Nibali Week: Let’s Speak About That 2014 Tour de France Win

Within the first two installments of Nibali Week, I attempted to regurgitate the early phases of Vincenzo Nibali’s fascinating profession. Perhaps it was a bit an excessive amount of “after which THIS occurred!”, however with Nibali, it’s essential to set the context for his crowning achievements if we’re to actually have fun his life’s work. By 2013, which he ended as arguably the #1 bike owner on this planet, he was:

• a man whose motor is likely to be underestimated, however whose will to win mixed properly with that motor to drive him increased than the doubters would anticipate;
• a winner for 2 totally different groups, steadily progressing towards (however most likely a lower under) the best echelon of the game, that of legit Tour de France victors; and
• A man on a staff that possibly received’t be confused for the previous Postal prepare, however which was fairly nicely positioned to help him.

After which he went and received the 2014 Tour de France.

On quite a few ranges, this was a captivating victory, the likes of which we hardly ever see and may not see once more in my lifetime (weight loss plan and train however). Let’s take a fast look again at how the race unfolded for Nibali earlier than we dive in.

Picture by Tim De Waele/Getty Photographs

How He Received

The 2014 Tour was Chris Froome’s first likelihood to point out that his preliminary victory the earlier 12 months was no fluke, and coming in he appeared to have little standing in his approach, except for expectations. The earlier 12 months’s shock protagonist, Nairo Quintana, opted to trip the Giro (which he received) as a substitute of the Tour, eliminating Froome’s largest hazard within the excessive mountains. After that, there was an growing old Alberto Contador, who was nonetheless profitable Vueltas (he’d bag that final chip months after the Tour), however Froome had dispatched the previous winner with ease in each the Pyrénées and Alps in 2013. Nibali most likely ranked subsequent among the many favorites, as a result of after that got here fading stars like Valverde and Schleck, and some of the same old suspects like Thibaut Pinot, Tejay van Garderen and Jurgen Van Den Broeck. I don’t bear in mind feeling all that bullish about Nibali — a Tour? Actually? — so suffice to say, it was Froome’s to lose.

Which he did, on the fourth stage when he hit the deck for the primary time, a state of affairs he compounded on the fifth stage, a Paris-Roubaix-style pavé course, and earlier than the race hit the ¹⁄₄ mark Froome was driving off within the staff automotive. Nibali, in the meantime, introduced his personal intentions by ready precisely sooner or later, the flat opening stage in Harrogate, to assault. He received a rolling stage 2 in Sheffield to realize a small margin and seize the maillot jaune, so earlier than Froome had begun to crash away his hopes, the gauntlet had already been thrown down.

Most of us simply bear in mind this:

The Tour de France likes to have an actual cobbles stage now and again, and stage 5 of the 2014 version included seven secteurs en path to Port du Hainault. Nibali and Astana had been prepared. As captured succinctly by Cosmo Catalano in his HTRWW video, they obtained Lieuwe Westra up the highway for later and usually surrounded Nibali all day. They’d guys who knew trip tough roads, together with apparently Nibali, who sailed throughout the stones all day lengthy like an previous professional, regardless of the rain and wind that turned the stage right into a hellscape for the opposite grand tour leaders. Froome started the day with a wrist brace on, then rode nervously till crashing twice extra and retiring.

Remarkably, Nibali and his teammate Jakob Fuglsang not solely made the entrance of the race till stage winner Lars Increase slipped away for the win late — they really dropped Fabian Cancellara, Peter Sagan and quite a few cobbleheads on the penultimate secteur, the three Astanas simply rolling off the entrance, getting a spot, and utilizing the ultimate secteur to hammer out a big benefit. Nibali got here in 42 seconds forward of the classics group, however extra importantly put 1:53 into Van Den Broeck and greater than two minutes into each different potential challenger.

Picture credit score ought to learn JEFF PACHOUD/AFP by way of Getty Photographs

From there, an emboldened Astana hit cruise management till stage 10 the place, sooner or later after giving freely the maillot jaune to a innocent breakaway, Nibali seized it again for good on La Planche des Belles Filles. The Planche, making its second Tour look, represented the beginning of actual uphill hostilities, and Nibali put wherever from 15 seconds to a minute into his challengers. Contador crashed and deserted the Tour. Nibali had 2.23 over Richie Porte. And the Tour appeared prefer it is likely to be over.

