Watch: Vincenzo Nibali goes on a wild gravel farm track rip in Tuscany
Here is your answer to why the grand tour and Monument winner is such a good bike handler
Vincenzo Nibali can be a thrilling racer to watch with daring attacks, hair-raising descending and daring tactics that leave his rivals fruitlessly chasing. He’s done it to win each of the three Grand Tours including the Giro d’Italia twice, at Il Lombardia twice and this past season at Milan-San Remo along with countless other times. During the off-season, he stays true to his character which has earned him the nickname the Shark of Messina.
While riding in Tuscany, Nibali’s brother Antonio mounted an action camera onto his handlebars to capture some footage. The skills on display are mesmerizing and the gravel paths and trails the brothers rode lent themselves to technical highspeed riding. Nibali’s skills are on full display as he pushes the pace going well over 30 km/h at times on the narrow farm tracks navigating massive rocks, ruts, holes and uneven rocky surfaces with complete confidence.
Tuscany is famous for its vineyards and olive groves. What you usually don’t see are a pair of highly skilled professional cyclists ripping down the narrow rocky paths that meander through the countryside in between the picturesque hilltop villages of the region. During the off-season anything is game and you can see why Nibali has developed such honed technical skills and confidence on high-speed descents. He also demonstrated the versatility of a road bike riding some real technical stuff on skinny tires.
Nibali calls it cyclocross but this high-speed small farm track riding was done on Nibali’s Bahrain-Merida team road bike. While gravel is becoming included in more and more races there days with the trend on an uptick, we don’t expect to see the organizers of Strade Bianche or the Giro send a peloton through these roads.
Nibali is coming off a mixed season. After winning Milan-San Remo with a daring attack he has knocked by a fan on Alpe d’Huez and was unable to continue the race sustaining a fractured vertebra. He came back for the Vuelta a España and finished second at Il Lombardia.
