Vincenzo Nibali appreciated Philippe Gilbert’s performance at the UCI Road World Championships
Vincenzo Nibali appreciated Philippe Gilbert’s tremendous effort during the UCI Road World Championships on Sunday and noted that the Belgian was never challenged by any one during the event.
The Belgian rode exceptionally well and restricted his major opponents during the 261 kilometre race on Sunday.
He took a total time of 6 hours, 10 minutes and 41 seconds to win the most demanding outfit of the sport, the rainbow jersey.
Edvald Boasson Hagen of Team Norway finished 4 seconds behind at the second position with the Spaniard, Alejandro Valverde Belmonte achieving the third spot.
Nibali was in the second bunch and fell five seconds at the 29th overall position and admired the Belgian’s stunning performance during the race and noted that Gilbert only launched one attack and made no mistake.
“After his attack, the group broke up a bit on the climb, then regrouped over the summit,” he told reporters after the race.
“I pulled hard because I wanted to try and lead out Gatto for a medal, but he had crashed early an opened a wound on his knee”
“The lap before, I tried to go clear on the Cauberg and bring a small group with me,” he said.
“But with a tailwind over the top of the climb, and with the long descent at the start of the circuit, it was really hard to stay away”.
Nibali is enjoying a terrific season with several first place finishes to his credit including overall wins and stage victories at the Tirreno-Adriatico and the Giro di Padania.
He finished second at the Tour of Oman, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and occupied the third position at the Milan-San Remo and the Tour de France 2012.
Reigning Champion, Mark Cavendish and his British side was leading the peloton wearing number 1 jersey.
The Manxman ruled himself out of the pre-race favourites and rightly so as the reigning champion struggled to cross the finish line and had to abandon the race in first half of the race.
After having a quite start to his 2012 campaign, Gilbert has done well to claim the rainbow jersey at the most awaited cycling race of the season and will now lead the cycling world for the whole one year.
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