Teams & Riders Vincenzo Nibali discussion thread

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H

huge

Mar 24, 2015
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Today Visconti uploaded a MTB ride he did together with Nibali https://www.strava.com/activities/1280227861

Check the second pic he published... Nibali's emergency repairs skills :lol: :lol:

Translating what Visconti said in the comments: "As the hole in the tyre was too large for the sealant to work, he (Nibali) made a sort of quick cement, applied it to the tyre and held it in place with the plastic band"... and then added "It's unbelievable. He can fix anything. Nothing can stop him. He'll find a solution".

Visconti seems to admire him quite a lot (Based also on many other comments he has made recently).
When they were juniors, they were fierce rivals and didn't get along very well.
 
H

huge

Mar 24, 2015
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Re:

Netserk said:
Would you mind posting the picture here? (for those of us without a Strava account)
Click to expand...

Unfortunately it seems it's not possible to link the pic directly.
I can't get a web address for it. And I can't download it either. Perhaps someone that's more tech savvy than me and has got a Strava account?
 
H

huge

Mar 24, 2015
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I managed :razz:

Repair.jpg
 
H

huge

Mar 24, 2015
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Nibali has confirmed that next year he will be targeting LBL.
He will also ride Amstel Gold Race and Fleche Wallonne.

I guess next week we'll know if he rides the Giro or the Tour.
 
meat puppet

meat puppet

May 29, 2011
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If the Ardennes actually are priority races he peaks for, I think TDF is more likely. Especially given how Nibali has peaked in the third week of GTs in recent years. Maintaining peak from LBL to the 3rd week of the Giro would be hard. The other option would be to not really peak for the Ardennes, do them at 95% or so, and then try to peak normally for the Giro. Even this might be tricky.
 
Rollthedice

Rollthedice

May 11, 2013
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Re:

meat puppet said:
If the Ardennes actually are priority races he peaks for, I think TDF is more likely. Especially given how Nibali has peaked in the third week of GTs in recent years. Maintaining peak from LBL to the 3rd week of the Giro would be hard. The other option would be to not really peak for the Ardennes, do them at 95% or so, and then try to peak normally for the Giro. Even this might be tricky.
Click to expand...

It was always Ardennes, Tour, Vuelta and Worlds. Giro threw in Sicily again and they are very late with the unveiling of the whole route, that's leading to the indecision. I would prefer Vincenzo to arrive strong and give everything in Liege, then do a good Tour even battle for the win given the parcours, prepare the Worlds with a decent Vuelta and win in Innsbruck. Anyway he said it will be a very important and hard season for him.
 
Rollthedice

Rollthedice

May 11, 2013
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By his own admission Froome was at his very best at the Vuelta and Nibs will have at his disposal potentially a good team in France with Ion and Gorka Izagirre, Pozzovivo, Pellizotti, Siutsou, Navardauskas and Haussler. Nibali has his chance and one rainy day on the 15th of July might make things even more interesting.
 
silvergrenade

silvergrenade

Jan 23, 2016
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Re:

Rollthedice said:
By his own admission Froome was at his very best at the Vuelta and Nibs will have at his disposal potentially a good team in France with Ion and Gorka Izagirre, Pozzovivo, Pellizotti, Siutsou, Navardauskas and Haussler. Nibali has his chance and one rainy day on the 15th of July might make things even more interesting.
Click to expand...
Yup.
He has a chance. Agreed.
But he'll have intense competition.
Hes not the second best GT rider. So imagining himself having champagne just because Froome isn't riding is sheer stupidity. He cannot create differences in the mountains, the TTs or the TTT. His best chance in a stage om the cobbles. Hoping for rain is overreaching. We know how sunny july france generally is. Ofc you never know though.
 
S

Summoned

Apr 16, 2017
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I would love to be able to track the internal debate that Nibali may well be engaged in at this point. Having ridden the Giro the last two years with the intention of winning both, and not having ridden the last two Tours with the intention of winning them, he is due to take on the Tour again. But now, with Froome riding the Giro, he could be concerned that not riding the Giro makes him look like he is ducking Froome. In addition, if he should skip the Giro, and should win the Tour, even if Froome is competitive in the Tour, Nibali will once again be subject to people discounting his victory because of the competition not being top-level in their estimation. Perhaps he is able to set this aside and focus on what his goals are despite the choices other riders make, and more power to him if this is the case.

But I suspect that the degree of competitiveness required to succeed at the level Nibali has in his career is going to make him seriously consider riding the Giro as the race in which he would be taking on the strongest Froome of the year. Which is in itself an assumption - clearly of the recent riders who have made serious attempts at the Giro-Tour double, both Quintana and Contador were significantly stronger at the first race; while Froome may have been arguably stronger at the Vuelta than the Tour in 2017, and may plan his preparation to be stronger at the second race again in 2018, he had sufficient previous experience riding a Tour-Vuelta double to know what to expect. He does not have that experience to draw on with the Giro-Tour double. Nibali does, though he did not ride the Tour in 2016 to win, as his goals for the season after riding the Giro that year focused pretty much exclusively on the Olympics.

So, perhaps if we see Nibali ride the Giro in 2018 it means he does not expect Froome to be able to sustain or regain his form for a serious attempt at the Tour. And if Nibali skips the Giro and rides the Tour, perhaps it does not mean the same things about his expectations for Froome at the Tour. Again, I would love to be inside Nibali's head as he thinks through this. And I also wonder if any part of him is considering also riding the Giro-Tour double. Unlikely, I admit, especially with the Worlds being a likely significant target and goal for him this year as well, but doing the Giro and the Tour with Froome would offer the opportunity to assuage both his competitive drive and whatever susceptibility he may have to critiques of the level of competition he has faced in his GT successes.
 
Nirvana

Nirvana

Jul 28, 2015
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At an award ceremony a week ago he said that WC is the main target and the Vuelta is certain so is Giro or Tour for him, no way he'll go to both.

Anyway i still think that his doubt between Giro and Tour is only PR. He had already decided to go to the Tour since at least last spring: i remember him saying that for the first time at the end of the Giro, then there was Carera (the manager of Baharain) saying classics and Tour during a stage of Tour de Suisse he commented for Bike Channel and in the same period Slongo talked to Radiocorsa saying classics, Tour and WC.
 
M

movingtarget

Aug 5, 2009
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Nibali and Quintana were disappointing in this year's Giro. Dumoulin looked like he was almost playing with them in the mountains by measuring his efforts, beating them both on one mountain finish which flattened out enough for Dumoulin to put the power down and then rely on his TT. Without the toilet break he wins by a few minutes which says more about how mediocre Quintana and Nibali were. I don't think either rider is a certainty to podium at the Tour unless they bring better form than in 2017.
 
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