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Teams & Riders Vincenzo Nibali discussion thread

Page 618 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Hope everybody's OK and slowly we will all enjoy some kind of normal life. Nibali will do the Giro, hopefully WCRR will go on as planned. He will ride exclusively in Italy starting with Strade on the 1st of August.

 
Hope everybody's OK and slowly we will all enjoy some kind of normal life. Nibali will do the Giro, hopefully WCRR will go on as planned. He will ride exclusively in Italy starting with Strade on the 1st of August.


I need me some Shark sightings to make life fun again. Still on lockdown here......
Forza Vince. I'll love to see what he can do in Strade!
 
Hopefully UCI accepts the proposed changes to the italian calendar.
Nibali could ride all the italian classics and semiclassics in August, then TA, the WC and start the Giro in top shape.

And Lombardia after the Giro. UCi official Italian races:

01 Aug 2020Strade BiancheITAME1.UWT
05 Aug 2020Milano-TorinoITAME1.Pro
08 Aug 2020Milano-SanremoITAME1.UWT
18 Aug 2020Giro dell'EmiliaITAME1.Pro
20 Aug 2020Gran PiemonteITAME1.Pro
29 Aug 2020Trofeo MatteottiITAME1.1
30 Aug 2020Memorial Marco PantaniITAME1.1
01 Sep-05 Sep 2020Settimana Internazionale Coppi e BartaliITAME2.1
07 Sep-14 Sep 2020Tirreno-AdriaticoITAME2.UWT
16 Sep 2020Giro della Toscana - Memorial Alfredo MartiniITAME1.1
17 Sep 2020Coppa Sabatini - Gran Premio città di PeccioliITAME1.Pro
20 Sep 2020Giro dell'AppenninoITAME1.1
22 Sep 2020Regione LombardiaITAME1.Pro
27 Sep 2020Giro del Medio BrentaITAME1.2
08 Oct-11 Oct 202056° Giro della Regione Friuli Venezia GiuliaITAME2.2
03 Oct-25 Oct 2020Giro d'ItaliaITAME2.UWT
25 Oct 2020105^ PopolarissimaITAME1.2
31 Oct 2020Championnats Nationaux Route - ItalieITACN
31 Oct 2020Il LombardiaITAME1.UWT
 
And Lombardia after the Giro. UCi official Italian races:

01 Aug 2020Strade BiancheITAME1.UWT
05 Aug 2020Milano-TorinoITAME1.Pro
08 Aug 2020Milano-SanremoITAME1.UWT
18 Aug 2020Giro dell'EmiliaITAME1.Pro
20 Aug 2020Gran PiemonteITAME1.Pro
29 Aug 2020Trofeo MatteottiITAME1.1
30 Aug 2020Memorial Marco PantaniITAME1.1
01 Sep-05 Sep 2020Settimana Internazionale Coppi e BartaliITAME2.1
07 Sep-14 Sep 2020Tirreno-AdriaticoITAME2.UWT
16 Sep 2020Giro della Toscana - Memorial Alfredo MartiniITAME1.1
17 Sep 2020Coppa Sabatini - Gran Premio città di PeccioliITAME1.Pro
20 Sep 2020Giro dell'AppenninoITAME1.1
22 Sep 2020Regione LombardiaITAME1.Pro
27 Sep 2020Giro del Medio BrentaITAME1.2
08 Oct-11 Oct 202056° Giro della Regione Friuli Venezia GiuliaITAME2.2
03 Oct-25 Oct 2020Giro d'ItaliaITAME2.UWT
25 Oct 2020105^ PopolarissimaITAME1.2
31 Oct 2020Championnats Nationaux Route - ItalieITACN
31 Oct 2020Il LombardiaITAME1.UWT
Not all of those haave been confimed, a few will only be confirmed on the 9th on June:

LE DATE ITALIANE DA CONFERMARE
01 Aug 2020 Strade Bianche ME 1.UWT
08 Aug 2020 Milano-Sanremo ME 1.UWT
07 Sep-14 Sep 2020 Tirreno-Adriatico ME 2.UWT
03 Oct-25 Oct 2020 Giro d'Italia ME 2.UWT
31 Oct 2020 Championnats Nationaux Route - Italie CN
31 Oct 2020 Il Lombardia ME 1.UWT

Source: https://www.tuttobiciweb.it/article...6/calendario-uci-calendario-italiano-9-giugno
 
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Davide Cassani interviewed Nibali on the Koo Instagram page last night.
You can find the whole thing here (in italian): https://www.instagram.com/tv/CAaxku5Fpuu/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link


A few interesting bits:

- he recalls his first ever pro win, a Coppi & Bartali stage finishing in Faenza (where Cassani lives). Says he dropped Bettini + Kuschynski on the last climb and then stayed away in the wet descent. Bettini approached him after the finish and asked him if he had cut a few corners since he was so fast

- still has no explanation for his crash during the 2013 WC ("there must have been soap on the road")

- he goes back to his 2016 Giro win and says he wouldn't have stopped Michele Scarponi after Kruijswijk crashed because he didn't believe he had a chance to win. Martinelli/Slongo made the call and they were right.