It was. With the competitors depleted and demoralized, Nibali received phases to Chamrousse — the primary Alps stage — and to Hautacam — the primary Pyrénean occasion. He step by step pushed his lead out to over 4 minutes, then 5, and at last 7.37 in Paris. He eradicated extra challengers and by no means conceded an inch to a possible rival. Ultimate standings:

1. Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) Astana, 89h 59’ 06”
2. Jean-Christophe Péraud (FRA) Ag2r–La Mondiale, + 7’ 37”
3. Thibaut Pinot (FRA) FDJ.fr+ 8’ 15”
4. Alejandro Valverde (ESP)Movistar Crew+ 9’ 40”
5. Tejay van Garderen (USA)BMC Racing Crew+ 11’ 24”
6. Romain Bardet (FRA) Ag2r–La Mondiale+ 11’ 26”
7. Leopold König (CZE)NetApp–Endura+ 14’ 32”
8. Haimar Zubeldia (ESP)Trek Manufacturing unit Racing+ 17’ 57”
9. Laurens ten Dam (NED)Belkin Professional Biking+ 18’ 11”
10. Bauke Mollema (NED)Belkin Professional Biking+ 21’ 15”

So What Do We Make Of This?

I’ve a collection of questions on this victory. It’s the crowning achievement of his profession, and in a approach, that’s completely excellent.

1. It was a cultural landmark
2. It’s one of many nice one-off Tour wins
3. It’s one of the vital atypical wins ever
4. And the elephant within the room… might he have overwhelmed a wholesome Froome?

The Cultural Landmark: I wrote a protracted piece about this in actual time, midway by means of the race, rounding up the comparatively brief historical past of Italian winners not but together with Nibali. It’s slightly unusual that historical past consists of so few Italian Tour champions, however there are quite a few books on why Italian cyclists have left all of it on the highway again house more often than not. In fact, the best Italian cyclists all knew that they need to attempt to win the Tour as nicely, however except they had been prepared to skip the Giro, it wasn’t occurring.

In fact then, and much more so now, the Tour was and is a way more worldwide occasion, and to imagine that an Italian might win there underneath something lower than a full dedication to doing so is a disservice to the Belgians, Dutch, Luxembourgers, Spaniards, Danes, Individuals and naturally French riders who all pinned their highest hopes and best sources on profitable the Tour. It figures that Nibali broke by means of in most likely the primary 12 months he dedicated himself in addition to a well-stocked staff fully to this aim.

Picture by Stuart Franklin/Getty Photographs

[Funnily enough, Nibali came into the Tour with nothing but an Italian Nats title to show for his season, having won nothing and looked nowhere all spring, prompting the ever-subtle Vinokourov to write a letter to Nibali reminding him that he is paid a lot and expected to win. Nibali hardly needed reminding, but I believe he had a daughter born in the offseason, and used that experience to slow down his buildup to the Tour from his usual program. Which is basically what the Tour-only guys had been doing for years. It worked.]

Oh, and the opposite factor… he’s the one rider from Mezzogiorno (and Sicily, natch) to interrupt by means of on the Tour. That one may stand for some time. When it comes time to place up some biking statues in Messina, Palermo, even Bari or Napoli, you bought your man proper right here.

Picture by Bryn Lennon/Getty Photographs

The One-Off Winner: Within the post-WW2 period there are at least 31 riders who’ve received the Tour de France only a single time (counting guys like Vingegaard and Bernal who can nonetheless possibly trip themselves off this listing). There are a number of of those people who you’ll say simply got here out of nowhere — names like Roger Walkowiak, Lucien Aimar, Bjarne Riis, Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas, riders whose monitor file didn’t level to a breakthrough win. Then you’ve gotten quite a few different one-time winners, like Kübler and Kobet, Charly Gaul, Luis Ocaña, Jan Janssen, Pedro Delgado, Jan Ullrich, and Cadel Evans, riders who we counted among the many greats and who persistently threatened to win, solely to handle a single Tour success.

