Vincenzo Nibali

[Big Doopie]

A full ten seconds on Konig? Must be a big doopie.

nice. like it.

 

[msjett]

3 stage wins 10 days in yellow.....mmmm....I just think that it is starting to look a bit alien....but then what is perceived as the big competition has been eliminated by crashes..still I have a bad feeling about this...

 

[pot belge]

I thought that I could win, that was my intention. More or less I felt good but I was missing something to be able to follow Nibali. He passed me like an aeroplane,” Rodríguez said at the finish.

Not Normal.

 

[sniper]

vinokourov ****ting on the porch of clean cycling.
lovely.

 

[Krebs cycle]

Dauphine vs Tdf....

Jurgen VDB takes time out of Nibali on three stages. Romain Bardet does also (although at least of those was due to being in the break). Contador is also clearly in better form than Nibali at this stage

One month later, Nibali is at the same level as Contador and is taking minutes out of both JVDB and Bardet on every climb and is able to drop Contador + multiple winners and podium placers of Paris-Roubaix/Tour of Flanders over the cobbles.

So either Nibali got his tdf prep perfect, Contador did not improve and JVDB totally stuffed his up and has gone backwards, or something else can explain Nibali's rather sharp increase in performance in one month relative to others whom also raced the Dauphine.

 

[Inquitus]

Shame we don't have a Contador or Froome to benchmark him against, but he's making the rest look silly, biggest winning margin in 30 years is on the cards.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

vinokourov ****ting on the porch of clean cycling.
lovely.

Yea, the sqeeky clean front porch of pro cycling being ****ed over by some damn italian and his evil boss

 

[maxmartin]

Dauphine vs Tdf....

Jurgen VDB takes time out of Nibali on three stages. Romain Bardet does also (although at least of those was due to being in the break). Contador is also clearly in better form than Nibali at this stage

One month later, Nibali is at the same level as Contador and is taking minutes out of both JVDB and Bardet on every climb and is able to drop Contador + multiple winners and podium placers of Paris-Roubaix/Tour of Flanders over the cobbles.

So either Nibali got his tdf prep perfect, Contador did not improve and JVDB totally stuffed his up and has gone backwards, or something else can explain Nibali's rather sharp increase in performance in one month relative to others whom also raced the Dauphine.

training in the dAuphine, seven is solid. Before sky inventing peaking all year around, most serious tour contenders are taking dauphine easy.

 

[hrotha]

The interesting thing about Nibali is that he completely changed his approach this season. While in previous seasons he'd be competitive the whole year and be close to his top form from Tirreno all the way through the Giro and then from the Vuelta to the WC, apparently this year he went for a super peak for the Tour only. Vino's letter might suggest that wasn't part of the plan, at least as far as the team is concerned, but then again it could be meaningless.

Considering how strong Nibali was last year already, I wonder what'd make him change his approach this season. Different kind of program? Whatever it was, it seems to have worked, although it's hard to say how much stronger than 2013 Giro Nibali he is right now, if at all.

We don't have a lot of hard data to compare yet. Today was really the first set, and considering how the climb was ridden and comparing it to that ITT, it does make you rise an eyebrow even ignoring Nibali's (and Astana's) previous history.

 

[Afrank]

The interesting thing about Nibali is that he completely changed his approach this season. While in previous seasons he'd be competitive the whole year and be close to his top form from Tirreno all the way through the Giro and then from the Vuelta to the WC, apparently this year he went for a super peak for the Tour only. Vino's letter might suggest that wasn't part of the plan, at least as far as the team is concerned, but then again it could be meaningless.

Considering how strong Nibali was last year already, I wonder what'd make him change his approach this season. Different kind of program? Whatever it was, it seems to have worked, although it's hard to say how much stronger than 2013 Giro Nibali he is right now, if at all.

We don't have a lot of hard data to compare yet. Today was really the first set, and considering how the climb was ridden and comparing it to that ITT, it does make you rise an eyebrow even ignoring Nibali's (and Astana's) previous history.

Interesting, good info Hrotha. I wonder if doing a super peak for one race gives him better form then being in good form all year would. He didn't have to compete with them last year, so maybe he specifically chose to peak this way so he would have a better chance against them.

 

[Big Doopie]

training in the dAuphine, seven is solid. Before sky inventing peaking all year around, most serious tour contenders are taking dauphine easy.

Check your cycling history. Peaking all year around dates back to Pre-O2 vector doping. "Taking dauphine easy" (or having a huge leap in performance in the three weeks between dauphine and TDF) is representative of O2 vector doping era.

