Nibali begins season at Giro di Sardegna
Sicilian back iꦦn action a🌌fter Tenerife training camp



168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Vincenzo Nibali (168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Liquigas-Cannondale) begins his season on Tuesday at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Giro di Sardegna. The Sicilian has explained that he deliberately delayed his return to competition in order to recuperate from an exhausting 2010 cꦇampaign in which he won the Vuelta a España and finished third at the Giro d’Italia
Nibali’s first outing last year came in January’s Tour de San Luis and he raced all the way through to the168澳洲5最新开奖结果: Tour of Lombardy in October in a season that sꦚaw him pin on a race number on no fewer than 81 oওccasions.
“It’s the first time [I’ve started my season so late],” Nibali told Gazzetta dello Sport. “But the ot💜her years I’d also finished racing earlier. We decided to started later in order to help me reco🍸ver better and to prepare better.”
Ahead of his seasonal debut, Nibali recently spent two weeks at a Liquigas-C🌳annondale training camp in Tenerife. Although he c෴laims to be unsure of the precise mileage he has clocked up this winter, Nibali is confident that his preparation is on track.
“I don🌄’t know how many kilometres I’ve done, I haven’t looked,” Nibali said. “But between training alone and at camps, including the one in Tenerife, I feel I’m where I should be. It’s true that I have a few kilos more and a few watts less in respect to the Vuelta, but that’s normal and as predicted. Everything is under control.”
Liquigas-Cannondale’s other leader Ivan B✤asso has already begun his campaign and impressed in Saturday’s Trofeo Laigueglia, and Nibali admitted that he too is keen to get back into action.
“I can’t wait,” he said. “I couldn’t open the paper, switch on the TV or surf the net without seeing the others wh🅰o were already racing and even winning.
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“At Laigueglia [Basso] wen𓆏t well, but everybody who began racing a month ago in Argentina have a different rhythm.&rdqu🎀o;
Contador and Mosquera
Another rider who recently began his season, albeit in hugely contentious circumstances, is Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank). The Spaniard was not sanctioned by his national federation even though he tested positive for Cleꦐnbuterol during last year&rsꦗquo;s Tour de France.
While Nib𝄹ali did not express strong opinions on the specifics of Contador’s case, he was critical of the fact that his erstwhile Liquigas teammate Franco Pellizotti has been sidelined since falling foul of the UCI’s biological passport system last May. The Italian is so far without a team for the 2011 season.
“I’m not going into the merit of the [Contador] 🔯decision,” Nibali said. “The solution of his case, even temporarily, is a good thing for cycling but that immediacy of judgement should also be the case for 🎃other riders who remain suspended. Pellizotti has been waiting for almost a year and isn’t racing: a scandal.”
Meanwhile, Ezequiel Mosquera, who finished second to Nibali at the Vuelta, has so far escaped sanction for his positive test for Hydroxyethal starch, although his Vacansoleil team has said that he will not race in their colours unt♚il the matter is resolved.
“It’s a strange case,♓” Nibali said. “It’s disheartening, or even ridiculous and traꦓgicomic.”

Barry Ryan was Head of Features at Cyclingnews. He has covered professional cycling since 2010, reporting from theꦅ Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and events from Argentina to Japan. His writing has appeared in The Independent, Procycling and Cycling Plus. He is the author of , published by Gill Books.