Vincenzo Nibali says that with Bahrain-Merida's new signings he will have a stronger team behind him when he targets the general classification at next year's Tour de France. The WorldTour team has added Domenico Pozzovivo and Gorka Izagirre, who joins his brother Ion on the roster.
Nibali is set to return to the French Grand Tour in 2018 after skipping the race this season in favour of his home race, the Giro d'Italia. The Italian played his cards close to his chest when pressed on his chances of taking yellow for the second time, but believes that he has a better backing to help him in his ambitions.
"I have a good team for the new season and we are training together now. I feel like I've got more support with this team now with the new riders," he told Cyclingnews in a combination of English and Italian. "It is a good opportunity to win the Tour and that is why I am going to it and I will go there to do my best."
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With its tough opening week that includes cobbles, several punchy finishes, and then a heavy concentration of high mountain stages, Nibali believes that next year’s Tour de France route has a good resemblance to the one he claimed victory on in 2014.
The 33-year-old completed the set of Grand Tour victories when he won the Tour de France three years ago. It was a dominant ride from the Italian after the earlier abandons of defending champion Chris Froome and Alberto Contador. Nibali points to stage 17 from Bagnères-de-Luchon to Saint-Lary-Soulan as a key difference next year; there is also a team time trial to negotiate, but the former winner gives the 2018 route has been given the thumbs up.
“I think that it is a similar course apart from the 65-kilometre stage with three climbs in it. That is a very different stage. Besides that, I think that it is quite similar,” Nibali told Cyclingnews at Bahrain-Merida’s training camp on the island of Hvar in Croatia. “I still have to have a see the route closely and from the first look of the route, I like it. It looks like a climber’s route but I still need to go and take a look at the Roubaix stage route and find out about it step by step. I will do some recon of the route in the next months.”
As well as confirming his presence at the Tour de France, Nibali’s team manager Brent Copeland also said that he would also return to the Vuelta a España as he gears up for a tilt at the World Championships. Nibali will start his season in Argentina once again at the Vuelta a San Juan, with the Ardennes a big target for him in April. Milan-San Remo could yet be on his programme, while the team is yet to decide if he will ride Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico.
Nibali last raced at Il Lombardia at the beginning of October. During his off-season, he went to Taiwan and won the KOM challenge, before returning home to have a plate removed from collarbone which had been inserted after his crash at the Rio Olympics.
“It’s nice now. It’s lighter,” he joked, lifting up his arm. “After Taiwan, I came back to Lugano. After two days, I had an operation to remove the collarbone plate. After 10 days, I was able to start with my bike again. The first time was with the mountain bike, just a regular ride with Domenico Pozzovivo and after with a normal bike on the road.
“I had an inflammation and when I moved my shoulder the plate would stick out. When I slept, I would have some pain in my neck. The biggest problem was with sleeping because when I slept on my side it would poke me in the neck and it was uncomfortable and the posture was out of place because you have this thing. You cannot keep your posture straight.”
Froome and the Vuelta a Espana
Nibali is hoping to add a fifth Grand Tour title to his palmares next July but he could achieve that before he even reaches France. It was announced earlier this week that Froome was under investigation after a urine sample he gave during the Vuelta had more than twice the permitted level of salbutamol. If the UCI chose to hand Froome a suspension, the overall title would go to Nibali.
Feeling the loss of Scarponi
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