Wiggins vs Nibali, Who is the Best Climber in a GT?

[wwabbit]

A day in the life just isn't the same without a Miburo poll. We should create a poll to determine his best poll.

His best poll would probably be one that has nothing to do with cycling though.

 

[cineteq]

First, we should create a poll to decide if we should create a poll to determine his best poll.

Good idea, Miburo create the poll please.

 

[Brian Butterworth]

Agreed.

I expect this will go against the grain but I quite like the Terminator style of Wiggins (provided of course he has back up...he couldn't survive on his own). It must really put the sh1ts up the opposition.

Nibali provides the excitement and it would be nice to see him, and a few other similarly styled riders to go head to head without the black train swallowing them up one by one.

 

[Richeypen]

Wiggo reminds me more of a zombie. You can run and run but he is always there right behind you appearing from around the last corner. No change of pace and not seeming to be going particularly fast but relentless and never tiring until you accept that there is no escape.

 

[cineteq]

Wiggo reminds me more of a zombie. You can run and run but he is always there right behind you appearing from around the last corner. No change of pace and not seeming to be going particularly fast but relentless and never tiring until you accept that there is no escape.

 

[bicifan]

Mano to Mano Nibali will do a schoolboy attack and open a 50-100 meter gap by extreme effort. Wiggins will handle this stoically with smirk and turn on a TT mode. Wiggins will let Nibali forge generously then it will bother him, he will set a bit heavier gears, catch Nibali in a few circles of pedal and drop him. The train in this case in exceptionally tactic building which give more garanties. Harping on Wiggins is weak without train is a whim — reluctance to convince the rider one dislikes as a superb climber.

What are you smoking amigo? You don't sound convincing at all. Catalunya will expose Wiggins, don't worry be happy!

 

[shades1]

i dont think nibali is as great as people seem to think in the mountains , his attacks seem to be very short and sporadic imo and have very little affect unlike a contador or schleck where the attack will be absolutely massive and really find a lot of time .

so i say wiggins , not because he does any of the above but because he can just churn out a relentless gear and pull back a nibali style rider pretty comfortably especially with the sky machine by his side .

 

[movingtarget]

What are you smoking amigo? You don't sound convincing at all. Catalunya will expose Wiggins, don't worry be happy!

The same way he was going to be exposed in the Tour ?

 

[movingtarget]

i dont think nibali is as great as people seem to think in the mountains , his attacks seem to be very short and sporadic imo and have very little affect unlike a contador or schleck where the attack will be absolutely massive and really find a lot of time .

so i say wiggins , not because he does any of the above but because he can just churn out a relentless gear and pull back a nibali style rider pretty comfortably especially with the sky machine by his side .

So far Nibali's attacks have been much more successful in the one week races like Tirreno. Over long mountain stages for three weeks against a strong team like Sky he struggles but most of the others do as well, not to attack but to maintain the gap. I think he is improving but if teams are going to race against Sky conservatively they have no chance. Both Froome and Wiggins are so good in the TT. Others have to be more daring with their tactics otherwise expect Sky to keep winning. Also some luck may help. As to Contador and Schleck making an attack and gaining big time over Sky, I will believe it when I see it. So far Sky seem to have the team to cope but as with all successful teams they won't continue as is because some of their riders will want to lead their own teams and others will be lured away with big money offers elsewhere. Such is sport.

 

[airstream]

So far Nibali's attacks have been much more successful in the one week races like Tirreno. Over long mountain stages for three weeks against a strong team like Sky he struggles but most of the others do as well, not to attack but to maintain the gap. I think he is improving but if teams are going to race against Sky conservatively they have no chance. Both Froome and Wiggins are so good in the TT. Others have to be more daring with their tactics otherwise expect Sky to keep winning. Also some luck may help. As to Contador and Schleck making an attack and gaining big time over Sky, I will believe it when I see it. So far Sky seem to have the team to cope but as with all successful teams they won't continue as is because some of their riders will want to lead their own teams and others will be lured away with big money offers elsewhere. Such is sport.

If Froome understands that train is not strong enough, he'll fight against Contador in open fight mano to mano. I think this perspective doesn't fear him and it is just inevitable on some stages.

 

[King Boonen]

Will we ever see the best of Wiggins, or Froome for that matter, in many stages? They both know that out of all the GT contenders (except maybe Contador, we will wait to see with him) they can put big time into their rivals in the time trials. Even if Nibali beat Wiggins by 20 seconds up a climb I'd question whether Wiggins was just saving a bit more energy for the forthcoming destruction of Nibali in the time trial, depending on the order of the stages.

I voted Wiggins, because over the past couple of years, and that's really a big window in professional sport, he has been consistently better than Nibali.

 

[SafeBet]

Others have to be more daring with their tactics otherwise expect Sky to keep winning. Also some luck may help.

You can be daring, but without an amazing team or extreme weather conditions, Sky train will bring you back.

