Teams & Riders Vincenzo Nibali discussion thread

[Red Rick]

Attack was dumb, makes him look worse than he really was
Overall time loss not that big
I maintain that he's better than in the first Tour week last year
Whining is whatever, Nibali is the most outspoken of the Big 4, often coming off as whining, even though it may be at least partially true.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

Attack was dumb, makes him look worse than he really was
Overall time loss not that big
I maintain that he's better than in the first Tour week last year
Whining is whatever, Nibali is the most outspoken of the Big 4, often coming off as whining, even though it may be at least partially true.

Nibali not being in his best form might make it a better race. On 2013/14 form he wins this easily.

 

[HelloDolly]

I am always surprised and even dismayed at the comments on these form around peaking for cycling races and a rider is peaking in this week as opposed to that week guff

There is no exact science on preparation. There is a training plan but most of the time a rider does not know if he will go well in a race and more importantly if his opponents will go well Sometimes weather and the first MTF can throw the best laid plans out the window

Looking at the 3 'favourites' yesterday ...I bet none of them expected that rider like Sitsiou & Fuglsang would leave them behid

Even Hesjedal & Anton were in the finishing peloton so hard could the stage have been ?

I think we need to understand that sometimes a rider's body just doesn't function when the racing starts but its a 3 week race

 

[Brullnux]

Much better. Followed all of Valverde's attacks without ever being in too much trouble, and seemed the second strongest. Still managed to lose 3 seconds in the final little uphill sprint, but I guess that's because he was about 9th wheel going into it. Maybe could've attacked himself, but he's said previously that the most important stage in he first week is the TT.

 

[saganftw]

he is getting better day by day,looks like he timed his form perfectly

 

[Red Rick]

Once the initial selectio was made, the hard part was over and it was very hard to drop somebody.

 

[Carols]

Nibs looked much better today .

 

[SafeBet]

I think you all overreacted after Roccaraso. He was fine but made a mistake which cost him some seconds.
His shape is good. If he improves he can win the Giro, no question about it.

 

[huge]

Let's not forget that this was just the first week. There are 14 more days of racing ahead! Anything can happen. Riders form can change dramatically in 2 hard weeks of racing.

 

[Red Rick]

Decent improvement. Even last year he reached a pretty high level the last week. He'll be up there

 

[whittashau]

I think it's lucky he didn't ride the Tour. He would have been slaughtered by Froome and co. Hopefully he has deliberately peaked for the later part of the Giro or something.

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Re:

I think it's lucky he didn't ride the Tour. He would have been slaughtered by Froome and co.

Tell me more about 2014.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re: Re:

I think it's lucky he didn't ride the Tour. He would have been slaughtered by Froome and co.

Tell me more about 2014.

Beating the legendary JC Peraud and 24 year old Pinot

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

I think it's lucky he didn't ride the Tour. He would have been slaughtered by Froome and co.

Tell me more about 2014.

Beating the legendary JC Peraud and 24 year old Pinot

You have to admit that it wouldnt have been easy for Froome and AC to beat Nibali in the tour 2014. When people talk about his performance in 2014 its not about the fact that he beat Pinot and Peraud but how he beat them. Moreover some of the other riders who rode for gc in both years were more far behind Nibali in 2014 than behind Froome in 2015. Valverde for example was 9:40 behind Nibali but only 5:20 behind Froome.

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

I think it's lucky he didn't ride the Tour. He would have been slaughtered by Froome and co.

Tell me more about 2014.

Beating the legendary JC Peraud and 24 year old Pinot

Yes by 8 minutes.

 

[Climbing]

Re: Re:

I think it's lucky he didn't ride the Tour. He would have been slaughtered by Froome and co.

Tell me more about 2014.

Beating the legendary JC Peraud and 24 year old Pinot

Hello!

 

[whittashau]

Re: Re:

I think it's lucky he didn't ride the Tour. He would have been slaughtered by Froome and co.

Tell me more about 2014.