Nibali struck me on the time as belonging extra to the previous group, however now I feel we now have to incorporate him within the latter. Certain, his Tour win was considerably in opposition to the chances and maybe a product of a skinny subject, on condition that he by no means got here near repeating it. However he had completed third racing within the well-attended 2012 occasion, and his victory put him in extraordinarily uncommon firm with Anquetil, Merckx, Gimondi, Hinault, Contador and (later) Froome as the one riders to win all three grand excursions. Like I mentioned a pair days in the past, there’s a purpose his nickname isn’t the Angel of this or the Eagle of that, however reasonably the Shark of the Straits — he doesn’t simply fly away from the competitors, however he devours them typically sufficient ultimately.

The Atypical Win: When was the final time you might level to a flat stage and say that’s the place the Tour was received? And I don’t imply one thing fluky occurred which formed the destinies of the highest contenders, I imply the man who received carved out his most impactful benefit on a stage that was neither a mountainous one nor a time trial? Had this ever occurred earlier than? As a result of I do know it hasn’t occurred since.

I’ve been watching the Tour studiously since 1985 and I can inform you that 2014 was the one time this occurred. You may argue that the 2006 race was equally bizarre, because the title was finally awarded to Oscar Pereiro, who clawed again virtually half-hour from then-leader Floyd Landis as a part of the breakaway, on a stage with some cat-4 climbs however which noticed Robbie McEwen take the sector dash for sixth place. In fact Landis received the race on the highway solely to be disqualified and the victory finally credited to Pereiro, so if you wish to acknowledge that as a win, you might name it a Walko. We’ve had two Walko’s — the unique 1956 win by Walkowiak when he too was gifted 18 minutes early on within the Tour, on a comparatively flat stage in Brittany, and like Pereiro he managed to climb with the highest riders simply lengthy sufficient to take the victory. So for those who embody indifference, positive, there have been no less than three such anomalous wins. However I can’t consider one other.

Picture by Doug Pensinger/Getty Photographs

So… Might He Have Overwhelmed the Very Finest? That is the toughest query, and clearly it’s riddled with conjecture. I feel Nibali was as much as this activity in 2014, and in no different 12 months. I’ll provide some proof.

• Nibali at his greatest didn’t all the time succumb to both Contador or Froome within the mountains or time trials. Within the 2012 Tour, he completed 3’ behind Froome however virtually all of that got here within the last time trial, after he and Froome rode almost even all through the mountains. He additionally beat Froome reasonably handily within the 2013 Tirreno-Adriatico — not the most effective information level, however you get the purpose. I’m unsure 2014 Nibali bests Froome over a simple Tour course, however I’m unsure he doesn’t both.
• And anyway, they weren’t racing a simple Tour in 2014. Even when Froome doesn’t crash on both stage 4 or 5, he nonetheless virtually definitely loses a number of minutes to Nibali on the cobbles. His greatest case situation is ending 2.18 down with Porte and Thomas, however Froome regarded shaky all through, and this was earlier than he touched a single moist cobble. I doubt he makes it into the competent chase group; extra seemingly he loses three or extra minutes.
• The 2014 Tour did embody a 54km time trial, however that was on the penultimate stage, and was the one race in opposition to the watch. Perhaps that favors Froome? Or possibly it’s too little, too late. Nibali would have been flying excessive by then and difficult to convey down.
• I don’t suppose Contador had it in him. His monitor file says his Tour-winning days had been behind him… however it might be silly to not acknowledge that he got here to that 2014 Tour in higher situation than he’d loved shortly, and regarded sturdy on the Gerardmer stage, which he received by 3” over Nibali. Like Froome, although, there isn’t any escaping his 2:37 deficit on the cobbles, and nonetheless good he may need been, Nibali most likely shadows him at worst. Bert was good then however not 2009 blow-them-away good.
• Lastly, Froome typically loved a staff power benefit, however 2014 was the weakest help he ever had in his Tour challenges/victories. Aside from Thomas and Porte, he had Bernie Eisel, Mikel Nieve, Vasil Kiryienka… nothing Earth-shattering.

The optimist/Nibali fan in me thinks Nibali wins. Nibali was extra primed to win than the growing old Contador. However I do know what Froome went on to do from there, so after all there’s a good likelihood Froome comes again from his stage 5 descent into Hell and simply stamps his authority on the race. Realizing all we learn about Nibali, the endurance, the willpower, the power to learn a race and maximize his benefit… a man like that is aware of leverage sturdy staff help and some minutes in hand. I might positively like his possibilities. However I can’t assure something.

Tomorrow: What concerning the Classics?