The reasons for Vincenzo Nibali’s collapse at the Giro d’Italia remain a mystery, with medical tests expected soon, to reveal if the Astana rider is suffering from some kind of infection that has hit his form and ended his chances of winning the maglia rosa.
Nibali’s time loss in Andalo on Tuesday ended any hopes of success, and even the most nationalistic Italian media here at the Giro d’Italia have accepted that the Shark from Messina has lost his bite.
His problems have raised ‘mille domande' - a thousand questions, and also sparked some criticism. The strongest came from former world champion Paolo Bettini, who writes a daily column every day for Gazzetta dello Sport during the Giro d’Italia. It is usually just a few insightful words in a box on a page but today Bettini has half a page and pulls no punches as he analyses what could be behind Nibali’s poor form.
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Bettini dismissed suggestions that Nibali has set too many objectives for 2016, and so is not at his best in this Giro d’Italia because he is also targeting the Olympic road race. He described Nibali’s decision to attack during Tuesday stage as a ‘tactical error’ because he had perhaps failed to recover from his huge effort on Saturday’s stage in the Dolomites to Corvara and his pain in the time trial on Sunday. He even questioned Nibali’s decision to switch from 172.5 to 175mm cranks for this season.
Bettini admitted he did not know any details of Nibali’s training but did not hold back.
“Observing Nibali at the Giro del Trentino just a few days before the start of the Giro d’Italia, you got the idea that he was behind with his form, that something wasn’t right. It’s true that it takes time assimilate altitude training but there seems to be something else,” Bettini wrote.
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