 

[thehog]

The interesting thing about Nibali is that he completely changed his approach this season. While in previous seasons he'd be competitive the whole year and be close to his top form from Tirreno all the way through the Giro and then from the Vuelta to the WC, apparently this year he went for a super peak for the Tour only. Vino's letter might suggest that wasn't part of the plan, at least as far as the team is concerned, but then again it could be meaningless.

Considering how strong Nibali was last year already, I wonder what'd make him change his approach this season. Different kind of program? Whatever it was, it seems to have worked, although it's hard to say how much stronger than 2013 Giro Nibali he is right now, if at all.

We don't have a lot of hard data to compare yet. Today was really the first set, and considering how the climb was ridden and comparing it to that ITT, it does make you rise an eyebrow even ignoring Nibali's (and Astana's) previous history.

He wasn't so much super peaking but arranging the season around the birth of his first child. Hence why there was a delay around March.

He always said he planned to start the season late. Along with the fact he started early and raced till late last year.

 

[Netserk]

Dauphine vs Tdf....

Jurgen VDB takes time out of Nibali on three stages. Romain Bardet does also (although at least of those was due to being in the break). Contador is also clearly in better form than Nibali at this stage

One month later, Nibali is at the same level as Contador and is taking minutes out of both JVDB and Bardet on every climb and is able to drop Contador + multiple winners and podium placers of Paris-Roubaix/Tour of Flanders over the cobbles.

So either Nibali got his tdf prep perfect, Contador did not improve and JVDB totally stuffed his up and has gone backwards, or something else can explain Nibali's rather sharp increase in performance in one month relative to others whom also raced the Dauphine.

Have you ever seen Sastre or Samu in Dauphiné? There are those who race there, and then there are those who fine tune their form there. It's not like Nibali did much different in 2012.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Nibali cruised across the line after beating everyone to the top. He did not look stressed at all.

Training ride.

He said he was too tired to think of a special victory salute. But yeah, it didn't seem that way.

 

[SundayRider]

The only time he has looked remotely fatigued was when Contador gapped him for a few seconds on what stage 6?

 

[Netserk]

The only time he has looked remotely fatigued was when Contador gapped him for a few seconds on what stage 6?

Stage 8. Where Contador on the other hand looked like he held back, despite being the one on the front for more than half of the climb.

 

[noddy69]

training in the dAuphine, seven is solid. Before sky inventing peaking all year around, most serious tour contenders are taking dauphine easy.

Yeah cause when you look back over the list of winners from the "clean years" no serious tour contenders there

Armstrong excuse for peaking....

 

[roundabout]

The interesting thing about Nibali is that he completely changed his approach this season. While in previous seasons he'd be competitive the whole year and be close to his top form from Tirreno all the way through the Giro and then from the Vuelta to the WC, apparently this year he went for a super peak for the Tour only. Vino's letter might suggest that wasn't part of the plan, at least as far as the team is concerned, but then again it could be meaningless.

Considering how strong Nibali was last year already, I wonder what'd make him change his approach this season. Different kind of program? Whatever it was, it seems to have worked, although it's hard to say how much stronger than 2013 Giro Nibali he is right now, if at all.

We don't have a lot of hard data to compare yet. Today was really the first set, and considering how the climb was ridden and comparing it to that ITT, it does make you rise an eyebrow even ignoring Nibali's (and Astana's) previous history.

I may not be remembering things correctly, but didn't he do a long training camp at altitude before the Ardennes races with the aim of doing well there?

 

[Cycle Chic]

Froome Connection

Maybe theres an explanation for Froomes irritated tweet about Tenerife and no testing,....... Contador and Nibali riding full ***. Looks like they,ve found out what Sky are / were on.

 

[zigmeister]

^guess they did give them some of that protein drink they were asking about after all.

Honestly, Nibali pulled a Froome/Contador on that climb.

It is quite difficult to believe how much better, at the elite of the elite level, a few guys can be that make the others looks pretty average.

 

[Cycle Chic]

Tour Talk Andreu

http://www.bicycling.com/video/tour-talk-stage-13-2#/video/all/created/d/1

So Frankie Andreu can call out Nibali's performance yesterday - see the last minute of the video....'breathing through the nose'

but never made a comment about Froome in last years Tour.

 

[whittashau]

I don't think he is.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Maybe theres an explanation for Froomes irritated tweet about Tenerife and no testing,....... Contador and Nibali riding full ***. Looks like they,ve found out what Sky are / were on.

Contador full ***? Where?

 

[sniper]

vino these days is looking rich, handsome, healthy and happy.

#risk-reward ratio

 

[Bicycle]

without froome, contador and quintana it's hard to know if he's any better than previous years