Bradley Wiggins believes Vincenzo Nibali is “the man to beat” at the Giro d’Italia, which starts in Naples on Saturday.
Nibali has based his 2013 season around his home Grand Tour and goes into the race in fine form having registered overall victories at Tirreno-Adriatico in March and the Giro del Trentino in April.
Wiggins, however, is without a win this year and finished fourth in the four-day Giro del Trentino after losing time on the final summit finish due to a mechanical.
But while Wiggins admits Nibali’s explosive style is better-suited to the Giro d’Italia steep climbs, the Tour de France champion believes the route’s two individual time trials and team time trial will allow him to make up any time lost in the mountains.
“[Nibali] is the man to beat, for me,” said Wiggins. “I think he is in better shape than he has ever been in, definitely.
“I still don’t know at this stage whether I will stay with Nibali on some of those real tough finishes, the real steep ones, but I know that I am not going to lose a handful of time.
“I may lose a couple of seconds here and there – at most on some of those real tough finishes I may lose 20 seconds, if I am on a bad day. But that is all I have to do really, because I am confident that in the time trials that are there, of what I have seen, I can take time on him.”
Astana have, like Sky, built their Giro line-up around the team leader, with no room for sprinter Andrea Guardini in a squad focussed solely on success for Nibali in the general classification.
Andrey Zeits, Paolo Tiralongo, Valerio Agnoli, Dmitri Gruzdev, Fredrik Kessiakoff, Fabio Aru, Tanel Kangert and Alessandro Vanotti will all ride in support of Nibali.
And Astana’s team manager Alexander Vinokourov, who retired at the end of 2012 to bring the curtain down on a career which included Olympic road race gold in London, believes 2010 Vuelta a Espana champion Nibali has the pedigree to add a second Grand Tour to his palmares.
“We have one goal at the Giro – victory for Vincenzo in his home race,” said Vinokourov. “He has won the Vuelta, come third at the Tour, and now he is ready to fight for the pink jersey. That has been our goal since the beginning of the season.”
But while Wiggins has identified Nibali as his main rival for the title, Vinokourov believes it is difficult to determine Wiggins’ form going into the race.
“We don’t yet really know if Bradley Wiggins has the goal of winning the Giro, or if he is using May as a preparation for July,” added Vinokourov. “But it is worth remembering that he won the Tour de France last year, and then Olympic gold, and you can’t ignore him.
“Michele Scarponi, Ryder Hesjedal, Robert Gesink, these are all riders who don’t get lost in the mountains, and have won this race or similar ones before. They are the big three opponents for us this year at the Giro.”
Who will you place your faith in as directeur sportif of your RoadCyclingUK Fantasy Giro d’Italia dream team – Bradley Wiggins or Vincenzo Nibali? Pick your squad here.