- the WC originally wasn't a clear goal for 2020, but it is now with the new calendar

- an almost exclusively italian race schedule will allow him to move from race to race by private cars and avoid planes (hinting at lower risk of getting sick this way)

- he's not a very talkative leader and doesn't like to talk much on the radio. He tries to be a helpful teammate when the youngsters need advices though

- he enjoys training with Bettiol because the EF rider will always cheer you up. He actually says Bettiol talks a bit too much even when apparently suffering in training (hinting at the fact he's got a monster engine but probably not the hardest worker)

- he was getting in great shape before the Covid-19 outbreak and couldn't find motivation to train at home (not a big fan of indoor cycling) when the lockdown occured. But then he found his smile again and enjoyed spending time with his family (he had never been with his family for so long)

- training is still fun to him, and that's one of his secrets. He's not planning to retire anytime soon.
 
So this got reuploaded

556b95a7e92f9b0d26085c00bfc79de7.gif


Couldn't find the actual damn gif I wanted to use
 
Slongo talking up Nibali's form (in italiano):
 
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Slongo talking up Nibali's form (in italiano):
He also talks about riders showing up in great shape but too lean at th start of a GT and of course he has to mention Basso in the 2013 Vuelta when he couldn't handle the rain and the cold on the Andorra stage. I still think that Basso could have finished top 5 in that Vuelta.
 
Basso was almost 3 min behind Nibali and more than 2 min behind Horner at the time he abandoned the race. He would have been irrelevant in the race for the victory but could have been up there with Purito racing for 4th and ahead of Nico Roche, who finished 5th almost 4 min behind Purito. Horner was laughingly unstoppable.

RoboBasso had them right where he wanted them.
 
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Because I just can’t get enough of comparisons, below are numbers on GT wins, podiums and top 10’s for a selection of riders.

Nibali 4 wins, 11 podiums, 14 top 10’s
Valverde 1 win, 9 podiums, 19 top 10’s
Froome 7 wins, 11 podiums, 12 top 10’s
Contador 7 (9) wins, 7 (9) podiums, 12 (15) top 10’s
Sastre 1 win, 6 podiums, 15 top 10’s
Hinault 10 wins, 12 podiums, 12 top 10’s
Merckx 11 wins, 12 podiums, 15 top 10’s

No definite conclusions I want to draw from this, though I would say that the more dominant the rider, the nearer to 1 would be the ratio of wins to podium placings. But this list mostly was inspired by Valverde’s record for top 10 finishes in GT’s, so I do want to talk about that. Discounting Contador’s erased results, the next two riders on this list for top 10’s after Valverde are Merckx and Sastre, which is an interesting pairing. They clearly arrived at these numbers by much different careers. Both were obviously excellent GT riders, but one far exceeds the other. But they do provide a sort of framework in which to place the riders on this list.

Hinault and Merckx would seem to be much of a muchness in their numbers here, but Contador would be the next closest to them on this list. Froome is the next on the list, though his ratio for podiums versus top 10’s is better than Merckx’s. But Nibali is clearly more toward the Sastre/Valverde end of the spectrum presented here. Which sounds pretty dismissive, but this is more a case of praising with faint damns here, ‘cause this is quite a list.

The other thing I wanted to do was monument podiums versus top 10’s. I did not count World Championships, though. This was inspired by Valverde’s GT top 10’s record, but I thought I would take a quick look at these numbers also.

Nibali 3 wins, 6 podiums, 12 top 10’s
Valverde 4 wins, 10 podiums, 14 top 10’s
Hinault 5 wins, 7 podiums, 10 top 10’s
Merckx 19 wins, 30 podiums, 45 top 10’s

Clearly what stands out here is Merckx. I knew about his record in GT’s but had no idea just how dominant he had been in monuments. I count 19 wins. Cancellara I have at 7, Boonen at 7, and Gilbert at 5. I am sure there have been other dominant classics/monuments riders, but this has to stand out, especially in combination with his GT palmaries.

Valverde and Nibali are reasonably close to Hinault on this list, though they pale in comparison as GT riders. But as all-round riders, they are in a third tier behind Hinault and then in his own sphere Merckx. I would place Valverde ahead of Nibali, but not by much. Which is the point of this exercise, at long last - a comparison of Nibali and Valverde that incorporates a broader perspective on their accomplishments.
 
