Mark Cavendish will bring the curtain down on his professional cycling career at the Tour de France Prudential Singapore Criterium in November, the organiser has announced. 

As first reported by Cycling Weekly in August, the Manxman will race for one final time at the largely ceremonial events run by the Amaury Sports Organisation [ASO], the organiser of the Tour de France, in south east Asia. 

ASO organise two end of season criteriums in Singapore and Japan in which a host of high profile riders regularly appear. Cavendish is expected to take to the start line in Saitama before travelling to Singapore several days later. 

Chris Froome, Jasper Philipsen, Primož Roglič and Biniam Girmay will also all appear alongside Cavendish. Vincenzo Nibali was also named in the media release as part of a "TdF legends" team for the event. 

Cavendish recently overtook Eddy Merckx in the standings for the most stage wins ever achieved at the Tour de France. Going into this year’s race Cavendish and Merckx were tied on 34 wins apiece, but the Manxman famously took a record breaking 35th victory on stage seven in Saint Vulbas. 

The 39-year-old completed the race for Astana Qazaqstan and confirmed shortly afterwards that it had been his final outing at the French Grand Tour. 

He recently reiterated that he would not return to the Tour at a ceremony in which he received a knighthood from the UK’s Prince William at Windsor Castle. 

"I’ve already said I won’t do another Tour de France," he said. "That’s public knowledge."

He suggested at the ceremony that he still had further competitive events on his calendar this year, although he did not elaborate on what they were. 

"I’ve still got races this year," he added. "I’m still training for them, it will be really nice to race as a Knight Commander."

No other UCI races are thought to currently be on his schedule for Astana Qazaqstan and no more are likely to be added with the 2024 road season rapidly drawing to a close. 

Cavendish is also set to ride in the US next week with his former teammate and fellow knight Sir Bradley Wiggins, in order to raise money for hurricane relief in North Carolina.

Many would have you believe that the 2024 Giro d'Italia is already over before it has even begun. 

Tadej Pogačar will rightly arrive at the grande partenza in Turin as the favourite for overall victory, with the likes of Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL) expected to battle it out for the final two spots on the podium behind him. 

However, the Italian Grand Tour is far from a foregone conclusion, according to former winner, Vincenzo Nibali. Speaking to La Gazetta dello Sport, Nibali acknowledged that Pogačar was the rider to watch but insisted that the race could still produce unexpected twists.

"He’s going to have to sweat it out for overall victory, in a Grand Tour, nothing ever truly comes easy," Nibali said. “You have to be perfect for 21 days, 20 isn’t enough," Nibali said. "Now, I don't wish any misfortune on Tadej, of course not. But speaking in general, a single bad day, which can happen to anyone, can change a lot of things."

Away from the GC battle, the race promises to provide plenty of drama with several stages looking like they could be one for a breakaway artist to get up the road. Two individual time trials also provide the likes of Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) to do what he does best. 

The sprinters will also get a chance to have their say on the latter stages, including on stage nine into Naples. Belgian Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) has started the season in strong form and could be the man to beat to the maglia ciclamino.

We've pulled together an in depth look at all of the men to watch out for once the Giro gets underway.  

Geraint Thomas

Age: 37
Nationality: Welsh
Team: Ineos Grenadiers
Giro d'Italia starts: 5
Best GC result: 2nd, 2023
Best stage result: 2nd x6, 2012-2023

Welshman Thomas returns to the Giro one year on from his heartache of losing the maglia rosa by just 14 seconds to Primož Roglič. As usual when the veteran Brit starts the Giro, he will turn one year older during the race’s final week (38 on May 25), but last season was yet another reminder that despite his advancing years he should not be overlooked.

He will thrive in the long time trials and expect to hold his own in the mountains, making him one of the favourites to land a spot on the podium. 

He hasn’t had any standout results this season, but that’s part of the Thomas playbook: slowly build form and condition, and peak for the races that truly matter. “It’s easy to take for granted that nine times out of 10 I hit my goals, and that I am in the shape I want to be when I get there,” he recently told CW.

Tadej Pogačar

Age: 25
Nationality: Slovenian
Team: UAE Emirates
Giro d'Italia starts: 0
Best GC result: N/A
Best stage result: N/A

Tadej Pogačar is no stranger to being the favourite for a bike race. At pretty much every event the UAE Team Emirates rider lines up for, he is the one to watch. With a 60% win rate so far in 2024 – 11 opportunities, seven wins – you can see why. 

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, to misquote Shakespeare, but on Pogačar’s head, that crown – or helmet – appears light. The 25-year-old Slovenian simply rides away from everyone else, without much thought. It is entirely possible that he will do the same thing at the Giro d’Italia, perhaps even more easily, given the absence of his bête noire Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and the two other members of the ‘big four’, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) and Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe).

Pogačar has never ridden the Giro d’Italia before, so it will be a new test, but equally, he has never finished lower than third at the five Grand Tours he has ridden. With 14 stage wins across those four Tours de France and one Vuelta a España, no one in their right mind would bet against him. He is able to take time on punchy stages as well as big days in the mountains, so it would not be a surprise to see him take the maglia rosa early on in the race; the summit finish on stage two seems ripe for him to make a mark.

At the Volta a Catalunya last month, it was clear that Pogačar was fundamentally a step above the others, and it is hard to see where a challenge might come from at the Giro. “Right now it’s the best I’ve ever seen him,” Israel-Premier Tech’s George Bennett told Cycling Weekly at that race. “He's definitely better than last year already. I know he’s made some changes in the off season and he’s on a different level. He was already pretty good but now he’s very good.”

For his part, Pogačar is clear that he now wants to be “the best ever”. With triumph at the Giro possible, and a tilt at the Tour de France to follow, it is within his grasp.

Dani Martínez

Age: 28
Nationality: Colombian
Team: Bora-Hansgrohe
Giro d'Italia starts: 3
Best GC result: 5th, 2021
Best stage result: 3rd, 2021

Back in 2021 when Egan Bernal won the Giro, the man who was credited with making it all possible was his fellow Colombian, Dani Martínez. The then-Ineos Grenadier was the race’s standout super domestique in the mountains and even rode to fifth overall. Aged 25 at the time, it was the clearest indication yet that Martínez was set for a strong future as a GC rider himself.

Yet despite winning the Itzulia Basque Country in 2022 and podiuming in other races, Martínez has failed to truly kick on, and faltered as a co-leader at the last two Tours de France. Last winter, Ineos parted ways with him, and Bora-Hansgrohe snapped him up on a four-year deal.

Talk of him potentially winning a three-week race has understandably cooled off, but there is little doubt that Martínez does possess the characteristics to seriously challenge when the stars align. 

Ben O'Connor

Age: 28
Nationality: Australian
Team:  Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale
Giro d'Italia starts: 3
Best GC result: 20th, 2020
Best stage result: 1st, 2020

The likeable Aussie isn’t hiding his ambitions at the Giro: “I’m going there to finish on the podium,” he told CW. Now in his fourth season with AG2R, he has shown impressive consistency since breaking through at the 2020 Giro with a stage win in the Dolomites. 

Fourth in the following year’s Tour de France confirmed his potential, and since then he has regularly been in contention for stage wins and the GC in almost all the one-week stage races he has competed in. He warmed up for the Giro by finishing third at the Tour of the Alps.

Time trialling remains O’Connor’s Achilles heel – he typically loses 30 seconds every 10km to the best testers – and he knows that, despite improvements against the clock, he will have to make up time on the hillier and mountainous days to compensate for expected losses in the two time trials.

Romain Bardet

Age: 33
Nationality: French
Team:  dsm-firmenich PostNL
Giro d'Italia starts: 2
Best GC result: 7th, 2021
Best stage result: 2nd, 2021

In what is mooted to be his final season as a professional, Romain Bardet sits alongside Tadej Pogačar and Geraint Thomas in targeting the Giro-Tour double. While no-one is seriously contemplating such an eventuality, it would please many in the sport if Bardet was able to win a Grand Tour, almost a decade on from when he twice finished on the Tour de France’s podium.

It’s indicative of his racing style – sticking with the front group as opposed to launching attacks – that the Frenchman has only ever won 10 races in his otherwise storied career, but he is always in the mix. Indeed, out of the 12 three-week races he’s finished, his worst GC finish is 25th, and that was at the 2021 Vuelta a España where stage hunting was his goal from the outset

He will be sharing team leadership with sprinter Fabio Jakobsen, but should Bardet remain injury- and illness-free, a podium finish is certainly plausible.

Ones to watch

Julian Alaphilippe

Age: 31
Nationality: French
Team: Soudal Quick-Step

Making his Giro debut, the former two-time world champion recently revealed that he raced through the spring Classics with a fractured knee. 

Bludgeoned by public criticism from his Soudal-QuickStep manager Patrick Lefevere, the Frenchman has struggled for race-winning form in the past two seasons, but he has the skill set to at least win a stage. 

Filippo Ganna

Age: 27
Nationality: Italian
Team: Ineos Grenadiers

Remarkably for a man deemed the best time triallist in the world, the Hour record holder has only won one of his past five time trials. 

He will, however, be the favourite to win stage 14’s TT, and his ever-expanding repertoire of sprinting and breakaway appearances points to him adding to his tally of six Giro stage victories.

Christophe Laporte

Age: 31
Nationality: French
Team: Visma-Lease a Bike

Called up to Visma-Lease a Bike’s Giro squad to replace the injured Wout van Aert, the reigning European champion has developed into one of the sport’s strongest one-day riders since joining his current employers in 2022. 

As well as assisting as Visma’s two leaders, he is likely to be a contender himself on the transition and lumpy stages.  

GC wildcards

Nairo Quintana

Age: 34
Nationality: Colombian
Team: Movistar

It’s 10 years since Quintana became the first Colombian to win the Giro d’Italia, but it will take an almighty effort for him to repeat the feat this time around. This will be his first Grand Tour since he was stripped of his sixth place finish at the 2022 Tour de France after tramadol was found in his blood samples. 

