Vincenzo Nibali has already said he will target the Giro d’Italia in 2016 but is also tempted to ride the Tour de France as vital preparation for the road race event at Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.
Nibali is expected to finalise his 2016 race programme later this week when the Astana team gathers in Montecatini Terme in Tuscany before heading to Calpe in Spain for a training camp. In October, Nibali seemed ready to miss the Tour de France and pushed teammate Fabio Aru to make his debut in the French Grand Tour. However the Sicilian confirmed to Gazzetta dello Sport that he is having second thoughts after realising he needs to race in July to be on form to challenge Chris Froome, Alejandro Valverde and other big-name riders for Olympic medals.
“To be on form, you need the Tour,” Nibali told the Italian sports newspaper at an event with component sponsor FSA, where he shared the spotlight with Aru after his victory at the Vuelta a Espana.
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“We’re studying things with (Astana coach) Paolo Slongo. It’d be a pretty unusual race programme and perhaps even excessive. But how can I be ready for Rio without the Tour? The Tour of Austria and the Tour de Pologne do not have the same race rhythm but could be a valid alternative: two weeklong races separated by just a day.”
2016 race programme
Nibali will make his season debut at the Tour of San Luis in Argentina with Gazzetta dello Sport suggesting he will then mix training camps at altitude on Mount Teide with blocks of racing. His racing programme could include the Tour of Oman, Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo, then Giro del Trentino and Liege-Bastogne-Liege in late April before riding the Giro d’Italia, which begins in the Netherlands on May 5. That would give him 28 days of racing before the start of the Giro d’Italia.
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