This feature appeared in the May issue of Pro Cycling Magazine.
Victory at the 2014 Tour de France was the crowning moment of Vincenzo Nibali’s cycling life but the year that followed was the most trying of his career, as he struggled with form, dealt with strife on his team and was expelled from the Vuelta a España. Though he ended the year with a redemptive win at the Tour of Lombardy, the pressure hasn’t abated for 2016.
Vincenzo Nibali had spent a week navel-gazing at his villa in Lugano but he felt the need to journey south. He called his father, Salvatore. “I’m flying down,” he said. “Take some time off work, you can follow me with the scooter.”
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For the next 10 days, father would motorpace son on training rides in the hinterland of Messina. It was early September, the beginning of Sicily’s lonesome season. Each day, the beaches at places such as Ganzirri and Giardini Naxos were a little more empty. Each evening, the amber sun dipped a little sooner. The holidays were over.
Nibali left Sicily in his mid-teens to pursue his cycling career, and he normally returns twice a year, rarely during the season and never at length. But right then, there seemed no better place to ride the anger and the embarrassment out of his system. His exclusion from the Vuelta a España for hanging onto a team car at 70kph as he chased back on after a crash had seemed the final, undignified act of an ill-starred season. A year to be expunged.
(Bettini Photo)
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