Upon returning to Movistar in the winter following a year away from the WorldTour, he has struggled for form and crashed out of the Volta a Catalunya. But he’s recovered and has a point to prove. 

Thymen Arensman

Age: 24
Nationality: Dutch
Team: Ineos Grenadiers

Ineos Grenadiers favour a multi-pronged approach in three-week races, and Dutchman Arensman will be sharing leadership duties with Geraint Thomas. Sixth on GC at both the 2022 Vuelta a España and 2023 Giro point to a rider who could knock on the door of a podium finish. 

He has shown on several occasions that he has got what it takes to put significant chunks of time into his rivals in time trials and in the high mountains. 

Luke Plapp

Age: 23
Nationality: Australian
Team: Jayco-AIUla

Australian champion Plapp broke his contract with Ineos at the end of last season to sign a four-year deal with Jayco-Alula where he was promised opportunities to head up the team’s GC ambitions alongside Simon Yates. 

The Giro, just his second Grand Tour, will be his first major test, but he showed at March’s Paris-Nice that he can duel it with the best in the mountains, holding the lead for two days in the Race to the Sun, but eventually finished sixth. 

The sprinters

The in-form sprinter leading into the Giro is Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep), who raced to seven victories by just days into April. Selection dilemmas and team hierarchies have limited him to just one Grand Tour the previous two seasons, so he’s eager to make up for lost time.

As anticipated as Merlier’s return is the Grand Tour debut of Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike), the 22-year-old who has been winning WorldTour races for fun over the last year or so. One advantage the young Dutchman has over Merlier is a greater resistance for climbing, which could prove especially useful on the awkward hillier stages. It’s something he shares with Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), winner of a stage here and three at the Vuelta a España last year, and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché - Wanty), the Eritrean sensation showing some signs of form again after it dipped following his breakthrough Giro two years ago.

Less promising is the form of Caleb Ewan (Jayco-AlUla) and Fabio Jakobsen (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), though both are too purely talented to write off. And finally, given his status as reigning maglia ciclamino champion, young home favourite Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) will be marked as the man to beat, and has shown further signs of improvement already this year following an impressive Classics campaign. 

Milan-San Remo begins in Pavia for the first time this year, as the race is not allowed in Milan itself any more, but it is still the longest Monument, the same gruelling 288 kilometres leading into the Via Roma in San Remo after the ascents of the Cipressa followed by the Poggio, the race’s final climb. 

Judging by Tadej Pogačar’s form and bravery at Strade Bianche earlier in March, it might be an atypical edition, with attacks from far out traditionally failing. However, if the Slovenian is on form, tradition could be turned on its head. 

It is also Mathieu van der Poel’s road debut for 2024, with last year’s winner hoping to hit the ground running, as his training partner Pogačar did a fortnight previously. All eyes will be on that pair, but it is a race which is hard to pick favourites for, such is the breadth of possibilities. Crucially, however, there is no Wout van Aert, with the Belgian opting to skip it to train at altitude for bigger goals.

Historically a race for the sprinters, La Classicissima has gradually become a race for the all rounder, like a Pogačar or a Van der Poel. Grand Tour winners like Vincenzo Nibali are counted among the list of recent winners, as are an array of puncheurs including Julian Alaphilippe, Wout van Aert and Jasper Stuyven. It has not been won by a pure sprinter since Frenchman Arnaud Démare triumphed in 2016. 

One former sprint winner, Mark Cavendish, will skip the opportunity to race a final Milan-San Remo, as his team, Astana Qazaqstan, are prioritising the need to win vital UCI points. The 38-year-old won the 2009 edition of the Classic on debut. 

"Milan-San Remo will always be a special race for me but this season I also have a job to do," he said.

"I rode it last year,” he added. "It's changed as a race to what it once was, when I won it. 

"The sport is what it is. I always watch the big one day races and I'll watch it with my son Casper, he loves the Classics, so it will still be a special day for me.”

The contenders

Mathieu Van Der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck)

Van der Poel will be making his season debut at San-Remo which will also mean a first outing for his new rainbow jersey as World Champion as he attempts to defend the title he won last year on the Via Roma. Alongside Pogačar, he will be the joint favourite for victory this time out. 

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates)

So far so good for Pogačar in 2024. The Slovenian won Strade Bianche on his season debut with an impressive solo effort from more than 80 kilometres out which means he is bang in form heading into San Remo. Pogačar won’t want to carry anyone to the finale, so could look to attack early, maybe even before the typical launch pad, the Poggio, given his recent exploits. 

Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers)

Pidcock was fourth at Strade Bianche, his last appearance in a one-day race, and eighth at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad just before that. The descent from the Poggio seems tailor made for his attributes as a rider and he is more than capable of attacking over the top and staying away. The Yorkshireman’s current form suggests that a podium place is certainly within reach. 

Caleb Ewan (Jayco-AlUla)

The Australian sprinter already has one victory to his name this season, a stage win on the opening day at the Tour of Oman. He also finished 15th on stage two at Tirreno-Adriatico. Milan-San Remo is a race he seems to thrive in and he has finished second twice in 2018 and 2021. The Poggio isn’t tough enough to distance the likes of Ewan completely. Nobody will want to take him into the finish in the Via Roma. 

Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious)

Last time out, Mohorič achieved fifth place at Strade Bianche and won’t have raced again until he returns to San Remo, a race he infamously won, with the aid of a dropper seat post, in 2023. Prior to Strade Bianche, the Slovenian finished 24th at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad before finishing 79th at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, two results which by his own admission, he was disappointed with. 

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck)

Philipsen had a disappointing Opening Weekend in Belgium, 66th at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and 92nd at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, but bounced back with a bunch sprint victory on stage two of Tirreno-Adriatico. Similarly to Ewan, Philipsen is the type of sprinter that is capable of getting over the Poggio with relative ease and holding his own when the attacks start raining down. 

Past winners

2023: Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Deceuninck 2. Filippo Ganna (Ita) Ineos Grenadiers 3. Wout van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma

2022  Matej Mohorič (Slo) Bahrain Victorious 

2021 Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek-Segafredo

American Joe Dombrowski announced his retirement from professional cycling on Tuesday. 

"After much thought, I would like to announce that I will be hanging up my wheels as a professional cyclist. Eleven years and fourteen grand tours later, I count myself lucky to have lived this incredible journey; my dream from a young age," he wrote on Twitter. 

"Thank you to everyone who has played their part in the journey. It has been a wild ride."

The 32-year-old American climber turned pro with Team Sky in 2013 after winning the Under-23 Giro d'Italia the previous year. He continued to ride for some of the top teams in the WorldTour peloton, including EF Education First,  UAE Team Emirates and Astana Qazaqstan.

Highlights of Dombrowski's senior career include winning a stage at the 2021 Giro d'Italia, finishing second in a stage at Vuelta a España, and winning the GC at Tour of Utah. Strong whenever the roads point up, he often rode in service of his team's leaders, which included the likes of Tadej Pogačar, Geraint Thomas, Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali, Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish.

Dombrowski completed an impressive 14 grand tours in his 11 years at the top level. After two seasons with Astana Qazaqstan, the team chose not to renew his contract. Despite the ups and downs of life as a professional cyclist, Dombrowski looks back at his career with satisfaction.

"...I actually did everything I ever dreamed of doing, and even more. I rode in the top teams, I competed on the world's largest stage, and I had the honor to be a teammate of some of the sport's true legends," he wrote.

"What I couldn't have imagined though, is all the intangibles which came along with that. I learned to live in a foreign country, and speak another language. I cultivated friendships with people from all over the globe. And cycling gave me insight into how the best in their field get to the top, and the work it takes to stay there. All of these things gave me a unique perspective, and I got an education that money could never buy."

In his retirement, Dombrowski says he's looking forward to 'exploring everything that interests him.'

In 2022 there has been a changing of the guard at the top level of professional cycling. 

Some of the biggest names in the sport have called time on their careers, passing over the torch to the likes of Remco Evenepoel, Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar as they ride off into the sunset. 

As well as the aforementioned trio, riders like Wout Van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel have taken the baton from Philippe Gilbert as being the riders to watch on the Classics scene. 

This year multiple Grand Tour winner Vincenzo Nibali has hung up his wheels after a final hurrah at Il Lombardia and former World Champion Alejandro Valverde has also retired after one final season. 

Valverde’s retirement allows new names to shine in Spanish cycling. For many years, Spanish fans will have wondered when the next big home Vuelta win would come but with talents like Juan Ayuso and Carlos Rodriguez stepping into the Valverde shaped gap, that win may not be that far away. 

We’ve put together a breakdown of seven riders who have retired from cycling's top level this year and an assessment of their legacy in the sport. 

VINCENZO NIBALI

The Italian former Grand Tour winner and stage racer supreme announced at this year’s Giro d’Italia that he would be retiring at the end of 2022. 

He leaves a legacy of being arguably the last of the great Italian stage racers, and his palmares comfortably backs up that argument. Three monument titles including two Il Lombardia victories and one Milan-San Remo as well as overall wins at Tirreno-Adriatico in 2012 and 2013 more than speak for themselves. 

The Sicily-born rider is also a two-time Giro d’Italia winner and has seven individual stages to his name. Nibali also won the Tour de France in 2014 and took six individual stage victories at the French Grand Tour during his career. 

Adding in his 2010 Vuelta a España victory to the equation makes him not only one of the last great Italian stage racers, but also one of the all time greatest riders in the sports history.

Few riders of his generation can match the prolific winning record of the “Shark of Messina”.

ALEJANDRO VALVERDE

42-year-old Alejandro Valverde finally retired from the sport's top level with the 2022 Il Lombardia also being his final outing in the WorldTour. Valverde finished a more than respectable sixth in that final race behind winner Tadej Pogačar.