Beating the legendary JC Peraud and 24 year old Pinot

You realise there are time records and power estimates nowadays, right? His times were exceptional in the mountains that year. He's clearly not at that level right now though

 

[SafeBet]

Back to contemporary cycling, today's performance was good but not special. He probably didn't take as many risks as he should have, I think Brambilla was much faster than him in the descents.

Still, he gained some time on most other contenders. Landa was exceptional and he sits only 20 seconds behind him in GC before the high mountains. Not gonna be easy to win this Giro but I'm confident he'll try.

 

[Brullnux]

I noticed during the TT that Nibali seemed really relaxed, and took very few risks; the epitome of which was in the final corner. He was 1:31 down with 5km to go and finished 2 minutes down. That explains a lot really. Although, he gained on Landa during the descent which doesn't bode well for Mikel for Stage 13.

 

[SeriousSam]

It wasn't a bad TT from Nibali by any means. Not as good as he was in his Tour win or his Giro win, but good. It just looks bad because Landa produced a shockingly good TT.

Things are looking good for Nibali but he is no longer as favoured against Landa as he was.

 

[Forever The Best]

Re: Re:

I think it's lucky he didn't ride the Tour. He would have been slaughtered by Froome and co.

Tell me more about 2014.

Beating the legendary JC Peraud and 24 year old Pinot

His W/Kg definitely tells otherwise.He was on his best level.Almost as good as Froome 2013 and 2015.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

It wasn't a bad TT from Nibali by any means. Not as good as he was in his Tour win or his Giro win, but good. It just looks bad because Landa produced a shockingly good TT.

Things are looking good for Nibali but he is no longer as favoured against Landa as he was.

Nope, Landa definitely is the favourite now. Nibali didn't manage to sneak a few minutes on stages 8 and 9 which probably were the stages that suited Nibali the best relative to Landa, so that may be a little worrying. But at least Nibali managed to gap one of his other big rivals those stages.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re: Re:

I think it's lucky he didn't ride the Tour. He would have been slaughtered by Froome and co.

Tell me more about 2014.

Beating the legendary JC Peraud and 24 year old Pinot

You realise there are time records and power estimates nowadays, right? His times were exceptional in the mountains that year. He's clearly not at that level right now though

His times were great, but his w/kg were below both Froome and Contador's peaks on similar distance and gradient climbs

 

[Mr.White]

Re: Re:

It wasn't a bad TT from Nibali by any means. Not as good as he was in his Tour win or his Giro win, but good. It just looks bad because Landa produced a shockingly good TT.

Things are looking good for Nibali but he is no longer as favoured against Landa as he was.

Nope, Landa definitely is the favourite now. Nibali didn't manage to sneak a few minutes on stages 8 and 9 which probably were the stages that suited Nibali the best relative to Landa, so that may be a little worrying. But at least Nibali managed to gap one of his other big rivals those stages.

Truth is we don't know who the favorite is, at least till we reach the high mountains and see climbing form of the main contenders. Landa didn't impressed on the climbs so far, last year he was good from day 1. I would say that Nibali is still the prime pick, followed by Valverde and Landa

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

It wasn't a bad TT from Nibali by any means. Not as good as he was in his Tour win or his Giro win, but good. It just looks bad because Landa produced a shockingly good TT.

Things are looking good for Nibali but he is no longer as favoured against Landa as he was.

Nope, Landa definitely is the favourite now. Nibali didn't manage to sneak a few minutes on stages 8 and 9 which probably were the stages that suited Nibali the best relative to Landa, so that may be a little worrying. But at least Nibali managed to gap one of his other big rivals those stages.

Truth is we don't know who the favorite is, at least till we reach the high mountains and see climbing form of the main contenders. Landa didn't impressed on the climbs so far, last year he was good from day 1. I would say that Nibali is still the prime pick, followed by Valverde and Landa

There are always favourites for us betters out there.

If I remember correctly, Landa lost time on awesome stage 4 last year. But you are right, he has seemed very ordinary so far on the climbs, but those have been relatively easy climbs, cat 2 climbs.