's important to show his people that he respects their careers and their right to test the free market when a contract is up. Sure, he could see some important points walk out the door, but he could also attract other riders whose contracts are up and gain from the points they bring. Same with Liqui if they show Nibali the same latitude.

 

[dlwssonic]

No. Nibali is not obsessed with the Tour and would be a great option for Giro and Vuelta. At that, Evans has only 1 [to my mind] or 2 year to compete on a high level in GT's and then Nibali could replace him. As for classics, two captains would even be better for the team.

Yup true if Nibali had joined BMC he would probably be the outright leader for GT by 2014. two captains would be better for BMC but not for nibali.

 

[The Hitch]

no way he will go to BMC. He will have to contend with leadership in the GTs with evans and in the classics with Gilbert.
Its a smart move to go to astana, he will be an outright leader now. No sagan to fight with.

Evans will be 36 next season. Sastre went down at about 34, Basso looks to be down too now - 34, many are speculating Menchov has already been down for a year when he turned 33.

 

[maxmartin]

Nibali to astana is done deal, but now we know more reasons why Nibali is leaving.

 

[maxmartin]

very solid short ITT performance, can't wait to see Nibali's performance in 53k ITT compared with big guns

 

[SafeBet]

I didn't expect any less in a short prologue. Nibali has always been a good TTer.
Not great, not mediocre. Top20/30 as always.

 

[jens_attacks]

interesting interview today in gazzetta.i liked him the best as a domestique for il killer still you gotta admire his motivation
he says he won't be content with 2nd or 3rd place in paris but anyway the target will be the podium
he's certain that both sagan and basso will work for him in july

again,i never saw nibali storming the mountains or killing the time trial.he seems confident and i do wonder maybe he has improved a lot,otherwise i can't see why astana will pay him so good compared to the others.

 

[Parrulo]

if only every rider had this type of mentality. . . . the tour would be a much better race

 

[maxmartin]

well his winning chance will be significantly less if he can't stay within 1.45 with Wiggins in 50km ITT

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

very solid short ITT performance, can't wait to see Nibali's performance in 53k ITT compared with big guns

I don't get the fuss, this is a normal Nibali prologue like he has done 100 before. Nothing suprising or special at all. I'd even say he has done better prologues/short itt's than this one. It was not bad or below standard, but it certainly wasn't anything more than 'ok/normal' either.

The 53km ITT will be much, much more telling. It better not be as bad as his California ITT, but I expect not, since he said himself he wasn't in great shape there.
A top 15 result in the 53km ITT would be good for Nibali. A top 5 even excellent.

 

[Parrulo]

i would go as far as saying that a top 10 placing around 1 minute behind wiggins would be excellent, top 5 just seems a bit too much

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

if you are 1 minute behind on Wiggins in a 53km ITT, you are in the top 5...
6th place could be already at 1.45/2 minutes

How many 50km itt's have you seen where the 6th place is still within a minute of the winner???? lol

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

for example, the 52km in the TDF 2010, only the first 2 finished within a minute. Number 5 already at 3 minutes

In a less extreme example, the Vuelta 2010 TT to penafiel, 4 guys finished within a minute on 46km. Almost same goes for Dauphine 2009 (49km), 5 guys within a minute.

On these type of distances I never expect the top 10 finishing within a minute...

 

[Parrulo]

on the vuelta itt last year nibali finished 1 minute and 2 seconds behind wiggins and was 15th at the end of the day.

wiggins ofc made a bit of a mess of that itt but nibali wasn't in great shape either so it evens itself a bit imo.

looking at those results i would say that 30-45 seconds behind wiggins would actually be excellent and 1 minute just good.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Like you just said yourself it's not a good reference because Wiggins himself already finished 1'22 of the winner of the time trial and even almost 30 seconds of the nr 2, Froome.

I expect Wiggins to be 1st or 2nd in the time trial and at best losing 20 seconds to Martin. That would mean Nibali to finish at 1'20 from Martin. Which would be top 5... (and his best time trial ever). That would be an excellent result. But I don't expect that. We'll see.

 

[theyoungest]

interesting interview today in gazzetta.i liked him the best as a domestique for il killer still you gotta admire his motivation
he says he won't be content with 2nd or 3rd place in paris but anyway the target will be the podium
he's certain that both sagan and basso will work for him in july

again,i never saw nibali storming the mountains or killing the time trial.he seems confident and i do wonder maybe he has improved a lot,otherwise i can't see why astana will pay him so good compared to the others.

What? He won't be content with 2nd place in the Tour? Is he channeling Contador or something?

 

[SafeBet]

Realistically speaking anything between 1 minute and 1.30 behind Wiggo, and a top15 placement overall, would be good.
Top5 would be a huge improvement over what we've seen so far in his career. I don't think it's possible.

I don't think Wiggins is gonna win the TT anyway.

 

[Parrulo]

Vincenzo Nibali ‏@VincenzoNibali

Oggi ottima giornata con buone sensazione...forse se mi dava una mano Moser facevo anche il record dell'ora!!!!eheh

to be honest his itt position didn't look that much different then previous years.

does any1 have some pics of today for comparison?

 

[jens_attacks]

What? He won't be content with 2nd place in the Tour? Is he channeling Contador or something?

yeah i was shocked too.i do expect astana to up his preparation(although look at kreuziger...) but in this year's tour i can't see him making the top 5.the climbs will be ridden extremely fast and i can't see nibali staying up front.
don't know,maybe vincenzo started to smoke something good if he wants to win le tour this year.
but it's a good mentality nonetheless.

 

[Parrulo]

What? He won't be content with 2nd place in the Tour? Is he channeling Contador or something?

he is channeling a winner's mentality, and showing ambition. which is good imo