Valverde’s career has been stacked with a huge list of one day race victories including four Liège–Bastogne–Liège victories and five La Flèche Wallonne titles. As well as this the Spaniard is also the 2018 road world champion and won the Vuelta a España in 2009. 

However, the 42-year-olds impressive palmares has a significant black spot which it is impossible to ignore. His involvement in the Operación Puerto doping scandal. 

Valverde received a two-year doping ban in 2010 for his part in the affair and all of his results that year were annulled. Since his doping ban the cycling world has often struggled to look the other way when it came to the Spaniard achieving any further success. 

As a result of this, his legacy in cycling is blemished by his doping offences. 

RICHIE PORTE

Prior to the 2022 Tour of Britain, Richie Porte announced that the British week-long event would be his final racing outing. 

In 2020 the Australian rider left Trek-Segafredo to join Ineos Grenadiers, a team he had previously raced for under the Team Sky name. A high point of Porte’s time at Ineos was his 2021 Critérium du Dauphiné victory.  

Before making a return to the British team, Porte enjoyed a successful spell at Trek-Segafredo which saw him achieve his first ever Grand Tour podium finish. Porte was able to stay with a rampant Tadej Pogačar and Primož Roglič for much of the 2020 Tour de France meaning that he would eventually finish third overall. 

Throughout the years, Porte’s exploits in the Grand Tour’s leave a more than respectable legacy at the sports top level that other Australian riders will look to emulate. 

With the emergence of riders like Giro d'Italia winner Jai Hindley and Ineos Grenadiers' Luke Plapp, Australian cycling is in a comfortable place despite Porte's retirement. 

PHILIPPE GILBERT

40-year-old Gilbert retired from cycling after an illustrious career which has seen him win four of the five monuments and stages at all three of cycling’s Grand Tours. 

The Belgian rider was renowned as being one of the best puncheurs in the business and that was backed up with impressive wins at Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders as well as the world title in 2012 in the Netherlands. 

One of the main highlights of Gilbert’s career is undoubtedly the four victories he took at the Amstel Gold race in the Netherlands. His world title win came on a similar route to the Dutch one day race and as a result, the Cauberg climb in Holland will long be associated with his cycling exploits. 

Gilbert recently announced that despite the rumours, he will not be taking over as manager of his final professional team Lotto Soudal in 2023. 

Winning four of the five monuments is no mean feat. When you bring his Amstel-Gold victories into the discussion, it’s impossible to consider Gilbert as being anything other than one of the greatest one-day racers of all time. 

LISA BRENNAUER 

German racer Lisa Brennauer retired in August after an impressive career which has seen the 34-year-old win both the individual and team time trial world titles on multiple occasions. 

Brennauer also won the female German national time trial championship on five occasions with 2022 being her final victory. As well as this she also won the German national road title on four occasions. One of her biggest highlights was a gold medal at the rearranged 2020 Olympics in the women’s team pursuit, in which the German team set a new world record. 

On the road the German won the Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta race in 2019 and 2020.

Brennauer’s record is pretty incomparable in women’s German cycling, leaving her with a legacy as being arguably the best German female racer there has been to date.  

TOM DUMOULIN 

Dutchman Tom Dumoulin retired in August after a career which has seen him win the Giro d’Italia and multiple time trial titles. 

As well as his accomplishments on the bike, one of Dumoulin’s biggest achievements was also opening up the conversation on mental health and wellbeing in cycling when he decided to take a break from the sport in 2021 after being “unhappy as a cyclist for a year”. 

Several months later, Dumoulin capped his return to the sport with a silver medal in the men’s time trial at the 2020 Olympic games. He then announced that 2022 would be his final year with his last race being the World Championships in Wollongong, Australia. 

During his long career Dumoulin won the Giro in 2017, as well as the Dutch national time trial championships on four separate occasions and his Olympic silver medal in Tokyo. 

He’ll be remembered as a formidable Grand Tour rider who was also brave enough to publicly speak out about the psychological strain of elite competition.

ALEX DOWSETT 

During his long career, Alex Dowsett established a name for himself as being a top-level time trial specialist and one of the best that Great Britain has ever produced. 

He is the record holder for the most British national time trial titles- which he won on six occasions and he also has two Giro d’Italia stage wins to his name which he took in 2013 and in 2020. He also held the official hour record in 2015.

Dowsett suffers from haemophilia, a condition which prevents your blood from clotting, and he set up a charity called ‘Little Bleeders’ with the intention of encouraging young people suffering with the condition to engage with sport. 

The Essex-born rider leaves a legacy as not only being a top level athlete, but also one determined to give something back to the wider community not just focussing on cycling. Something which is of great importance and other top level athletes would do well to emulate on  a more frequent basis. 

As the saying goes, you make your own luck. Reaching your goals in life requires effort and hard work, along with the occasional opportunity landing in front of you at the right time. Oliver Knight is someone who knows all about that long journey to the top. A top that is being reached as he rides the Vuelta a Burgos this week.

In 2020, Knight was one of many talented British under-23 riders who headed to Europe looking to make a name for themselves. Now 21, he had a successful spell as a junior with HMT Hospitals-Giant, finishing second overall in the junior Tour of the Basque Country behind Carlos Rodriguez (now at Ineos Grenadiers) and winning stages at other Spanish races such as the Vuelta a Pamplona. 

The young Briton was beginning to draw attention to himself, and soon joined French outfit AVC Aix-en-Provence. Backed by the Rayner Foundation and in a team with a history of progressing young British riders, Knight was on his way up. Previously, Simon Carr (EF Education-EasyPost) was part of the French team along with Harrison Wood and it wouldn’t be long before UAE Team Emirates came calling. Still based in France and supported by the Rayner Foundation, Knight told Cycling Weekly that his success wouldn’t have been possible without their help during the last three years. 

The 21-year old explained that finally, the long days and hard grind on the bike are beginning to pay off. At the Vuelta a Burgos, making his first appearance at a professional level race as a stagiaire, or trainee. 

Now, he gets to mix with the professionals who wouldn't have been out of place on his bedroom wall ten years ago. Knight said: “As it's close to the Vuelta, you’ll always get some big stars coming here [Burgos] and it’s crazy. I was looking around the bunch this morning and I was rubbing shoulders with Nibali and Valverde, people that have been at the top of the sport for as long as I can remember.”

After a tough first stage in temperatures approaching 40 degrees, Knight added, “It means everything to be here to be honest and is what I’ve been trying to achieve for so long. It doesn’t quite feel real! It was a great experience today, although a bit of a weird one. It was quite flat early on then with a key climb in the middle. Then we had a long crosswind section before a lap around the city in Burgos…It was a great experience.” 

The 21-year-old explained that during the week-long race he’s looking to take each day as it comes. UAE Team Emirates have gone into the race with Portuguese star Joao Almeida for the general classification, and Knight pointed out that he will be looking to watch and learn from his teammates. 

Knight added: “If I get the chance to get in a breakaway then I'll try and grab that with both hands. Although we’re here looking to get something out of it with Almeida in the GC which would be awesome. I haven’t actually signed for next year yet, so I’ve got to do everything I can to get a contract. I’ll be keeping my head down and cracking on really.” 

"GUYS LIKE NIBALI JUST MAKE EVERYTHING LOOK SO EFFORTLESS" 

With the Vuelta a España just weeks away, the race in Burgos is very much a key race for riders looking to prepare for a shot at overall victory at the Spanish Grand Tour. Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) took the overall win last year, and as well as Landa, Knight explained that he’s been surrounded by multiple huge stars. 

Knight added that as well as former Grand Tour winners, he’s been fortunate to be racing alongside some highly experienced teammates who have been more than willing to share advice with him.

“I’m rooming with Joel Suter, a Swiss rider on our team. He told me how good it is to watch and learn from Matteo Trentin and he was absolutely right,” he said. “He [Trentin] is just so good at positioning and I think that if you put yourself on his wheel, you can’t really go wrong. It’s the same with some guys on other teams. Guys like Nibali just make everything look so effortless really, moving up and doing all the normal stuff that looks really simple, but can actually be tricky,” he added.

The Vuelta a España gets underway on 19 August in Utrecht in the Netherlands before concluding in Madrid on 11 September.

The last time Vincenzo Nibali rode the Giro d'Italia for Astana, in 2016, the world was very different. The UK was yet to have its Brexit referendum, the idea of President Donald Trump was ridiculous, and the concept of having a novel coronavirus pandemic was a mystery but all but the nerdiest epidemiologists.

Six years on, and the world might have changed, but Nibali is back at the Kazakh team where he had his greatest successes, and is still racing hard at his home Grand Tour.

The Italian won the 2016 Giro, after an astonishing comeback saw him pip Esteban Chaves and Steven Kruijswijk at the very end. In 2022, it looks unlikely that he will pull on his third maglia rosa on Sunday, but he is certainly still trying, still lighting the race up, doing his shark things.

On stage 16, his Astana-Qazaqstan team took up position at the front of the peloton on the Mortirolo, setting the pace, clearly trying to launch Nibali at the opportune moment. This is exactly what happened, with the 37-year-old clipping off the front on the descent in an attempt to force a split.

Sadly for him, the attack did not last, and there was no chance of the Italian heading up the road for the stage win, but there was one casualty of his move. Domenico Pozzovio (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert) crashed under the pressure of chasing on, and shipped time over the rest of the stage, allowing Nibali to leapfrog him into fifth place.

He might have ended up losing time to the leading GC riders, but he is now comfortably in the top ten in his final Giro, which is achievement enough.

“Well, it was a tough challenge for everyone," he said post-stage. "We tried to do a strong and active race and the guys were working really well, so I want to thank my teammates for that. Then, it was Bahrain who went in front to set the pace and it was a fast one. 

"The last climb… I did all I could, but in the final it was just too much for me, so I tried to continue on my own rhythm until the end. I think we did maximum today and let’s see how the next stages will turn out."