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Because I just can’t get enough of comparisons, below are numbers on GT wins, podiums and top 10’s for a selection of riders.

Nibali 4 wins, 11 podiums, 14 top 10’s
Valverde 1 win, 9 podiums, 19 top 10’s
Froome 7 wins, 11 podiums, 12 top 10’s
Contador 7 (9) wins, 7 (9) podiums, 12 (15) top 10’s
Sastre 1 win, 6 podiums, 15 top 10’s
Hinault 10 wins, 12 podiums, 12 top 10’s
Merckx 11 wins, 12 podiums, 15 top 10’s

No definite conclusions I want to draw from this, though I would say that the more dominant the rider, the nearer to 1 would be the ratio of wins to podium placings. But this list mostly was inspired by Valverde’s record for top 10 finishes in GT’s, so I do want to talk about that. Discounting Contador’s erased results, the next two riders on this list for top 10’s after Valverde are Merckx and Sastre, which is an interesting pairing. They clearly arrived at these numbers by much different careers. Both were obviously excellent GT riders, but one far exceeds the other. But they do provide a sort of framework in which to place the riders on this list.

Hinault and Merckx would seem to be much of a muchness in their numbers here, but Contador would be the next closest to them on this list. Froome is the next on the list, though his ratio for podiums versus top 10’s is better than Merckx’s. But Nibali is clearly more toward the Sastre/Valverde end of the spectrum presented here. Which sounds pretty dismissive, but this is more a case of praising with faint damns here, ‘cause this is quite a list.

The other thing I wanted to do was monument podiums versus top 10’s. I did not count World Championships, though. This was inspired by Valverde’s GT top 10’s record, but I thought I would take a quick look at these numbers also.

Nibali 3 wins, 6 podiums, 12 top 10’s
Valverde 4 wins, 10 podiums, 14 top 10’s
Hinault 5 wins, 7 podiums, 10 top 10’s
Merckx 19 wins, 30 podiums, 45 top 10’s

Clearly what stands out here is Merckx. I knew about his record in GT’s but had no idea just how dominant he had been in monuments. I count 19 wins. Cancellara I have at 7, Boonen at 7, and Gilbert at 5. I am sure there have been other dominant classics/monuments riders, but this has to stand out, especially in combination with his GT palmaries.

Valverde and Nibali are reasonably close to Hinault on this list, though they pale in comparison as GT riders. But as all-round riders, they are in a third tier behind Hinault and then in his own sphere Merckx. I would place Valverde ahead of Nibali, but not by much. Which is the point of this exercise, at long last - a comparison of Nibali and Valverde that incorporates a broader perspective on their accomplishments.

Those are some interesting comparisons. Thanks for putting it together. As you included Contador's stripped GTs in parentheses, there was 1 LBL podium Valverde had stripped with his 2010 results. Although I don't think that 1 podium makes as big of an interesting difference as the GT's Contador lost.
 
Plus, if you had also counted WCRRs (as you should, but I know it's much more laborious if you use PCS), you can add 7 podiums and 10 top 10s for Valverde, and his quantity suffocates every contemporary rider by a huge margin.

But Merckx' stats are of course ridiculous and would also be boosted a lot by inclusion of WCRR.
 
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Because I just can’t get enough of comparisons, below are numbers on GT wins, podiums and top 10’s for a selection of riders.

Nibali 4 wins, 11 podiums, 14 top 10’s
Valverde 1 win, 9 podiums, 19 top 10’s
Froome 7 wins, 11 podiums, 12 top 10’s
Contador 7 (9) wins, 7 (9) podiums, 12 (15) top 10’s
Sastre 1 win, 6 podiums, 15 top 10’s
Hinault 10 wins, 12 podiums, 12 top 10’s
Merckx 11 wins, 12 podiums, 15 top 10’s

No definite conclusions I want to draw from this, though I would say that the more dominant the rider, the nearer to 1 would be the ratio of wins to podium placings. But this list mostly was inspired by Valverde’s record for top 10 finishes in GT’s, so I do want to talk about that. Discounting Contador’s erased results, the next two riders on this list for top 10’s after Valverde are Merckx and Sastre, which is an interesting pairing. They clearly arrived at these numbers by much different careers. Both were obviously excellent GT riders, but one far exceeds the other. But they do provide a sort of framework in which to place the riders on this list.

Hinault and Merckx would seem to be much of a muchness in their numbers here, but Contador would be the next closest to them on this list. Froome is the next on the list, though his ratio for podiums versus top 10’s is better than Merckx’s. But Nibali is clearly more toward the Sastre/Valverde end of the spectrum presented here. Which sounds pretty dismissive, but this is more a case of praising with faint damns here, ‘cause this is quite a list.