As to Contador and Schleck making an attack and gaining big time over Sky, I will believe it when I see it.

Same here.
Post-ban Contador struggled to drop Purito and Valverde during the Vuelta.
Schleck, well, he can't even drop Guardini at the moment.


People seem to underestimate how hard it was to ride against Sky in last year TdF. Nibbles was consistent and attacked whenever he had the legs to.
We can't be sure Contador would have made gaps in any of those mountain stages.

 

[movingtarget]

If Froome understands that train is not strong enough, he'll fight against Contador in open fight mano to mano. I think this perspective doesn't fear him and it is just inevitable on some stages.

Yes I'm sure that Contador or Froome will be able to break up the front group on MTFs sometimes but I am not convinced the time gaps will be substantial. Nibali will have a bigger problem than Contador because the Giro TT is a long one. I think if Wiggins does not have a bad day in the mountains Nibali can't win but of course you have to factor in the unknowables like weather, punctures and falls. I still expect Nibali and Ryder to do well in the Giro.

 

[Panda Claws]

Wiggins benefits from a train, but without one he will not suddenly be bad, far from it.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

Wiggins benefits from a train, but without one he will not suddenly be bad, far from it.

He won't suddenly become bad but I am not sure man against man he would beat Nibali. As people mentioned it does also of course depend on the type of climb as well.

Hopefully, they will both become isolated in the Giro and we will have our answer.

 

[JibberJim]

Wiggins benefits from a train, but without one he will not suddenly be bad, far from it.

But he will have to ride the climbs smoothly still - which means he could become isolated and then distanced by a small group working together on climbs which flatten.

But of course the problem then is, if it stays flatter, he's a much better TT'er so has a pretty good chance to get back.

 

[Panda Claws]

But he will have to ride the climbs smoothly still - which means he could become isolated and then distanced by a small group working together on climbs which flatten.

But of course the problem then is, if it stays flatter, he's a much better TT'er so has a pretty good chance to get back.

Normally when a rider attacks on a climb he benefits from the fact that his chasers do not want to work together. In this situation it would be the opposite.

 

[airstream]

Who do we compare Wigggins to? We compare him to the same defensive climber like Wiggins himself. Many of you reason like lots of attack and rhythm variations is Nibali's element.

If the train is a Wiggins' weakness, as you, people voting for Nibali, present then Nibali can not beat even this 'weakness' and shamefully drops from the pack

 

[shades1]

Who do we compare Wigggins to? We compare him to the same defensive climber like Wiggins himself. Many of you reason like lots of attack and rhythm variations is Nibali's element.

If the train is a Wiggins' weakness, as you, people voting for Nibali, present then Nibali can not beat even this 'weakness' and shamefully drops from the pack

can somebody translate this please ?

 

[Panda Claws]

can somebody translate this please ?

For once, Airstream is being perfectly coherent and understandable and yet you need a translation?

 

[SafeBet]

Undestandable but he'll need to change his mind. Wiggo is now the new attacking beast

 

[Angliru]

Who do we compare Wigggins to? We compare him to the same defensive climber like Wiggins himself. Many of you reason like lots of attack and rhythm variations is Nibali's element.

If the train is a Wiggins' weakness, as you, people voting for Nibali, present then Nibali can not beat even this 'weakness' and shamefully drops from the pack

He's comparable, to a lesser degree, to Indurain. Indurain frustrated his little climber rivals by shadowing them in the mountains, allowing them to take stage wins, knowing that he would blow them all away in the tt's. Unlike Wiggins though, I believe Indurain could have dropped many of his rivals in the mountains but he was always looking at the bigger picture, that being the overall classification. Chiappucci would go on epic attacks taking time on Indurain only to lose it all plus some once the tt's were over. Wiggins in last year's Tour was never really challenged and rarely had to stick his nose into the wind. The one time that I recall him having to fend for himself, when Froome had one brief moment of mortality and dropped to the back of the elite pack that they were in, Wiggins began to struggle a bit. If any weak links are exposed in the Sky armour, his opponents will have to pounce and to do that they will have to be fully focused and not just sitting in waiting for the final couple of km's of the mountain stages.

I can't give Nibali the edge in the mountains. Maybe on the steeper slopes but overall Wiggins is his superior, much as I would like it not to be so. Nibali though is crafty and relentless. It's this combination of traits that give him a slim chance of bettering Wiggins. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

[TANK91]

What are you smoking amigo? You don't sound convincing at all. Catalunya will expose Wiggins, don't worry be happy!

How silly

 

[Pentacycle]

Nibali will be no match for this kind of violence. Sky has an army, and a Hulk

 

[hfer07]

If you take them to a duel- Nibali will out climb Wiggins any given day.

The trick of Bradley is that his "new engine" is set to tolerate a very hard pace all the full length of the climb- while Nibb lacks a bit in that department, but he can compensate that with a more explosive approach.

for the 100th time-This matter will be put to rest in the Giro where Wiggo will be forced to "react alone"...