Nibali's attack showed his intent for the last week, and it is certainly not beyond him to target a stage win on the three remaining mountain stages. The shark is not done yet.

Astana came into this race looking to target the maglia rosa with Miguel Angel López, who was forced out of the race on stage four with a hip injury. To have a four-time Grand Tour winner as your backup option is not bad, and Nibali has proved that he can roll back the years over the two and a half weeks so far.

In 2016, his last Giro win, his last Grand Tour win, Nibali was 4-43 behind then race leader Kruijswijk after stage 16. In 2022, he is just 3-40. It seems fantastic, but he couldn't, could he? A shark tale might be written after this week.

Break is put into a world of Hirt

Not many Czechs have won stages of Grand Tours. Eight in total, actually. Jan Hirt became the eighth, and the fifth at the Giro d'Italia, with his victory in Aprica on Tuesday.

It was an inspired ride from the Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert rider, who did not take being dropped to mean he was out of the race, and patiently worked his way back to the front. Last time the Giro tackled the Mortirolo, Hirt finished second, so this time around, he knew he had to go one better. His ride meant, in fact, that he returned to the top 10, and now sits in ninth.

He was a member of the huge 22-man break which was eventually established ahead of some terrifying climbs, but he was one of the less heralded climbers in there. For company, there was Thymen Arensman (Team DSM), Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange-Jayco), Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) among others.

Hirt was initially dropped on the Mortirolo, but worked his way back to the leading seven, with the help of Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost). When Kämna attacked on the Valico di Santa Cristina, lesser riders would have wilted, but Hirt, with Arensman, worked his way back, before dropping his Dutch and German rivals as the road got tough.

He marshalled the break expertly, and was able to continue Intermarché's wonderful Giro with his nous and climbing prowess. It all could have come unstuck on the final descent - the Czech revealed he had cramp and couldn't shift his bike properly - but it didn't, so a fairytale race continues for the Walloon team.

But, Domenico Pozzovivo ended his challenge for pink

It was an unfortunate day for Domenico Pozzovivo (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert), who crashed while under pressure over the top of the Mortirolo, managed to catch the group of GC favourites, but then could not hang onto the pace on the final climb of the Valico di Santa Cristina.

The 39-year-old has fought valiantly at this Giro to date, the 22nd Grand Tour of his career, surprising the doctors who said he would never race again. He has been one of the many success stories of an Intermarché team that has been punching above its weight all season.

The crash appeared to take it out of him, further injuring his dodgy elbow, and he ended up losing just under three minutes to his GC rivals. He still sits in sixth, however, and will hope to bounce back in the coming days. Sixth place is still an incredible result, but there is no doubt that the Italian will be frustrated that he could not keep up his challenge on for the pink jersey. 

Vincenzo Nibali and Astana-Qazaqstan roll back the years

Heading up the Mortirolo, there was an unexpected team at the front of the peloton. It wasn't Ineos Grenadiers setting the tempo, it was the men in light blue, Astana-Qazaqstan. They were doing this to set up their leader Vincenzo Nibali up for an attack on the descent of the famous climb.

The move did happen, with Nibali clipping off the front over the top and stretching the maglia rosa group, however, it didn't stick, and the group of favourites was soon back together again. What did it show was the intent of the 37-year-old, keen to still make an impact at his last Giro d'Italia.

He might still be far behind Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), trailing by 3-40, but he is now the top Italian on general classification, leapfrogging Pozzovivo, and will hope to attack some more in the coming days.

With Astana clearly working together for Nibali, perhaps we will see some more clever teamwork in the three mountain stages left to try and set Lo Squalo up for a stage win, or to better his fifth place.

Almeida limits losses, despite being dropped

It could have been race over for João Almeida (UAE-Team Emirates). The Portugese rider looked like he was out of it multiple times while following the wheels up the Valico di Santa Cristina. He slipped out the back, with the general classification looking like it might be decided by Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious), Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Carapaz, but managed to stay in touch.

At the finish, Almeida was just 14 seconds behind the trio, and is still within touching distance - 44 seconds - of the maglia rosa. With his time trial abilities well known, and a final stage against the clock in Verona beckoning on Sunday, those around him will want to have more of an advantage heading into the last weekend of the Giro.

It does not help for the viewer that the UAE rider often looks uncomfortable climbing, even when he is in perfect control of the situation; there are flashbacks to his spell in the pink jersey in 2020 here. Fortunately for him, this has no real impact on his ability to ride a bike.

Almeida was wise beyond his years in being able to limit his losses and not blow up on the final climb, and as a result is still very much in contention across the next five stages. 

Jai Hindley makes the GC race even tighter

We did not expect to see a sprint among the GC favourites in Aprica, just as the sprint atop Blockhaus a week and a half ago among the pink jersey contenders was strange. Both times, Jai Hindley came out on top, and both times, the Australian gained time by doing so.

The Bora-Hansgrohe rider is obviously in good form, and spoke confidently of his chances on the final rest day on Monday, and backed this up again on stage 16. He never looked in trouble, despite the massive amount of climbing across Tuesday's race. While he did not manage to distance his rivals, he did manage to gain a crucial bonus at the end, finishing fourth, and thus grabbing four seconds on Carapaz.

This means the gap between first and second is now just three seconds, which could be whittled away in an instant. Obviously, as the pink jersey wearer, Carapaz is still in the box seat, but Hindley is incredibly close, looks in good form, and is ready to pounce.

His Bora team have proved that they can work together and to a plan to help his chances, and now Emmanuel Buchmann is out of contention, he should have another excellent domestique. It might just be a battle between the squads of Bora, Ineos Grenadiers, and Bahrain-Victorious in the coming days, and there really is not much between them all.

Vincenzo Nibali has explained his decision to retire at the end of the season, suggesting that after 18 years as a professional, it is the right time to hang up his bike.

The 37-year-old announced his retirement plans after stage five of the Giro d'Italia, which finished in his hometown of Messina, to Italian broadcaster RAI. With tears in his eyes, the Italian confirmed he made the decision to retire at the end of the season before starting the Giro.

“It’s been a difficult day for me and for my family. I’ve been waiting for this stage for a very long time,” Nibali said. “There was a lot of emotion riding into Messina, my home, my family, my friends. It’s my city and it’s where I started racing and training so I want to confirm here that this will be my last Giro and my last year.

"It’s time to call it a day. I’ve done so much for so long but it’s the right time. 

“I can’t forget that I left home when I was 15 years old. I think I gave a lot to cycling and now it’s time to give time back to all the people who sacrificed things for me.”

For now, Nibali intends to finish this year's Giro d'Italia, while he also provisionally a part of Astana's Tour de France squad. It isn't likely Nibali will challenge for the Maglia Rosa, though, having lost time up Mount Etna on stage four of the Giro. 

The Astana-Qazaqstan rider currently sits 4-16 back from leader Juan Pedro López in the GC, but this didn't affect Nibali when reminiscing on his career during his retirement announcement. 

"I’ve got lots of memories from my career and lots of things to look back on," he said. "There were good and bad moments, injuries that played a part in the outcome of my career, but that’s cycling, there are always good and bad times. It’s all been incredible."

Indeed, Nibali is one of seven riders to have won all three Grand Tours at least once - winning the Tour de France in 2014, the Vuelta a España in 2010 and the Giro in both 2013 and 2016. He also has a Milan-San Remo and two Il Lombardia victories to his name. 

Vincenzo Nibali will miss the upcoming Ruta del Sol as he becomes the latest rider in the peloton to catch the omicron variant of Covid-19. 

Astana-Qazaqstan announced on Twitter that Nibali had contracted an "asymptomatic" case, and therefore won't be racing the five-stage race starting on Wednesday in the Andalucía region of Spain.

"Unfortunately, Vincenzo Nibali will be forced to change his racing program and to miss Vuelta a Andalucía due to an asymptomatic COVID-19," an Astana statement read. "The team will communicate about his new racing program later."

UCI medical protocol will require Nibali to undergo a series of heart and lung check-ups before he can race again, making it unclear whether the four-time Grand Tour winner will compete in Omloop Het Nieuwblad at the end of February.

The 37-year-old entered his 18th professional season in the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana at the beginning of the month, finishing 16th in the general classification as Aleksandr Vlasov took the win. 

In order to focus on racing the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France, Nibali scrapped his plans to ride all five Monuments. However, it is still likely he will compete at Milan-San Remo, which he won in 2018, and at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Nibali's positive Covid-19 test isn't anything new in the peloton though, with a number of riders forced to miss races and alter plans due to infections. João Rodrigues is unable to defend his Volta ao Algarve title this weekend, while Alejandro Valverde decided not to start his home race at the Vuelta a Murcia. 

Meanwhile, a positive test forced Richard Carapaz to pull out of the Tour de la Provence last week ahead of the second stage, with Tadej Pogačar also testing positive last week - though he wasn't racing, and is still confirmed to race the UAE Tour this month.

Teams are stringently sticking to rules in order to limit infections, adhering to the UCI's pre-race screenings and imposing measures of their own too. Jumbo-Visma epitomised this last month, closing down their pre-season training camp in Spain after an outbreak of cases.

The Belgian outfit, along with BikeExchange-Jayco, also withdrew from the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana after some riders returned positive results.

Vincenzo Nibali will not ride Paris-Roubaix after all, as his plans to race all five monuments in 2022 were scrapped.

In an interview with Cyclingnews the Italian explained that it "wasn't possible if I also want to ride the Giro and Tour".

Nibali has returned to Astana Qazaqstan after five years away with Bahrain-Merida and Trek-Segafredo, and hopes to ride the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France this year. Previous reports had suggested that he would ride both Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders in 2022.

The 37-year old said: "We talked about my race calendar for a long time with the Astana Qazaqstan management and the idea of riding all five monuments was really cool. However, after a detailed evaluation, we realised it wasn't possible if I also want to ride the Giro and Tour.

