Teams & Riders Vincenzo Nibali discussion thread

[Rollthedice]

Re:

He looked sharp. Sitting on Movistar’s wheel all climb not even opening his mouth to breathe. I think he’s just biding his time for the third week where his recovery will give him more of an edge... hopefully

Keeps climbing the standings without doing nothing. With no bad day soon he'll be on the podium, with an opportunity and a touch of voodoo he's in yellow in the Pirenees.

 

[bambino]

His team is OK for now. Their biggest task was to get Nibs to good situation before mountains and they managed OK on that, though not briliantly.

TOP 30 of todays stage had 3 teams with 3 riders, BM being one of them and they won the team classification. I know it doesn't mean a lot, but Nibs does not need 4 guys at the end when the selection is made. His biggest GT wins has mainly been with one single true domestic (Scarponi, RIP Michele) or without luxury doms.

The only bit of questionmark is Delphino though who was nowhere to be seen today. Maybe they still save him for the 3rd week, but looks bit strange.

 

[bob.a.feet]

I think sometimes we place too much weight on the importance of a strong team. We've seen many times when riders with strong teams have underperformed and riders with weak teams performing very well.

 

[Gigs_98]

I'm not sure if I'm too optimistic but he looks really good to me. He seemed to be completely relaxed even when Dan Martin attacked and the pace went up significantly. Still, because the time gap to the front is still quite small I have the feeling he will save himself for the Alpe. Maybe he could gain time tomorrow as well but attacking the sky train on low gradients can lead to lost time even if you are in great shape and right now the thing Nibali should do least is taking unnecessary risks.

 

[SafeBet]

Tomorrow's stage is not ideal for Nibbles. Too short. He should save energy and wait for the Alpe, when fatigue will be a factor after two hard mountain stages.

Delfino will be fine come the third week. The plan for him was always to start a bit undercooked and improving during the race, as he did last year in the Vuelta. Ion looked good today.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I dont know whats the point of bringing a climber for a 21 days bike race who isn't at 100% in the Alps.

 

[Rollthedice]

Re:

I dont know whats the point of bringing a climber for a 21 days bike race who isn't at 100% in the Alps.

Who, Delfino? He's his roommate.

 

[SafeBet]

Re:

I dont know whats the point of bringing a climber for a 21 days bike race who isn't at 100% in the Alps.

What was the alternative?
I keep seeing Visconti, Gasparotto and Mohoric mentioned. None of them is a climber for high mountains. The first two were with Nibali in last year Giro and were of no help whatsoever. Mohoric is a 24 years older who rode the Giro and thus would probably fade badly during the race.
Padun could be a valuable helper but he's too young and inexperienced at this point.
Same with Pernsteiner who has never ridden a GT.

Bahrain is no Sky. The climbing talent in the team is very limited. That's why I would have signed Ciccone for this season.

 

[Nirvana]

Re:

Pozzovivo was the only one to be seen today for nibs. I too think the brothers seemingly don’t give to ducks about nibs GC.

As i said last month, before the Tour the Izagirre bros said to Diario Vasco that they were going stage hunting at the Tour and probably they won't bury themselves because they'll go for GC at the Vuelta.
They were selected essentially to give an help in the TTT not to make part of a mountain train.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Pozzovivo was the only one to be seen today for nibs. I too think the brothers seemingly don’t give to ducks about nibs GC.

As i said last month, before the Tour the Izagirre bros said to Diario Vasco that they were going stage hunting at the Tour and probably they won't bury themselves because they'll go for GC at the Vuelta.
They were selected essentially to give an help in the TTT not to make part of a mountain train.

And the DS is okay with that?

 

[Lo squalo di messina]

WTF that cant be true right?!?

 

[Valv.Piti]

That sounds very, very weird. But in the end I guess it comes down to Nibali himself, lets see what he got tomorrow.

 

[del1962]

With the Kazaks he had a team that was commited to support him, bit with the Bahrain Prince it seems not.

 

[Nirvana]

Re: Re:

Pozzovivo was the only one to be seen today for nibs. I too think the brothers seemingly don’t give to ducks about nibs GC.

As i said last month, before the Tour the Izagirre bros said to Diario Vasco that they were going stage hunting at the Tour and probably they won't bury themselves because they'll go for GC at the Vuelta.
They were selected essentially to give an help in the TTT not to make part of a mountain train.

And the DS is okay with that?

Because they didn't want to put all eggs in Nibali basket and they want to try also to win a stage. If you look at the Giro they did exactly the same with Pozzovivo left alone despite he was fighting for the podium.
I was criticized here when i said that even Colbrelly was at the Tour to chase his own ambitions despite he said multiple times he wanted to help Nibali but in the first week what he did for him? Nothing, and as i expected he was a weight to carry in the TTT. Not to mention that to help him in the sprint of stage 2 Haussler crashed and therefore was no use in the TTT and in Roubaix due to his lack of fitness.

Anyway i think that he doesn't need a train in the mountains, he should follow the Sky one and wait for an eventual occasion to attack. Where he suffered the lack of the team was in the TTT and expecially in Roubaix where he was left only with Pozzovivo, probably the last one expected to stay with him on the cobbles.

 

[bambino]

Re:

With the Kazaks he had a team that was commited to support him, bit with the Bahrain Prince it seems not.

Time will golden the memories, but thinking about it, I don't remember he had that good team in Astana either. Yes, he had Scarponi as very committed liutenant and Kangert was always trying to help especially when sent to breaks for bridge. But i.e. Fuglsang was never "committed" outside one cobbled stage in 2014. I don't see much difference in the depth of current team and the ones he had in Astana in GT's he won. Scarponi probably the biggest difference, Pozzovivo/Delphino are not able to animate him.

 

[yaco]

Scarponi as your number one domestic is worth three domestics.

 

[bambino]

Re:

Scarponi as your number one domestic is worth three domestics.

Agree - I miss that guy so much

 

[bob.a.feet]

Even the ITV lads had a segment just singling out Nibali so it looks like they're joining the hype

 

[Singer01]

The problem he has is he has never had to work a spell to take out this many contenders. He's going to have to sacrifice a *** elephant or something to get that much voodoo.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

Re:

The problem he has is he has never had to work a spell to take out this many contenders. He's going to have to sacrifice a **** elephant or something to get that much voodoo.

3 virgins should be more than adequate.

 

[skippo12]

Bad tactics today...but in the end even the best possible scheme wouldn`t have made a difference.
Nibalis form is good but the Skyborgs are on another level.

 

[Eclipse]

Legs weren't quite there but it wasn't racing that suited him and there were 2 freaks in white.

Not throwing in the towel yet but not really seeing how he takes that sort of time back

 

[whittashau]

No point in watching any more of this Tour unless this was his "bad day". Kinda sad if at his best he's no match for Froome even with a Giro in his legs though

 

[Matteo.]

after all I saw him well. the only mistake was not to follow tom in the descent

 

[phanatic]

Re:

Legs weren't quite there but it wasn't racing that suited him and there were 2 freaks in white.

Not throwing in the towel yet but not really seeing how he takes that sort of time back

The Pyrenean Peak