It's always been like that - 2 GT wins in the same season has only ever been done 17 times, and it's become increasingly rare as training methods and tactics have improved so that the overall level of competition is tougher. 3 weeks of GC racing is brutal, it takes a huge amount out of you. It's extremely difficult to recover from that and then peak again within the same season, unless you're strong enough (or the competition weak enough) that you can win while keeping a bit back spare. Or unless you have pharmaceutical help in aiding your recovery of course.

here we go, last climb!!

Nibals!

Whoa, hope that was a tactical decision to let nibs go.

Nibali got into Floyd stash of whiskey

looks like it was tactical...Horner riding his own tempo

This is great stuff. Will be interesting to see how much Tiralongo has left to help. He screwed up getting too far ahead.

yeah when they hit that climb with 5' I thought the same thing...we'll see, he may need a pacer once he gets dropped to keep his podium spot though.

The Angliru might be the best climb in cycling. This is incredible stuff

That could be the final move!

curtains

AWESOME!!! What an effort!

wow edge of my seat the whole time, fantastic!!!

I wasn't able to stream the whole thing but I did see Valverde give Nibali a drink. Was Nibali getting assistance outside his team all day?

Bravo Horner!

Gotta say congrats to Horner, and honestly not surprised he had the form, just glad to see him put it all together over 3 weeks. I remember 2-3 years ago arguing with someone about his GC potential....wish I could find that thread right now, though it was probably Power13 because my memory says it was the same argument..."you don't become a GC hopeful at 38/39"

GREG_n_SD wrote:

yeah when they hit that climb with 5' I thought the same thing...we'll see, he may need a pacer once he gets dropped to keep his podium spot though.

i'd argue that it's horrible tactics by Astana today. Nibbles has shown himself to be stronger than Rodriguez, and there's not much difference between 2nd and 3rd place, all things considered.

Nibble's best chance today was to outsprint Horner for the bonus seconds. Maybe they discussed that at the meeting in the morning, maybe they didn't, but we are looking at a downhill run-in to the line, and assuming they mopped up the break (another miscalculation on Astana's part), it's perhaps the easier path for Nibali.


I'll go out on a limb and say that Nibbles hasn't always been the most tactical. He loves to attack, and there's nothing wrong with that, but often at the wrong times (from 50km in Lombardia 2011, on the downhill into the crosswind in LBL in 2012, possibly screwing Sagan out of a win in MSR in 2012, and in the WC in 2012). With his declining form, he should have exploited Horner's wanting to obtain a larger cushion (which would have mopped up most of the break), and tried to stay with Horner to the end and outsprint him...

I'd agree on paper your right, but Rodriguez said it best, It's not a math problem. Astana/Nibbles obviously had a plan based on his form and the climb and how he needed to approach it.

Having said that I agree with you, from our arm chair QB view it seemed like the wrong approach.

I doubt they'll offer any details on why they did that and why he attacked at 6k but it sure would be interesting to get that insight. I assume he wanted to try and break Horners will early then slowly build an advantage.

tbf, it's worked in the past, albeit in different conditions. He did it in Tirreno Adriatico in 2012 to none other than Chris Horner to seal the win, but those were under vastly different circumstances as he appeared much stronger. actually, technically he didn't take the Blue Jersey off of Horner, but he chipped off enough of Horner's advantage and finished it off in the time trial.

I think there were a couple of ways that Astana could have won, but that attack by Honer was so strong that I don't know if they would have worked. They could have waited for the sprint to get the bonus seconds. They could have also better managed the timing of Nibali's attacks and where his support was up the road.

I didn't get a good look at the attach by Honer, did anyone? Looks like he waited until Nabali was blocked off by the other two riders and the crowd and timed it perfectly for that. Maybe he knew exactly how many were left in the break and knew they were in bonus seconds territory and it was now or never.

it was with 1.5k to go, and it really didn't look like an attack as much as Nibbles just cracked. I mean, Nibbles & Horner had a 15 second advantage over Piti when Nibbles was with Horner, and Piti basically rode back to Nibbles.

I thought he won that in the TT, but regardless, you have to do something and I do appreciate bold tactics.

one problem with the concept of better managing his attacks and linking up his support is I doubt radios where much help at that point. I'm speculating of course, but I'd be surprised if they knew exactly where everyone was during once they were a few k into that climb...that said, I'm still surprised he tried to go at 6k.

Great to see Horner do it. It is a John Elway type moment to a worthy champion and a funny guy. I saw Horner at the swami's ride once, he was nothing but nice and entertaining. I am also happy to see an American win a GT again, hopefully we can get a few more contenders in the next couple years too.

Man today was Epic, and not just talking about Horner, the whole scene with the fog, the TV Moto losing the red jersey for a K or so, the Stage winner having to radio his team car if anyone was behind him.... and of course the Nibali/Horner battle wow, truly an epic stage.
For a while there it did look like Nibali would actually take it...

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Yeah agreed, all things combined one of the best stages I've seen in recent times.