Vincenzo Nibali is not a champion says Francesco Moser
Former Italian cyclist, Francesco Moser has criticised Vincenzo Nibali’s performances by stating that the cyclist does not have it in him to become a real champion.
The Giro d’Italia 1984 winner was upset to see Nibali’s struggle during the monument classics and noted that he is undoubtedly a good cyclist but needs to be more consistent to become a champ.
The ‘Monuments’ is a five group of five one-day races across Europe including the Milan-San Remo (Italy), Tour of Flanders (Belgium), Paris-Roubaix (France), Liege-Bastogne-Liege (Belgium) and the Giro di Lombardia (Italy).
Nibali failed to claim any one of the five races as Simon Gerrans (Milan-San Remo), Tom Boonen (Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix), Maxim Iglinsky (Liege-Bastogne-Liege) and Joaquim Rodriguez (Giro di Lombardia) succeeded this year.
Despite tasting a lot of success throughout his career, the Italian has in fact never succeeded in any one of the five events during the 28 years of his professional life.
The disappointed Moser spewed his frustration during an interview with Gazzettino newspaper and even criticised Vincenzo’s third place finish at the Tour de France 2012.
Nibali finished third during the French Grand Tour and could not shake-off the British, duo consisting Bradley Wiggins and Christopher Froome of Team Sky Procycling despite his endless efforts.
Wiggins received the honour of being the first ever British cyclist to bag an overall victory at the three-week race after finishing the race in a total time of 87 hours, 34 minutes and 47 seconds.
His teammate and compatriot, Christopher Froome ended second with a deficit of 3 minutes and 21 seconds on Wiggins.
Vincenzo could not secure any better than the third overall spot after falling further 3 minutes behind the race leader.
“He made a couple of little attacks and then he stopped… Not much for the strongest to be worried about,” Moser said of Nibali’s performance July.
“Nibali is only a good rider, not a champion. You need a lot more to merit that title. He tries and he tries, but he’s always lacking something”.
“Lucky for him. In my time, riders were stronger and earned less. People are getting excited about very little because they have very little to get excited about,” said Moser.
“Unfortunately, we have too many so-so riders and no element of leadership, so our rivals dominate and win”.
However, Nibali has still done enough to earn the fourth overall position after the UCI World Tour Individual rankings.
He has claimed as many as 400 UCI points through his various top performances across the season including stage wins and overall victories at the Tirreno-Adriatico and the Giro di Padania 2012.
Vincenzo finished second overall at the Tour of Oman, Liege-Bastogne Liege, third at the Milan-San Remo and also managed to find podium at the most prestigious cycling race of the season, the Tour de France 2012, which itself is an honour that even Moser
could not receive.
Tags: