Nibali’s Tour defence in peril
SC under-20 team in the national domestic league since 2013.
He holds a New Zealand passport and has played three senior internationals for the All Whites, making his debut against China last November.
The OFC referred to a FIFA statute that says any player not born in a country or without a parent or grandparent from that country, needs to have lived there for five years after the age of 18. Wynne isn’t old enough to have done so. VINCENZO Nibali is making a patchy start to his Tour de France defence and if yesterday’s eighth stage is anything to go by it may not get much better in the mountains.
Nibali lost another 10 seconds to race leader Chris Froome, the 2013 champion, on the short and sharp final climb up Mur de Bretagne, setting off alarm bells in the Italian’s Astana team.
While the stage was won by Alexis Vuillermoz to give France its first victory in this year’s race, it was the way Nibali was dropped on a distance of just 2km that had people talking.
“I don’t understand what happened. Hopefully this was just a bad day, otherwise this Tour will be difficult,” Astana manager Giuseppe Martinelli said. “Our team should deliver a perfect performance in tomorrow’s team time trial. We can’t make more mistakes.”
Nibali already trails Froome by 1min 48sec and riders have yet to tackle the high mountains.
Two-time champion Alberto Contador, former runner-up Nairo Quintana, and American rider Tejay van Garderen also helped themselves to 10 seconds on Nibali.
In the overall classification, this means that Froome still leads van Garderen by 13 sec, Contador by 36 and Quintana by 1:56.
“I guess we’re going to have to see how Vincenzo goes up on the long climbs. It hasn’t been a great start for him but things can soon change,” Froome said.
Before those climbs, starting on Tuesday with the first of three consecutive days in the Pyrenees, the weary riders must tackle the team time trial — in which Froome’s yellow jersey will be under serious threat from van Garderen, who is shaping up as a dangerous outsider.
Times in a team time trial are taken from the fifth rider crossing the line. The undulating 28km route finishes with a 1.7km ascent.
BMC has four riders from the team that won the event at last year’s world championships: van Garderen, Rohan Dennis, Daniel Oss and Manuel Quinziato.
“With the team I have and what they have shown so far, we are pretty confident,” van Garderen said.
Australian rider Dennis is particularly quick, having won the Tour’s opening individual time trial in a record average speed. At the Criterium du Dauphine last month, BMC won the team time trial and Froome’s Sky came sixth.
“I really see as much as 20 or 30 seconds won or lost [between contenders],” Froome said. “It’s going to go down to who can deliver five guys fresh enough to get off that final climb.”
AP