The other thing I wanted to do was monument podiums versus top 10’s. I did not count World Championships, though. This was inspired by Valverde’s GT top 10’s record, but I thought I would take a quick look at these numbers also.

Nibali 3 wins, 6 podiums, 12 top 10’s
Valverde 4 wins, 10 podiums, 14 top 10’s
Hinault 5 wins, 7 podiums, 10 top 10’s
Merckx 19 wins, 30 podiums, 45 top 10’s

Clearly what stands out here is Merckx. I knew about his record in GT’s but had no idea just how dominant he had been in monuments. I count 19 wins. Cancellara I have at 7, Boonen at 7, and Gilbert at 5. I am sure there have been other dominant classics/monuments riders, but this has to stand out, especially in combination with his GT palmaries.

Valverde and Nibali are reasonably close to Hinault on this list, though they pale in comparison as GT riders. But as all-round riders, they are in a third tier behind Hinault and then in his own sphere Merckx. I would place Valverde ahead of Nibali, but not by much. Which is the point of this exercise, at long last - a comparison of Nibali and Valverde that incorporates a broader perspective on their accomplishments.

Based on 4 GT wins (including all 3) plus 3 monument wins for Nibali vs 1 GT win and 4 monument wins for Valverde I'd place Nibali above Bala. Of course Bala has a WC and that counts. Still Nibali's 4 GTS+ 3 monuments far outweigh anything Bala has accomplished IMO.
Podiums have much less value than wins.

Merckx rules, but then we all knew that!
 
Because I just can’t get enough of comparisons, below are numbers on GT wins, podiums and top 10’s for a selection of riders.

Nibali 4 wins, 11 podiums, 14 top 10’s
Valverde 1 win, 9 podiums, 19 top 10’s
Froome 7 wins, 11 podiums, 12 top 10’s
Contador 7 (9) wins, 7 (9) podiums, 12 (15) top 10’s
Sastre 1 win, 6 podiums, 15 top 10’s
Hinault 10 wins, 12 podiums, 12 top 10’s
Merckx 11 wins, 12 podiums, 15 top 10’s

No definite conclusions I want to draw from this, though I would say that the more dominant the rider, the nearer to 1 would be the ratio of wins to podium placings. But this list mostly was inspired by Valverde’s record for top 10 finishes in GT’s, so I do want to talk about that. Discounting Contador’s erased results, the next two riders on this list for top 10’s after Valverde are Merckx and Sastre, which is an interesting pairing. They clearly arrived at these numbers by much different careers. Both were obviously excellent GT riders, but one far exceeds the other. But they do provide a sort of framework in which to place the riders on this list.

Hinault and Merckx would seem to be much of a muchness in their numbers here, but Contador would be the next closest to them on this list. Froome is the next on the list, though his ratio for podiums versus top 10’s is better than Merckx’s. But Nibali is clearly more toward the Sastre/Valverde end of the spectrum presented here. Which sounds pretty dismissive, but this is more a case of praising with faint damns here, ‘cause this is quite a list.

The other thing I wanted to do was monument podiums versus top 10’s. I did not count World Championships, though. This was inspired by Valverde’s GT top 10’s record, but I thought I would take a quick look at these numbers also.

Nibali 3 wins, 6 podiums, 12 top 10’s
Valverde 4 wins, 10 podiums, 14 top 10’s
Hinault 5 wins, 7 podiums, 10 top 10’s
Merckx 19 wins, 30 podiums, 45 top 10’s

Clearly what stands out here is Merckx. I knew about his record in GT’s but had no idea just how dominant he had been in monuments. I count 19 wins. Cancellara I have at 7, Boonen at 7, and Gilbert at 5. I am sure there have been other dominant classics/monuments riders, but this has to stand out, especially in combination with his GT palmaries.

Valverde and Nibali are reasonably close to Hinault on this list, though they pale in comparison as GT riders. But as all-round riders, they are in a third tier behind Hinault and then in his own sphere Merckx. I would place Valverde ahead of Nibali, but not by much. Which is the point of this exercise, at long last - a comparison of Nibali and Valverde that incorporates a broader perspective on their accomplishments.
Good work here.
I think an excellent comparison for Nibali is Gimondi.

GTs
Nibali 4 wins, 11 podiums, 14 top 10’s
Gimondi 5 wins, 12 podiums, 18 top 10's

Monuments
Nibali 3 wins, 6 podiums, 12 top 10’s
Gimondi 4 wins, 10 podiums, 19 top 10's

Gimondi also won a WC and podiumed a couple more, which places him in a tier above Nibali (and Valverde). If Nibali won a WC/Olympics before retiring I would probably put him in the same tier as Gimondi.
At the moment I agree Nibali and Valverde belong to the same tier. Wether you take one career over the other is a matter of personal preference and I wouldn't argue against either opinion.
 
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