Next weekend, Vincenzo Nibali plans to climb off the bike for the final time, following a hopefully respectful performance in the Giro di Lombardia, a/k/a Il Lombardia, a race which numbers among his favorites. He will do so as the greatest cyclist in Sicilian history, and as a first ballot member of the Italian Cycling Hall of Fame. He will have time to reflect on his quirky career, one less of pure dominance or greatness so much as a demonstration of intelligence and will. And as I tend to do from time to time, when a singularly interesting cyclist says goodbye, I will declare it his week.
Welcome to Nibali Week, a story told in five victories.
This is the primer, a quick check in on who Nibali the cyclist has been. I spent some time scrolling back through our coverage of Nibali, and you won’t be surprised to hear that it took us a little while to take note. Nibali won a couple races in 2006, his second full season racing at the top level, and the first year of the Cafe’s existence, but he hardly exploded Pogs-like into our collective consciousness, right from the jump. The earliest mention of him that I could find came from a preview of the 2007 Giro d’Italia when I named him my white jersey favorite. [He finished fourth behind that shooting star Andy Schleck, second overall, as well as Riccò and Pozzovivo.]
The early part of his career saw Nibali playing role of the younger, talented teammate for several years, supporting guys like Franco Pellizotti and eventually, more notably, Ivan Basso. In the post-Postal power vacuum when we wondered who the next grand tour champions would be, Nibali formed a duo-to-watch with Roman Kreuziger, although the Czech said in 2010 that he was the future of Liquigas and Nibali had a “small motor.” It wasn’t a particularly nice or even true thing to say — guess which one went on to win the Tour? — but there is a side of Kreuziger’s comment that is almost too perfect. Pure talent is not what got Nibali where he wanted to go. He wasn’t lacking in talent, of course, but he would have to bring more than just talent to the table. Since then, the story of Nibali’s career has almost never been about pure climbing talent. It’s been about… everything else.
Nibali’s ability in time trials was apparent right away,…
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