"I'd have to interrupt or even miss an altitude camp with the other riders, and maybe even miss Liège-Bastogne-Liège. It would have turned my training for the Giro upside down and so was just not worth it. We decided to focus on my strengths and to do the Giro and probably the Tour too. We agreed on that together and I've committed to it and what it entails."

Nibali has won Il Lombardia twice, won Milan-San Remo and has finished second at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. These are the three monuments that he would be traditionally suited for.

He will not be riding for general classification, with Miguel Ángel López Astana's main leader for the year.

It was thought that the Italian might retire at the end of this season, with this being his 18th year. However, in the interview, Nibali suggested that he might continue for longer.

"I've signed for a year with Astana Qazaqstan but I don't want to say I'm going to quit this year. It could be the case but perhaps not," he said.

"I'll be honest, I haven't even thought about what I'll do after my racing career. I'm focused on the present, on my racing and training and enjoying it all. I can't say I definitely won't race next year, so it's possible I'll ride Paris-Roubaix and the other monuments in 2023.

"If I tell my wife that I want to race on, she'd perhaps kill me but I want to take the next few months to decide and perhaps convince her too."

"We are rolling pedals; for the gold medals" is just one of the standout lines from the latest rap released by Astana-Qazaqstan.

Yes, the WorldTour cycling team have published a rap video featuring stars including Vincenzo Nibali, Alexey Lutsenko and Joe Dombromowski.

The squad get their 2022 season underway tomorrow at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, but have already made waves with their social media post on Tuesday.

Astana have form in the bizarre on social media - anything for some engagement - and have created raps before, including in 2019.

Their previous effort can even be listened to on music streaming services after it was released as a single. 

The opening line establishes the team's new name for the season, after former sponsor Premier Tech pulled out: "This is Astana-Qazaqstan team."

The rap features a repeated verse which states some obvious things as well as setting goals for the year.

"Looking fresh, we are ready to win. We are rolling pedals, for the gold medals. Our job is to win, Astana is my team. We are riding to win, and it will be done, Astana is my team, from Kazkahstan."

Opinions were split on the video, with some on Twitter labelling it "sublime" and a "banger" while others called it "cringe".

Among those rapping verses was new signing Joe Dombrowski, with the American climber appearing to direct it at his bike. Transcribing rap is not my forté, so I hope this is what the riders said.

"My bike you're my passion, I love you so much. You look so high fashion, I'm out of your touch. I spend all my time with my bike just to feel that all is too fine with my racing skills."

Lutsenko meanwhile, kept his verse simple: "This my change, this my vibe, my passion my message my power my game. My bike on the road, my heart is my team. My goals moving forward I follow my dream."

Italian rider Samuele Battistella told everyone he shaves his legs while scrolling Twitter, and that "nothing can stop us because Vino is back".

That Vino is Alexandre Vinokourov, who briefly stepped back from his role in charge of Astana before returning to the Kazakh team.

He raps, well, speaks: "We built this empire with López come back, Lutsenko can fire and Shark can attack."

López in Miguel Ángel López, who returns to Astana this season after one year away with Movistar. Shark, meanwhile, is a riff on Vincenzo Nibali's nickname, the Shark of Messina.

The Italian, who is set to ride Paris-Roubaix for the first time, rapped a verse in Italian, which I'm not even going to try and translate. I'm sure it was brilliant.

We will have to wait and see if Astana's form on the road will be anything as boundary-pushing as their music.

Vincenzo Nibali will ride Paris-Roubaix for the first time in 2022, as part of an attempt to tackle all five monuments this season.

According to reports in Vélofuté and L'Equipe, the 37-year old is to race the 'Hell of the North' as part of a busy schedule that sees the Italian also return to the Tour of Flanders for the second time, as well as riding the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia.

It will not be the first time Nibali has raced on the cobbles of Northern France, as he has tackled them as part of the Tour route before, most famously in 2014 when he finished third on the stage to Arenberg, cementing his position in the yellow jersey.

He put over two minutes into Alberto Contador that day, and Chris Froome, the defending champion, crashed out before the peloton had even reached the cobbles. Nibali is known as a good bike handler.

Back in October he told La Gazzetta dello Sport: "I’ve never done Paris-Roubaix, this could be the right time. Sure, it’s a risk, it’s a race that has to be prepared in fine detail, but you need to do it at least once in your life."

It is expected Nibali will ride Roubaix for Astana-Qazaqstan alongside Gianni Moscon, who also moved to the Kazakh team this winter. Moscon finished fourth in October's edition of the race after puncturing and then crashing while in the lead.

He is not the only unlikely figure to be racing a cobbled classic this season, with Tadej Pogačar also down to ride the Tour of Flanders.

The Italian has form in the monuments, winning Il Lombardia twice, in 2015 and 2017, and Milan-San Remo in 2018. He has also finished on the podium of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, a race which suits his characteristics. He finished 24th on his one attempt at the Tour of Flanders in 2018, which he is also expected to be racing this year.

The 37-year old will race the Giro and then the Tour following his classics campaign but is unlikely to race for general classification at either of them.

Paris-Roubaix has been moved back a week in the calendar this season due to it clashing with France's presidential elections. This means it falls a fortnight after Flanders and just a week before Liège, which might be why Nibali is keen to ride it.

On Monday, race organisers ASO announced the teams that would be invited to both the men's and women's editions of Paris-Roubaix.

The 25 teams for the men's race include all WorldTeams, and the top three ranked ProTeams: Alpecin-Fenix, Arkéa-Samsic and TotalEnergies. 

Four further teams have been given invites: French team B&B Hotels-KTM, Belgian teams Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB and Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise, and Norweigian team Uno-X Pro Cycling.

For the women's race, all WorldTeams have been invited, with the addition of high-ranked Continental teams Ceratizit-WNT, Parkhotel Valkenburg and Valcar-Travel & Service. 

The other invited teams are the French squads Arkéa Pro Cycling Team, Cofidis Women Team, Stade Rochelais Charente-Maritime and St Michel-Auber 93, along with British team Le Col Wahoo, and Dutch team NXTG by Experza and Belgian team Plantur-Pura.

Vincenzo Nibali can be cycling’s equivalent of footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović and continue to perform at the highest level of the sport in his veteran years.

That is the bold claim by Astana-Qazaqstan DS Giuseppe Martinelli who has been taken aback by Nibali’s form and attitude since rejoining the Kazakh team ahead of the 2022 season.

Having just turned 37, Nibali is one of only six riders to have won all three Grand Tours, his last title coming at the 2016 Giro d’Italia.

Nibali left Astana at the end of that season and in three seasons at Bahrain-Merida and two at Trek-Segafredo, his best results were stage wins in the Giro and Tour de France, and a memorable triumph at the 2018 Milan-San Remo.

Martinelli doesn’t profess belief that Nibali can win one of cycling’s three-week races once again, but does believe that he can continue to be a major player in the biggest races.

“We are talking about a super-motivated champion. One who knows how to read into his future,” Martinelli told La Gazetta del Sport.

“He strongly wanted to come back, and you immediately saw that he is at ease here.

“Do you know Ibrahimović and Milan? He, at 40, talks about the future of the Rossoneri [a nickname given to AC Milan] and wants to win the championship.

“There are those champions who know what’s around the corner. And they still want to be decisive in their own way.

“Ibra already knows everything about everything. He has tried everything, for better or for worse. What else must he discover? Nibali is the same.

“He has won, he has lost, he has fallen, he touched the sky with his finger. I have seen him in [recent] days: something snapped inside him.”

Nibali’s most recent triumph was stage four and the GC at the Tour of Sicily, and Martinelli is confident that that win won’t prove to be his last, even if Astana have only signed him on a one-year contract.

He continued: “On Monday he rode a climb with [David] de la Cruz and in the evening I told him ‘we did the best time’. He lit up. You will see that Vincenzo has some surprises in store.

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“But beware, I never said and never will say that he will win the Giro, Tour or Vuelta again.”

Asked how Nibali can overcome the challenge posed by Tadej Pogačar and Egan Bernal, Martinelli suggested that the Italian “can surprise them with an attack, a strategy, something that is inside his DNA.

“To be clear: I do not expect that on the Marmolada at the Giro 2022 or like the Tre Cime di Lavaredo in pink under the snow in 2013.

“But maybe he will be able to do something that will drive people crazy. Or invent something in a downhill finale.

“At the Giro he hasn’t won a stage since Bormio 2017. Wouldn’t it be nice to repeat it?”

Vincenzo Nibali hasn't yet decided whether the 2022 season, in which he will return to Astana, will be the final year of his professional career.

“Whether I am in my final year? I haven't made a decision yet," the 36-year-old told Spaziociclismo.

“Right now I haven't set any goals for myself. I have signed a contract for one year and I want to enjoy the coming season. And after that? We will see.”

And what exactly he means by enjoying himself? Nibali could be planning to do something he's never done before in his career: race all five Monuments, which would include a Paris-Roubaix debut, and does suggest a ticking off of final bucket list items before it's too late. 

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Nibali is also expected to ride his home Giro d'Italia for the 11th time, which he's won twice, with no word yet on whether he would then go on to ride the Tour de France as he did in both 2019 and 2021.

“It's a beautiful Giro. Heavy, but also balanced at the same time," Nibali said of the 2022 route, which was revealed earlier this week. 

“There are a lot of climbs included in the course, but there are also a lot of sprint stages. The course will ignite immediately. Some journeys look simple on paper, but that can turn out differently in practice. Then I think of the stages to Naples and Messina.”

A stage win in his hometown of Messina may turn out to be too good a note to not bow out on, should Nibali find himself crossing the finish line first on stage five.

Astana, who will be known as Astana Qazaqstan next year, has a raft of enforcements coming into their squad, who will hopefully improve on the 13 victories the team took during a turbulent 2021 campaign.

