Embattled Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali has revealed an Achilles tendon injury curtailed his winter schedule but said he is ready to face his yellow jersey rivals when the race begins next week.
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“I had a problem that I’ve never spoken about. This winter I had an Achilles problem, which I have now thankfully gotten over,” Nibali revealed to La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Nibali put an end to his season drought by winning the Italian national road race crown for the second time on Saturday thanks to a commanding performance on the way to the race’s uphill finish at Superga outside Turin.
As well as ending his victory famine, it gave him the opportunity to wear the Italian tricolour jersey for the rest of the season. A week before the Tour de France starts in Utrecht, the privilege comes in timely fashion.
“I needed this win, it’s done me a lot of good. It’s liberated me from a lot of the pressure I’ve been under,” said Nibali.
“I thought: they will get tired of chasing me” @vincenzonibali Italian National Championships http://t.co/8PrMPOyFzX pic.twitter.com/SAv1jUhxt9
— Astana Pro Team (@AstanaTeam) June 27, 2015
Italians are now hoping it will be enough for Nibali – only the sixth rider in history to have won all three Grand Tours after Jacques Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Alberto Contador – to deflect the challenge of three formidable rivals.
The 2013 Tour de France champion Chris Froome, Spain’s two-time winner Contador and Colombian climbing sensation Nairo Quintana are all vying to topple Nibali.
Froome (five victories) and Contador (four) have been busy winning key races and Quintana, with two wins this season, has lately been training hard in the mountains of Colombia.
Nibali managed only a 16th place finish in Tirreno-Adriatico in March – a race he won in 2012 and 2013 – and then finished 10th overall in the Tour of Romandie.
At one of two warm-up events for the three-week Tour, the Criterium du Dauphine, Nibali’s best result was a second-place finish on the mountainous sixth stage behind Portuguese Rui Costa.
It gave the Italian the overall lead, which he relinquished in spectacular fashion the next day on the way to Saint Gervais-Mont Blanc, where Froome triumphed to move up to second overall before securing the victory by winning stage eight to Modane-Frejus.
“At the Dauphine I wasn’t strong enough to deal with the fatigue and I also made a few mistakes that unsettled me even more,” he said. “At the Dauphine, Froome was impressive on the climbs. But for me Quintana is the most dangerous.”
Contador is another of Nibali’s big rivals. The Spaniard is aiming to become the first since Marco Pantani, in 1998, to complete the Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double.
Nibali added: “Contador tired? You wouldn’t know it. He would need the perfect season, but the ‘Double’ is tempting and he certainly has the capacities.”
