Tag: Vincenzo Nibali
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Don’t give Richard Carapaz an inch – a recap of stages 16-21 of the 2019 Giro d’Italia
The main contenders for this year’s Giro d’Italia A recap of stages 1-9 A recap of stages 10-15 A recap of stages 16-21 You might think that the marathon is a long race, but people are knocking them out in a couple of hours these days. A Grand Tour takes three weeks. Plenty changes in…
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Richard Carapaz at altitude, Primoz Roglic on the wrong bike – a recap of stages 10-15 of the 2019 Giro d’Italia
The main contenders for this year’s Giro d’Italia A recap of stages 1-9 A recap of stages 10-15 A recap of stages 16-21 That should probably more accurately read ‘a recap of stages 12-15 of the 2019 Giro d’Italia. Here’s my recap of stages 10 and 11: nothing happened. Let’s start at the end. Here’s…
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Vincenzo Nibali is slowly winning all of the things
Milan-Sanremo really is one of the finest races of the year. At 291km, it is very long, which is a very important quality as it means people can deploy the word ‘epic’ which is a thing that people very much like to do these days. It is also probably the most balanced race of the…
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Vincenzo Nibali stays the right side of the barriers
Vincenzo Nibali won the final Monument of the season on a day defined by descending. The Sicilian is pretty good downhill but also had to be strong enough uphill to be right at the front for the summit a handful of kilometres from the finish. With the gap made, all he needed to do was…
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Dumoulin v Quintana, time trialist v climber | The Giro d’Italia final week wrap
The idea with these round-ups is that I focus only on those stages that affected the general classification. This policy hasn’t proven especially time-saving on this occasion, as the numerate among you will realise upon reading the following subheadings. The race was so eventful, in fact, that this summary has ticked up towards being brewworthy…
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Vincenzo Nibali, Mr Popular, cheers up the peloton by losing a load of time
Vincenzo Nibali is, by many accounts, not the most popular rider in the peloton. It’s the general air of thinking he’s somehow better than everyone else that people seem to object to. Maybe he’s misunderstood. It’s rumoured that team-mate and fellow Italian Fabio Aru would be quite far back in the queue were the Sicilian…
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Yellow jersey contenders in 2016
Who’s going to win the Tour de France? Probably not Bartosz Huzarski or Tsgabo Grmay unless an awfully large number of people abandon the race injured. Maybe one of these guys though. Chris Froome Both times he’s won the Tour, Froome’s ceded ground to Nairo Quintana in the mountains in the final week. He says…
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Giacomo Nizzolo can’t even win a stage of the Giro when he crosses the line first
Quite a neat trick, really. After nine second places and four third places, Giacomo Nizzolo finally crossed the line before everyone else in a stage of the Giro d’Italia. Shortly afterwards the race judges concluded that he’d veered across while sprinting and in so doing had blocked off his rival, Sacha Modolo. They demoted him…
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Vincenzo Nibali’s horrific and shameful Giro d’Italia somehow ends in victory
After Vincenzo Nibali won stage 19, Esteban Chaves said: “It’s not easy to follow Nibali downhill. He’s crazy to do that, but I must be crazy too to follow him.” Descending is perhaps an underrated aspect of cycling. Grand Tour winners are always among the strongest climbers, but you don’t see the impact of a descent…
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Nibali or Kruijswijk – choose your story
Remember those Choose Your Own Adventure books where you’d have a choice to make at the end of every passage? “If you choose to drink the potion, turn to page 110. If you choose to throw the potion in the angry hippopotamus’s face, turn to page 83.” This is nothing like that. There are only…