Miguel Ángel López returns after his unceremonious exit from Movistar, while Gianni Moscon and David de la Cruz also make their way across, replacing the likes of Jakob Fuglsang, Luis Léon Sánchez and the Izagirre brothers.

Vincenzo Nibali is set to return to Kazakhstani team Astana for the 2022 season after five seasons of racing elsewhere.

The team posted a teaser tweet out suggesting that Nibali, otherwise known as 'The Shark of Messina', is returning to the squad, then confirming the news on Instagram. 

The Italian star is now 36-years-old and has spoken multiple times about thoughts on retirement, but first he will return to the team he raced at for four seasons, after he left the folding Liquigas-Cannondale team in 2013.

Nibali said: "I am very happy to come back to team Astana, because for me it is a real family that has given me a lot and together with which I have achieved my greatest successes. I know most of the management and staff of the team, so I will return to the team I know really well."

He added that he doesn't have any specific goals as of yet but he is hoping he can achieve some good results and help the younger riders in the team to achieve great things.

Nibali took three of his four Grand Tour overall victories while racing for Astana with two Giro d'Italia titles as well as his dominant display to win the 2014 Tour de France.

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His last Grand Tour victory was in 2016 at the Giro where he turned around a gap of 4-43 to leader Steven Krujswijk (Jumbo-Visma) on stage 19 of the race after Kruijswijk crashed following the Italian on a descent.

He then took the 44 seconds needed out of Esteban Chaves (BikeExchange) to win the race by 52 seconds. He has not shown that same form in stage races after that, winning just six times since. Albeit, the most recent five were stage wins in all three Grand Tours as well as the Monuments of Il Lombardia and Milan-San Remo.

Nibali left Astana to join the newly formed team of Bahrain-Merida, now Bahrain Victorious. He stayed there for three seasons before moving on again to the American registered Trek-Segafredo as it had an Italian core to the team.

But now he is set to re-join Astana with the return of Alexander Vinokourov as general manager of the team and the co-sponsor of Premier Tech pulling out to join another WorldTour team at the end of the season. Nibali re-signing gives the team a bit of a nostalgic look. 

Vinokourov said: "We are happy that this return is coming true - He probably spent the best years of his career in our team, and I think it is symbolic that he will finish such a great cycling career in Team Astana."

Astana are losing their main GC focus in the shape of Aleksandr Vlasov to the German team of Bora-Hansgrohe in 2022 and with Jakob Fuglsang also rumoured to be leaving, the leaders role could be vacant. 

Miguel Ángel López, who's contract at Movistar is being terminated on October 1, is also rumoured to be returning to the team after a season away.

"For us, the arrival of Nibali is an opportunity to get and to use all the rich experience a rider of his calibre can offer, to transform and improve the team, which will undergo some great changes in the new season," Vinokourov continued.

"However, I believe that Vincenzo has not said yet his last word in cycling, so in some races we can still rely on him as the leader of the team to achieve new successes together again."

Nibali has signed a one-year deal but it is not yet clear if he will continue racing beyond 2022.  

Vincenzo Nibali has abandoned the Tour de France 2021 on the second rest day. 

Trek-Segafredo rider Nibali had been using the Tour to prepare for the Tokyo Olympics later this month, where he is targeting a medal in the road race with the Italian national team. 

Nibali had already ridden the Giro d’Italia this season, where he wasn’t able to compete for the overall win, before targeting stages in the French Grand Tour. 

Despite his aggressive racing, jumping into a number of breakaways during the Tour’s mountain stages, Nibali’s best result was 11th on stage 15 to Andorra la Vella. 

But after that finish, the 36-year-old opted to pull out of the Tour ahead of the second rest day on Monday (July 12), to focus on the Olympic road race on Saturday, July 24, where he will compete alongside his Trek-Segafredo team-mate Giulio Ciccone. 

Nibali said: “I raced a different Tour compared to my past experience, but similar to 2016 before Rio.

“The Tour is a boost for everyone; you can compare with the top in the world. I think it was the perfect way for me to reach the top form for Tokyo. 

“The feeling is good, but for a race like the Olympics, you need the entire team at the top. I’m sure my teammate Ciccone will be a key rider for the team.” 

After making it into the elite 30-rider breakaway at the start of stage 15 Nibali, a winner of all three Grand Tours in his career, wasn’t able to match the pace of eventual winner Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), and had to settled for 11th place, 1-22 behind Kuss. 

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Nibali said: “It was hard all day, not just the finale, especially after the strong effort we made yesterday. 

“In the finale, we tried to push hard, to set the pace high to make a selection. It was a way to control the race also. On the final climb there was no agreement in the breakaway, and it was just a personal confrontation among the best. I think it was a good day, we raced aggressively as the team has been doing since the beginning. Definitely, a last good test to leave the race.” 

Having suffered a broken wrist just a few weeks before the start of the 2021 Giro d'Italia, Vincenzo Nibali says his campaign for a third overall title "isn't getting much better" after crashing on stage eight.

The Italian, who won his home race in 2013 and 2016, has flown somewhat under the radar so far and sits in 16th place on GC, 1-43 down on race leader Attila Valter (Groupama-FDJ).

Nibali's prospects at winning this year's Giro were dealt a major blow after his training crash the resulted in a fractured radius bone. The injury required surgery, and the 36-year-old is wearing a carbon brace to support it during the race.

Nibali did not sound overly optimistic after stage eight of the race, a medium mountain day won by the Victor Lafay (Cofidis) from the breakaway, with no major changes in the GC. He punctured early on in the stage while the breakaway was still forming, before crashing on a bend in a town further down the route.

Speaking after the stage Nibali said the injuries weren't bad and just some bruising, but indicated he would prioritise supporting his Trek-Segafredo team-mate Giulio Ciccone on Sunday's stage nine in the high mountains. Ciccone has impressed with his attacking in the opening week, and sits further up the GC than Nibali in seventh place, just 41 seconds off the overall lead.

"My Giro started uphill and isn't getting much better," Nibali said after stage eight. 

"I’ve been through a lot today in the first part of the stage. First, a puncture and then a slip on a bend while going through a small town.

"I have a few bruises. Well, that's the way it is right now; I have to deal with it. I will think about recovering and look ahead.

"We have Ciccone who is going strong; it's right to stay close to him and to support him as a team. Tomorrow will be a tough and important stage. Let's focus on the team goal."

Stage nine will be a tough climbing test for the Giro peloton. The 158km stage from Castel di Sangro to Campo Felice begins on an unclassified climb before taking on five more climbs, four of which are classified. The final test is the category one summit finish, Campo Felice, a 5.7km climb that averages 5.8 per cent in gradient. The final 1.5km average over eight per cent however, with a 14 per cent ramp in the final 500m.

A sports director at Astana-Premier Tech has said that he wants Vincenzo Nibali to return to his team for the last season of his career.

Giuseppe Martinelli has made it very clear that he wants Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) to come back to his team for the last season of his career, five years after he left the squad to join Bahrain-Merida in 2017.

The 36-year-old Sicilian has previously said he wanted to retire at the end of the 2021 season, after the Olympic Games in Tokyo, but rumours suggest he may continue into 2022.

His contract with Trek-Segafredo comes to an end at the close of the 2021 season.

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Speaking in Gazzetta dello Sport, Martinelli said: "If I get the chance to sign him, I will not fail to do so,

"I would therefore also like him to end his career with the team. I still love him. In the four years that he was at Astana, we've never had a disagreement. He came when he was already a champion, but we still had common ground.

"He will not come to win the Giro d'Italia, but to end his career with pleasure."

Nibali had his most successful seasons when he was at Astana-Premier Tech where he won the Giro d'Italia twice in 2013 and 2016. He also took his only Tour de France title in 2014 as well as several other top level wins including Tirreno-Adriatico and Il Lombardia.

Back in 2018, Nibali told Cycling Weekly that he had been considered by then Team Sky, now Ineos Grenadiers, but nothing materialised.

"I’m happy that in the past Team Sky have considered me.

“In the past we haven’t found the deal, but for sure Team Sky is one of the best teams in the word, they have won a lot of Tours de France and big tours – Giro d’Italia and Vuelta.

"We can open talks with all teams seriously and for sure Sky is one of the teams. We’ll take the decision about my future next year." He then went onto join Trek-Segafredo.

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This rumour came up yet again last year as reports suggested he will be joining Ineos for 2022 in his last season, to bring some experience and guidance for the young leaders with an offer via Italian bike brand Pinarello. Nibali's agent, Alex Carera, was quick to deny this.

"We haven’t had any talks with Ineos. Vincenzo has a contract with Trek-Segafredo for 2021 and he’s very happy there," Carera told Cyclingnews.

"Vincenzo has still to decide on his future but we always said we’d meet up with the Trek-Segafredo team management in the new year to talk about that. We’d only consider other options and other offers if we didn’t reach an agreement with them."

Vincenzo Nibali has said riders should avoid looking at their power meters in races after Mathieu van der Poel’s phenomenal victory in Strade Bianche. 

Nibali, a multiple Grand Tour and Monument winner, suggested Van der Poel races on instinct and doesn’t rely on power readings when racing. 

Van der Poel’s dominant performance on the white roads of Tuscany stunned both pros and cycling fans, as the Dutchman sprinted clear of Julian Alaphilippe on the final climb in Siena. 

Trek-Segafredo rider Nibali, who was watching the racing on TV, told Gazzetta dello Sport, “[Power meters] can be useful in training, but not in racing.

“The data isn’t useful unless you have a point of reference. We’re better off switching our bike computers off in races or not looking at it.” 

Van der Poel’s Alpecin-Fenix team shared their rider’s power data from the 2021 edition of Strade Bianche, revealing that the cyclocross world champion pushed a staggering normalised power of 389 watts for the whole race, which totalled four hours and 45 minutes in the saddle.

