• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

Teams & Riders Vincenzo Nibali discussion thread

Page 757 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
I was never his biggest fan but I respect him a lot as a true racer and one of the best cyclists in the modern era. However I must say I'm trully disappointed with him, specially after seeing him as a pure attacker without the fear of failure and in this Giro, he was just hanging around like louis meintjes for top5. He is a multiple gt winner, why the hell he didn't attack at the beginning of the mountain stages? Downhill attacks? A top5 does nothing to his palmares. I was expecting something close to what Contador did in Vuelta, even if his legs were not the same. He had the legs to destroy a peloton for sure, why not create that chaos?
 
  • Wow
Reactions: Sandisfan
I was never his biggest fan but I respect him a lot as a true racer and one of the best cyclists in the modern era. However I must say I'm trully disappointed with him, specially after seeing him as a pure attacker without the fear of failure and in this Giro, he was just hanging around like louis meintjes for top5. He is a multiple gt winner, why the hell he didn't attack at the beginning of the mountain stages? Downhill attacks? A top5 does nothing to his palmares. I was expecting something close to what Contador did in Vuelta, even if his legs were not the same. He had the legs to destroy a peloton for sure, why not create that chaos?
You'll see that in the Vuelta when he's not battling illness.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
I couldn't ask more from him from his last Giro, it's still better than what I expected. And come on, it's only one race! How many years of spectacles this guy has given us, so who am I to whine about one lazy race with decent end result from him. And what's the point of attacking with bad legs and end up dangling 10" in front of an amused peloton or making it only to get dropped by a random Dutchman from morning breakaway.
 
Come on guys, what did we really expect pre race? Top ten probably seemed unlikely. And for all the forum fame for descending, one day wins and a little voodoo, what has arguably defined Nibali's career the most is incredible GC consistency and durability in GT's (especially at the Giro). He almost always finishers grand tours that he starts, and has an enormous number of podium results. To finish 4th here (should he hold off Bilbao) is a great and somewhat fitting result (at 37) imo. It won't be as remembered as other results, but it does add to his legacy.
 
I was never his biggest fan but I respect him a lot as a true racer and one of the best cyclists in the modern era. However I must say I'm trully disappointed with him, specially after seeing him as a pure attacker without the fear of failure and in this Giro, he was just hanging around like louis meintjes for top5. He is a multiple gt winner, why the hell he didn't attack at the beginning of the mountain stages? Downhill attacks? A top5 does nothing to his palmares. I was expecting something close to what Contador did in Vuelta, even if his legs were not the same. He had the legs to destroy a peloton for sure, why not create that chaos?

He tried at the top of Mortirolo and they caught him on... a descent. If he couldn't get a substantial gap under such circumstances then there was nothing he could do (obviously uphill he had no chance to gap the best)
 
This Giro was a lot more and a lot less than I expected at the same time.
I agree.

I don't wanna complain though, I'm just thinking more how *** spoiled the fans were by Contadors final Vuelta. Going out on top is very rare, and perhaps a bit overrated, and I think fans just wanna cement that final image of their athlete being the best somehow.

Also didn't team managment ask him to keep trying for GC? Maybe if Lopez hadn't dropped out he might have had more of a role of alternating stage hunting and babysitting.

It should help a lot in the rest of the season that he does not go back to the Tour. Giro/Tour doubles ruin the rest of the season, if your name is not Valverde. Build a good, uninterrupted peak to the Vuelta, and maybe he can be Torino level again.

Vuelta route is bad for him though, but if he does not go for GC (pleaaaaaaase don't) he should give himself a few good shots at a stage win.
 
If both retired today, who had the better career? Left the biggest mark on cycling? Would be remembered the most?

Pogacar.

He already has 5 more WT wins than Nibali. Two Tours, different monuments, Strade, Olympic medal, a Flanders performance for the ages and an air of invincibility that we have never seen before in our life time. The fact that Nibali is wildly overhyped on this forum doesn't change that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: hayneplane
This Giro was a lot more and a lot less than I expected at the same time.
He hasn't looked good a single day between Etna 2020 and this Giro, Blockhaus was already far more than I expected, Torino a little pearl on its own. It gave hope for more, and it still does. Now I will actually look forward to the rest of his season, keep a watchful eye on him as the autumn approaches. Could it be more beautiful than the last leaf of Nibali's career being a win in Lombardia?
 
Pogacar.

He already has 5 more WT wins than Nibali. Two Tours, different monuments, Strade, Olympic medal, a Flanders performance for the ages and an air of invincibility that we have never seen before in our life time. The fact that Nibali is wildly overhyped on this forum doesn't change that.
His Tour last year was equal to Nibali's Tour in 2014, Nibali is clearly ahead of him in one-day races, so you have to rate the 2020 Tour very, very highly.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Red Rick
His Tour last year was equal to Nibali's Tour in 2014, Nibali is clearly ahead of him in one-day races, so you have to rate the 2020 Tour very, very highly.

Clearly ahead in one-day races? Alright...
The guy has one monument more than Pogacar who then has Strade to bring him very close. Unless you put a lot of weight on the 2006 GP Plouay.

A consistent presence in the top-end of the results sheets throughout the season is also a parameter that matters. You often forget that Nibali exists, then he suddenly pops up for a largely invisible fourth place in a GT and then we won't see him again for a few months. In every race Pogacar races he is the favourite. I know that things were different with Nibali before 2014 but he still never had the kind of aura around him that Pogacar has these days.
 

TRENDING THREADS