Reigning Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali says he’s not panicking despite a poor first week in which he lost almost two-and-a-half minutes to Chris Froome.
The 30-year-old Italian appeared to have got off to a flying start when he beat all three of his ‘fab four’ rivals in the opening stage time-trial during a heatwave in Utrecht.
But since then, as the weather changed, he’s rolled from one blow to another in his hopes of overall victory.
He lost a minute-and-a-half to race leader Froome, the 2013 champion, on the windy second stage to Zeeland, another 11 seconds to the Briton on the third stage finish up the Mur de Huy, 10 more seconds on a similar finish on the Mur de Bretagne on Saturday and then more than 30 seconds in Sunday’s team time-trial.
He currently sits 13th overall at 2min 22sec of Froome and behind both of the other two ‘fantastic four’ Alberto Contador and Nairo Quintana as well. But he’s not worried.
.@vincenzonibali & Astana ont realisé la meilleure performance / strong results for @astanateam & @vincenzo… https://t.co/SxeEojwV5X
— Le Tour de France (@letour) July 12, 2015
“I’m in good form but not every year is the same. The only thing to do is keep calm and pedal,” he said. “I’m feeling serene because I know I’ve done my best.
There was a lot of pressure from fans and the media.
“I’ve had some highs and lows. On the Mur de Bretagne I had a bad day, it was a very difficult finish.
“But Alberto (Contador) had the same thing on the Mur de Huy (where he lost 18sec).”
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Quintana is only 23sec ahead of Nibali in the standings in ninth but is considered by most to be the best climber in the world.
Nibali agrees with Froome that Quintana could be the man to watch in the mountains.
“He’s hiding, we never see him (at the front of the peloton). Froome is certainly in the best form but Nairo hasn’t yet shown what he’s capable of,” said Nibali.
Froome may have appeared imp-regnable so far but Nibali believes he will eventually run out of steam..
“We’ve not seen anything yet in the mountains but we’ll certainly know more after (the finish at) La Pierre-Saint Martin.
“Right now we know Chris is in form but (his trainer) Paolo Slongo thinks he might come unstuck in the Alps.”
