Vincenzo Nibali is fighting to save his Tour de France after a disappointing first nine stage in the Netherlands, Belgium and northern France but his first thoughts and first words during his rest day press conference were for Ivan Basso, who earlier revealed he has been diagnosed with testicular cancer.
Nibali appeared stunned to have heard that his fellow Italian and former teammate was heading home to Italy after checks had confirmed a precocious diagnosis of testicular cancer.
“It’s a real shock to hear the news. Ivan is a friend. I hope I can speak to him soon and I hope that his problem is not as serious as it seems at the moment,” Nibali said.
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When the Tour de France resumes on Tuesday and heads into the Pyrenees, Nibali will ride with handicap of 2:22 on Chris Froome (Team Sky) weighing on his mind.
The 2014 Tour de France went perfectly for the shark from Sicily, and Nibali led the race form early on, as his rivals fell away due to crashes, misfortune and fatigue. This year things are more difficult and he has lost various amounts of time on each key stage contested so far. Nibali is still considered one of the five main contenders for overall victory but he is now ranked number five, behind Froome, Tejay van Garderen (BMC), Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar). He risks falling out of contention if he loses further time in the Pyrenees.
The Italian press has discussed and dissected Nibali’s woes and time losses, suggested that the lack of cohesion in the Astana team is a major factor in his poor performance. It has even been suggested that Nibali is close to throwing in the towel and giving up on overall success in this year’s Tour de France.
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