NIBALI THE RACER

Nibali has built one of the most wide-ranging palmarès in the sport’s record books. We look at the qualities that have allowed him to do so

Writer Sam Dansie

Procycling UK, ISSUE 252 / FEBRUARY 2019

It’s a matter of orthodoxy that Vincenzo Nibali is the most versatile rider in the current peloton. The bald ledger of his palmarès brooks no argument. He is one of two active riders to have won all three grand tours and the only one to extend that breadth further with a monument – in fact, he has three: Milan-San Remo and two editions of Il Lombardia. He’s finished second at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and, in 2013, fourth at the road Worlds despite a bad crash with two laps to go. He was 24th on his debut at the Tour of Flanders. Nibali’s record doesn’t just stand up as the most complete right now, it’s one of the most complete of all time: one of only seven to win all the grand tours; one of just five to win all the grand tours and a monument.

Nibali’s former directeur sportif at Astana, Dmitriy Fofonov, told Procyling the root of his success: “He’s a just a very complete rider. Whatever organisers do to make a spectacle and make it harder for riders, he copes.”

BIKE HANDLING

Nibali’s bike craft is among the best in the peloton. It found perfect expression in his virtuoso performance on the wet and muddy cobbles at the 2014 Tour de France. He finished third after floating over the pavé while others slithered and crashed. He put 40 seconds into Fabian Cancellara and Peter Sagan. In the aftermath, Team Sky principal David Brailsford labelled it “one of the great grand tour rides”.

“I decided that the best way was to give it everything,” Nibali told Procycling that year. “I was focused on going fast because I knew that gave me the best chance of staying out of trouble. The trick, if there is one, is a heavy gear and soft hands. I tried to relax as best I could and absorb as much of the stress as possible.”

Those skills helped him negotiate his Tour of Flanders debut last year. He was an ominous presence in the lead group and attacked on the false flat on top of the Kruisberg with 26 km to go. He came in with the second group. “One day, if Vincenzo focused on Roubaix I think he would be in the front,” Fofonov said.

That would be a tall order for the sub-70 kg, 34-year-old. Age, team and not least his own priorities in the coming years are sizeable obstacles against Flandrian success, but Fofonov gently underlined his point. “If he focused on it. It’s a completely different peloton, but with a good team around and also luck… If he focuses on something he gives 100 per cent.”

DESCENDING

Nibali’s skill and sangfroid on descents makes a long highlights reel. His stooping descents have delivered big wins such as off the Civiglio in Il Lombardia in 2015, and the Umbrailpass in the 2017 Giro. Sometimes, it has helped him regain contact, such as when he plunged off the Passo Fedaia to re-join the maglia rosa group in the 2011 Giro and sometimes he’s used it to press rivals, such as Bradley Wiggins on the Col de la Colombière in the 2012 Tour.

The clearest manifestation of his descending – or perhaps his preceding reputation for it – came at the 2016 Giro. He emerged as one of the three strongest riders when the race crested the Colle dell’Agnello. Over the top went Nibali, Esteban Chaves and, in the pink jersey, Steven Kruijswijk. “I could see Kruijswijk wasn’t going very well, so I accelerated. I took the descent on fast. Then Kruijswijk crashed and we changed our strategy,” Nibali said after winning the stage.

He’s not infallible, however. In 2016, like others, he was caught out on the Vista Chinesa descent in the Rio Olympics when he was in with a shout of winning gold, and broke his collarbone.

CLIMBING

As often as not, Nibali gives best to superior climbers. His 2010 Vuelta win was secured without winning a stage. The 2013 Vuelta slipped away to Chris Horner on two stages to Peña Carbarga and Naranca. In the 2017 Vuelta he only once took time from Chris Froome in the mountains - when the Briton was ill. And then sometimes he mounts extraordinary comebacks and is untouchable. For much of the 2016 Giro, Nibali laboured in Mikel Landa’s shadow and, in the GC, the more unexpected one cast by Kruijswijk. Nibali had conceded almost five minutes before the tide turned and flowed his way on the Agnello on stage 19. That stage Nibali finished 51 seconds clear of second-placed Mikel Nieve. The next day, he attacked and turned a 44-second GC deficit in a 52-second surplus. But perhaps his greatest string of climbing performances was at the 2014 Tour, where he won in each mountain chain the race visited: the Vosges, Alps and Pyrenees.

SWITCHING OFF

Nibali’s ability to switch off from racing is legendary. “He’s good at getting into eco mode. He likes to relax, to be in Sicily and at home,” said Fofonov. “I don’t think he likes to talk about cycling every day, or what his goals are. He disconnects.”

A notorious example of Nibali’s ability to tune out racing was falling asleep two hours before the junior worlds in Zolder in 2002. His team-mates thought they’d lost him.

His zoning out has reached comic levels. Gazzetta dello Sport reported that Nibali laboured through pre-2012 Tour training with the misapprehension the race contained a team time trial. Ahead of the 2015 Vuelta start in Marbella Nibali said: “I don’t know the road book, just like 2010. Not a bit, and I’m not worried about it.”

INTUITION

The most intriguing – certainly the most entertaining – aspect of Nibali’s racing is his ability to engineer a coup de finesseur’s surprise. “He tries to provoke the race; it’s the mode of the champion,” said Fofonov. “He feels the race. Okay, you need to plan something, but you need to know your adversaries, when is a good moment to attack or maybe attack when it’s a risk.” His Milan-San Remo victory last year was a textbook Nibali performance. Alberto Volpi, his directeur sportif, said: “We considered an attack on the Poggio. If it did not go well it would have been for Sonny Colbrelli in the sprint. [Nibali] feared Sagan would attack before him, so he preferred to anticipate the three-time world champion. He saw that another runner had attacked and he chased him. Sagan did not react as Nibali thought.”

Fofonov remembers having to talk Nibali out of attacks – or trying to. “Sometimes it’s not the right moment. But I remember the Dauphiné where he finished second to Rui Costa after they he had attacked with more than 110km [2015]. It was completely crazy, but he just wanted to test himself and the other riders’ confidence.

“Whether it’s baking hot or snowing, or there’s pavé, he very good. He’s like a champion from the old days.”

Four teams

Vincenzo Nibali will embark on his 15th professional season in 2019. During that time, he has ridden for four teams, and emerged as a bona fide team leader in three of those.

He turned pro in 2005 for Fassa Bortolo, where he rode a good programme, but at the age of 20, avoided the grand tours. There were no wins, but second place in a stage of the Tour de Suisse promised much. He only had one season at Fassa, since the team stopped at the end of the year. He then moved to Liquigas, where he spent seven years. It was here that he started asserting himself as a leader in the stage races by improving to sixth in the 2009 Tour, his breakthrough grand tour top 10. However, he spent a few seasons being held back while Ivan Basso led the team and had the pick of the grand tours, despite Nibali having won the 2010 Vuelta. It wasn’t until 2012 that he led at the Tour de France, and he repaid the team’s faith by coming third. At Astana, where he rode for four years, he was the clear leader, and won three further grand tours - the Giro twice and Tour once. At Bahrain, he’s also the clear stage race leader of the team.