Vincenzo Nibali’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège challenge ground to a halt, of all places, on the Côte de Saint-Nicolas, epicentre of the local Italian community since the 1950s and a climb that so often smiled on Italian riders during their period of dominance more than a decade ago.
Distanced as the gradient stiffened on the Saint-Nicolas, Nibali ceded leadership of Astana to Diego Rosa for the final kilometres, and he eventually crossed the line in 51st place, some 2:21 down on winner Wout Poels (Sky).
The frigid temperatures and intermittent snow that caused the peloton to be re-routed early on lent an additional dimension to the race, though Nibali suggested his efforts at the Giro del Trentino in midweek were a greater contributing factor to his travails than the miserable conditions.
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“It was really a terrible Liège because of the weather. We had snow on a lot of sections today but fortunately it didn’t stick to the ground, although it was still extremely cold,” Nibali told reporters after showering and changing on the Astana team bus.
“At Trentino I suffered a lot and then I went in the break on the last stage to do a bit more work, so in the end, the legs responded well today considering I’d only had one day to recover. I did great work today, a continuation of what I did last week. My body is responding very well.”
Nibali placed second in Liège in 2012, overhauled by Maxim Iglinskiy on the final haul towards Ans, and has made no secret of his sense of unfinished business with the race. With his mind already trained firmly on the Giro d’Italia, however, Nibali was frank in his analysis of the finale here, confessing that he simply didn’t have the sharpness to compete for the win.
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