On his final attack on the short but steep climb to the Piazza del Campo, Van der Poel powered clear of Alaphilippe with an average power of 1,004w, 

Nibali added: “It was crazy. I switched on the television for the last 60km and I saw what Mathieu did...mamma mia.” 

The Italian Grand Tour star highlighted Van der Poel’s family background as the foundation for his phenomenal performances on the bikes.

Grandson of the late Tour de France legend Raymond Poulidor and the son of Tour of Flanders winner Adrie van der Poel, Mathieu’s genes “are the foundation of everything,” according to Nibali. 

Van der Poel’s performance also earned him the respect of his rivals, including Alaphilippe (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma). 

World champion Alaphilippe said: “I would have preferred to take the victory, but I can be content with this result, as I did my best today but it happened that one guy was stronger in the final.”

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Van Aert said: “I was just not good enough in the final.

“I have to be satisfied with the fourth place. The real acceleration wasn’t there yet.

“I’m in good shape, but the right focus has yet to come. Of course I wanted to win this race, but it wasn’t possible today. 

“The steep climbs in combination with the attacks from Alaphilippe and Van der Poel were just too much. It is and remains one of the most beautiful races of the year and, as usual, the best has won here.”  

Grand Tour hopefuls will be out in force at Tirreno-Adriatico (March 10-16), with defending champion Simon Yates down to take to the start line.

Other big names who are down to go against Yates (Team BikeExchange) in the battle for the overall are Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck - Quick-Step), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana-Premier Tech) and Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe)

Ineos Grenadiers have put down an incredibly strong team with Gerain Thomas, Egan Bernal, Daniel Martínez, Pavel Sivakov and former Tirreno-Adriatico winner, Michał Kwiatkowski down to all potentially go for GC.

The race does not have the usual team time trial on stage one, instead the start of the race has two sprint stages to suit the many top sprinters who are down to ride such as, Elia Viviani (Cofidis), Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal), Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) and Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck - Quick-Step).

Another sprinter who will be making his first appearance of the season is superstar Slovakian, Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) who is coming back from Covid-19.

One rider who can fit into both slots as he has showed he has amazing ability at both the climbs and the sprints is Belgian star, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) who is looking to go for GC in a stage race for the first time as he looks to potential lead a team to a Grand Tour one day.

Strade Bianche 2021 winner, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) will also be on the start list after a very successful debut at the race last year where he took a stage win.

Only a couple of days suit the pure sprinters in this years race but it hasn't stopped then flock to it despite Paris-Nice having a few more days for the fast men.

>>> Tirreno-Adriatico 2021 route: Stages for the 56th edition of the ‘Race of the Two Seas’

Tirreno suits the punchers much more as most of the stages involve several hilly finishes with a couple of uphill finishes that will suit an explosive attack, perhaps from Van Aert or Alaphilippe.

The main stages for the riders in the fight for the blue jersey, though, come in the middle and end of the race with a huge mountain day and the usual individual time trial in San Benedetto del Tronto, albeit with a few changes to the course.

Defending champion, Simon Yates is indeed down to try and defend his title after he looks to bounce back from that Covid-19 positive that saw him drop out of the Giro d'Italia last year.

Tirreno-Adriatico 2021 start list

Team BikeExchange

YATES Simon

STANNARD Robert

ZEITS Andrey

BAUER Jack

HEPBURN Michael

JUUL-JENSEN Chris

MEZGEC Luka

Ineos Grenadiers

THOMAS Geraint

BERNAL Egan

GANNA Filippo

SIVAKOV Pavel

KWIATKOWSKI Michał

MARTÍNEZ Daniel

PUCCIO Salvatore

AG2R La Mondiale-Citroën

VAN AVERMAET Greg

SCHÄR Michael

BOUCHARD Geoffrey

PETERS Nans

CALMEJANE Lilian

VENDRAME Andrea

WARBASSE Larry

Astana-Premier Tech

FUGLSANG Jakob

FELLINE Fabio

ARANBURU Alex

IZAGIRRE Gorka

BOARO Manuele

HOULE Hugo

MARTINELLI Davide

Bahrain Victorious

LANDA Mikel

CARUSO Damiano

TRATNIK Jan

CAPECCHI Eros

PADUN Mark

TRATNIK Jan

WRIGHT Fred

Bora-Hansgrohe

SAGAN Peter

ALEOTTI Giovanni

BURGHARDT Marcus

FABBRO Matteo

KONRAD Patrick

BODNAR Maciej

OSS Daniel

Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux

VLIEGEN Loïc

PASQUALON Andrea

VANSPEYBROUCK Piter

ROTA Lorenzo

HIRT Jan

BAKELANTS Jan

DE GENDT Aimé

Cofidis, Solutions Crédits

VIVIANI Elia

HAAS Nathan

SABATINI Fabio

VANBILSEN Kenneth

VIVIANI Attilio

DRUCKER Jempy

BOHLI Tom

Deceuninck - Quick-Step

ALAPHILIPPE Julian

BALLERINI Davide

VAN LERBERGHE Bert

ASGREEN Kasper

ALMEIDA João

HODEG Alvaro

STYBAR Zdenek

EF Education-Nippo

HIGUITA Sergio

CARR Simon

BETTIOL Alberto

HOWES Alex

SCULLY Tom

HOWES Alex

CRADDOCK Lawson

LANGEVELD Sebastian

Groupama-FDJ

PINOT Thibaut

GENIETS Kevin

THOMAS Benjamin

MOLARD Rudy

MADOUAS Valentin

KÜNG Stefan

LUDVIGSSON Tobias

Israel Start-Up Nation

NIV Guy

HOFSTETTER Hugo

CIMOLAI Davide

BIERMANS Jenthe

DE MARCHI Alessandro

WÜRTZ SCHMIDT Mads

BOIVIN Guillaume

Lotto-Soudal

EWAN Caleb

VAN MOER Brent

WELLENS Tim

FRISON Frederik

KLUGE Roger

VAN DER SANDE Tosh

DE BUYST Jasper

Movistar Team

SOLER Marc

OLIVEIRA Nelson

CATALDO Dario

VILLELLA Davide

GARCÍA CORTINA Iván

TORRES Albert

SERRANO Gonzalo

Alpecin-Fenix

VAN DER POEL Mathieu

MERLIER Tim

VERMEERSCH Gianni

VERGAERDE Otto

RICKAERT Jonas

MEURISSE Xandro

VAKOČ Petr

Team Qhubeka-Assos

POZZOVIVO Dmonenico

GOGL Michael

CLARKE Simon

WIŚNIOWSKI Łukasz

VINJEBO Emil

LINDEMAN Bert-Jan

CLAEYS Dimitri

Team Jumbo-Visma

VAN AERT Wout

FOSS Tobias

GESINK Robert

VAN HOOYDONCK Nathan

AFFINI Edoardo

MARTENS Paul

ROOSEN Timo

Team DSM

BARDET Romain

NIEUWENHUIS Joris

TUSVELD Martijn

DENZ Nico

ARNDT Nikias

HAMILTON Chris

KANTER Max

Trek-Segafredo

NIBALI Vincenzo

CICCONE Giulio

SIMMONS Quinn

SKUJINS Toms

LIEPINS Emils

MOSCHETTI Matteo

MULLEN Ryan

UAE-Team Emirates

POGAČAR Tadej

GAVIRIA Fernando

MAJKA Rafał

FORMOLO Davide

OLIVEIRA Ivo

POLANC Jan

RICHEZE Max

Team Arkéa-Samsic

QUINTANA Nairo

ROSA Diego

BOUDAT Thomas

OWSIAN Łukasz

LEDANOIS Kévin

GUERNALEC Thibault

PICHON Laurent

Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec

MUÑOZ Daniel

PELLAUD Simon

SEPÚLVEDA Eduardo

TESFATSION Natnael

BAIS Mattia

MALUCELLI Matteo

BISOLTI Alessandro

Eolo-Kometa

CHRISTIAN Mark

ROPERO Alejandro

BAIS Davide

BELLETTI Manuel

ALBANESE Vincenzo

ARCHIBALD John

RIVI Samuele

Total Direct Energie

DE LA PARTE Victor

BONIFAZIO Niccolò

TERPSTRA Niki

RODRÍGUEZ Cristián

SIMON Julien

MANZIN Lorrenzo

PETIT Adrien

Gazprom-RusVelo

ZAKARIN Ilnur

KREUZIGER Roman

VALASCO Simone

CANOLA Marco

KOCHETKOV Pavel

NEKRASOV Denis

ROVNY Ivan

Vincenzo Nibali said today’s stage 18 of the Giro d’Italia is now the queen stage of the race, after the changes to the route on the final mountain day. 

The Giro organiser announced on Wednesday (October 21) that the route for stage 20, the final mountain day, would need to be redrawn because of coronavirus restrictions.

Initially scheduled to cross the French border, the peloton were due to take on Colle dell’Agnello and the Col de l’Izoard, before finishing in the Sestriere. 

But French authorities have banned the race from crossing the border due to the global pandemic, with the riders now taking on three ascents of Sestriere instead. 

Today's Stage 18 is a 207km run from Pinzolo to Laghi di Cancano, featuring four categorised climbs, including the Stelvio (24.8km at 7.4 per cent) 145km into the stage and finishing on the Torri di Fraele (9km at 6.8 per cent) - which Nibali now says is the most important day for the GC. 

Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) said: “It is clear that, with the changes announced on Saturday and the fact that Almeida is still leader, Thursday's stage is now really the queen stage. The importance of that stage is now growing considerably ” 

“The profile says enough, but everything depends on the speed at which we drive up the climbs. Expectations are high. ” 

Stage 20 on Saturday is the final road stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia, before the 15km time trial in Milan to close out the race.  

But with the changes to the route, the total climbing falls from 5,500 metres of altitude gain to 4,000m. 

