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Cycling: Vincenzo Nibali keen on Giro d'Italia-Tour de France double

By Allsports.com.gh
Cycling Cycling: Vincenzo Nibali keen on Giro d'Italia-Tour de France double
OCT 23, 2014 LISTEN

Speaking at the launch of the 2015 Tour route in Paris, Nibali claimed he is considering racing the Giro-Tour double for the first time since 2008 but rejected Oleg Tinkov's Grand Tour Challenge - racing all three of cycling's big races in one year.

The Astana cyclist will compete against Alberto Contador on two fronts if he races both the Giro and Tour next year, with the latter - who races for Tinkov's Tinkoff-Saxo team - already committed to that programme.

Nibali finished 11th in the Giro and 19th in Le Tour when he last raced the two grand tours in the same year but the 29-year-old reckons he is in better shape to tackle that challenge now.

"Doing all three stage races would be very difficult but doing two might be different," Nibali said. "Compared to 2008, my physique is very different. In 2008, I was only a youngster and I've grown little by little since then.

"But the big stage races chew you up. You journalists see how thin and tired we are after a grand tour, and mentally too, it wouldn't be easy to do both."

In 2008, Nibali struggled in the last few stages of the Tour, having completed the Giro just a month before cycling's most famous race began.

"I was in crisis. I did the Giro and Tour that year and by the last week, I was already spent," he said.

"I'd used up all my energy."
Nibali has won all three grand tours in his career, starting with the Vuelta a Espana in 2010, the Giro last year and the Tour in July.

Tinkov reckons cycling needs its best general classification riders racing in all three grand tours every year, claiming he will put up 1million prize money, but while Nibali has rejected the premise on physical grounds, the Italian cyclist also thinks it would hold back the next generation.

"Vino [Astana sporting director Alexandre Vinokourov] certainly says no to the idea of me doing all three grand tours," Nibali said.

"There's a possibility I could do both the Giro and the Tour but that's not easy either because he [Vinokourov] knows he's got a rider like [24-year-old Italian Fabian] Aru and he needs space to grow as well.

"So he [Vinokourov] might want us to do one big stage race apiece."

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