>>> Giro d’Italia standings: The latest results from the 2020 race

Nibali said: “The Colle dell'Agnello was a really tough climb, I've only ridden it once before.

“The fact that we now climb Sestriere three times makes for a completely different run-up. Of course it is a difficult and important climb, but a lot depends on the pace at which we repeatedly travel the circuit with the GC riders ”

Vincenzo Nibali and Jakob Fuglsang are friends again following a war of words this weekend when the Dane accused Nibali and Trek-Segafredo of pushing hard on a descent during stage eight after he had suffered a puncture and found himself detached from the peloton.

"I have not seen the television images at the time of writing," Fuglsang began in his column for Danish newspaper BT after the stage, "but Trek-Segafredo started to lead the descent and perhaps increased the pace after my flat tire. It caused some panic within our team car, but luckily I managed to rejoin the peloton. It was a strange move by Trek.

“There is an unwritten rule in the peloton. It's not okay to take advantage of someone else's bad luck. After my return to the peloton I heard several riders talk about Trek-Segafredo's race behavior. Some riders wondered what the hell they were up to. They thought it was strange that Trek started racing even faster after my flat tire.

"I passed him and said next time he should be careful while peeing. That he must choose his moment carefully. He took it seriously, didn't understand the humour, and immediately became defensive. He said it was not his intention to take advantage of my flat tire."

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Aggrieved, Fuglsang said he doesn't have anything against Nibali, although he expects this sentiment is not shared by the Italian.

"In principle, I have no problem with him," Fuglsang said. "He especially has something against me. I can understand that the press is writing about my relationship with Nibali, but we are fighting for the overall victory in one of the biggest cycling races in the world."

Nibali disagrees with how Fuglsang read the situation, saying that if he'd wanted to not let the Dane get back on then they would have driven the pace harder once they finished the descent.

"Yesterday he said I attacked him, but we just went downhill in front, then stopped at the bottom. If we had wanted to attack, it would have been very bad for him," Nibali told Italian Eurosport, before trying to defuse the situation: "These are sterile controversies."

The evening after stage eight, Fuglsang says Nibali sent him a message. "About the media trying to create a conflict between us. The Italians had translated my column and they see us as the two biggest favorites in the Giro d'Italia after the departure of Geraint Thomas and Simon Yates."

The following morning they decided to clear the air, apologising to each other and resolving to let their legs do the talking over the next two weeks. "We expressed that we both thought the other had done things that were not right. But we agreed to greet each other during the stage on Sunday. Now we both hope that we will ride a good Giro and we don't want a war between us," Fuglsang said.

The Astana rider currently trails Nibali by just four seconds in the general classification, both around a minute behind race leader João Almeida (Deceuninck - Quick-Step). But in Fuglsang's mind, the man who sits in second place, 30 seconds ahead of him, is someone he needs to watch particularly closely.

"[Wilco] Kelderman seems to have the strongest team in Sunweb and I expect them to take responsibility," Fuglsang says of who he says controlling the race going forward after a fairly open first week of the 2020 Italian Grand Tour. "Whether the team will do that is another discussion."

The next likely change in the general classification will come in the stage 14 time trial, with a number of mountain days then following in the final week of racing.

Froome and Thomas headline a strong British presence

Here’s some good news for any cycling fans disappointed by the lack of British riders competing at the Tour de France — many of the stars snubbed their team’s selectors can be seen racing this month after all, only over in Italy at Tirreno-Adriatico rather than in France.

Headlining British hopes will be Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome, the pair of former Tour de France winners who had both been expected to pursue another victory, but whose poor form prompted Ineos Grenadiers to select other riders instead.

>>> Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome to ride Tirreno-Adriatico

Both may be eager to make a point having been snubbed, but will above all use the race as a vital stage towards building up towards their new major target of the season — for Thomas, next month’s Giro d’Italia, and for Froome, a bid to win a third career Vuelta a España.

Both are long overdue a big result, with Thomas having gone off the boil since last year’s Tour, and Froome now winless for 28 months. A race like Tirreno-Adriatico might seem like a sideshow when clashing with the Tour de France, but for riders aged 34 and 35 respectively, it’s an important opportunity to prove that they’re still capable of competing at World Tour level.

They will also be joined by their much younger British teammate Tao Geoghegan Hart, while another talented member of Britain’s next generation, James Knox, will lead Deceuninck - Quick-Step’s hopes for a high GC placing.

Riders eyeing up the Giro d’Italia

This year’s Tirreno-Adriatico might have moved several months from its long-established March slot in the calendar, but it’s still going to fulfil its usual service of providing preparation for riders with their eye on the Giro d’Italia.

With the Giro scheduled to begin less than three weeks after the end of the Tirreno-Adriatico, it will be the last WorldTour stage race in which riders can test their legs before beginning their quest for the maglia rosa.

The fight for overall victory is therefore likely to be contested by the riders who have made winning the pink jersey at the Giro their main ambition this season.

One such rider is Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott). Despite Thomas and Froome’s presence, Yates is probably the Brit most likely to claim overall victory here, having shown good form post-lockdown in his podium finish at the Tour of Poland. A time trial on the final day could be a problem, but if he can take a big enough lead into it, this could be the first week-long WorldTour-ranked stage race overall victory of his career.

>>> Tirreno-Adriatico 2020 start list: Thomas, Nibali and Simon Yates to battle for the title

He will, however, face formidable opposition in the form of Jakob Fuglsang and his Astana line-up. They were the stars of the Italian classics during September, peaking with Fuglsang winning Il Lombardia, and the Dane will again have some very strong domestiques to support him — most notably, Alexander Vlasov and Alex Aranburu, two young riders who have been revelations this season.

Lastly, a rider of Vincenzo Nibali’s calibre should never be discounted. The Trek-Segafredo rider is a two-time winner here following his back-to-back victories in 2012-2013, although these days he tends to prefer to lurk in the shadows during smaller stage races before peaking for the Grand Tour.

A quality field of bunch sprinters

Before the GC race gets going and the overall contenders come to the fore, there are some chances for sprinters to claim victories with a couple of flat opening stages.

Both stage one’s route out and back from Camaiore and stage two’s trek southwards to along the west coast to Follonica barely feature a hill between them, and should therefore end in a sprint finish.

There’s much more climbing in the stages that follow, but the fastmen should get another chance on stage six, by which time the race will have reached the Adriatic coast on the other side of the country.

Top favourites will be Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates), although both have been a little off their top form lately.

Gaviria has had a couple of wins post-lockdown, but nothing at WorldTour-level all season, and finished well off the pace at Milan-San Remo.

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Ackermann, meanwhile, is on a frustrating run of second place finishes, and yet to show the devastating speed that saw him win two stages at the Giro d’Italia last year.

If both these sprinters remain off their very top form, Italian Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) could capitalise having shown good form recently with a number of top five finishes.

Mountainous stages in the Apennines

Although the hilly stage three and six could throw a spanner in the works, and the final stage time trial will provide one last showdown, the main GC battles are set to take place as the race heads inland towards the Apennines for stages four and five.

Stage four features what is arguably the toughest single climb of the race. The Forca di Gualdo is summited 50km from the finish, but, at over 10km with an average gradient of 7.4 per cent, including some particularly steep slopes in its first half, is difficult enough to put some riders in trouble.

The rolling terrain from there to the finish, including a frantic 11km descent to the finish, will provide an exciting climax.

Stage five looks set to be even more decisive. There’s barely a kilometre of flat throughout the 190km of undulating roads that precede the final climb to Sassotetto. At 11.8km long with an average gradient of 7.1 per cent, the climb at one point reaches a maximum of 13 per cent, meaning it will be the most important battleground of the whole race.

Practice for the World Championships

The announcement on Tuesday that the 2020 World Championships will take place in Italy this month gives this year’s Tirreno-Adriatico another novel purpose — as a preparatory race for riders with their eye on the rainbow jersey.

The new location of the Worlds, Imola, may be further north than any of the geography covered at the Tirreno, but with the men’s time trial and road race now set to take place just 11 and 13 days respectively after the end of the Tirreno, it will be ideal for riders looking to head to the Worlds in top condition.

Stages three and six in particular look like great practice for the Worlds. At 217km, stage three is the longest of the race and consists of leg-sapping undulating roads, which will help riders get ready for the epic length of the Worlds road race. And the 25km circuit at the end of stage seven, tackled three times and featuring the steep, short climb to Loreto, bears close resemblance to the structure of the Worlds road race and the difficult route awaiting them in Imola.

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While many of the top favourites to win the Worlds are currently competing over in France, there are a handful of riders set for Tirreno-Adraitico who look like potential rainbow jersey winners. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Felix) and Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) in particular will be one to watch, while victory in these stages for the likes of Michael Woods (EF Pro Cycling) and Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-McLaren) could elevate them from outside contenders to major favourites.

Finally, for riders hoping to win the individual time trial in Imola, the stage eight time trial will be of good use. Despite being the most socially distanced of all cycling disciplines, there hasn’t actually been a time trial in the WorldTour since the season restart, meaning that this one — despite only being 10km long — will be crucial practice ahead of the Worlds. Look out for how reigning world champion Rohan Dennis (Ineos Grenadiers) goes against potential rivals Victor Campanaerts (NTT Pro Cycling), Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), Patrick Bevan (CCC) and Alex Dowsett (Israel Start-Up Nation).

Vincenzo Nibali suffered blunt trauma to his left hand at Strade Bianche after crashing, which forced him to abandon the race.

Of the 166 riders to take the start in Siena, only 42 finished, as the scorching heat neared 40 degrees for a peloton returning to the intensity of WorldTour racing, with the women's bunch similarly afflicted, only registering 45 finishers.

Nibali's injury was specifically to the muscles in his left hand, the team said after the race, and that they would let their rider rest for the night before deciding in the morning whether he would require additional medical attention.

Nibali decided to test his hand in a training session with the team on Sunday morning, and the team's physician Dr. Magni will continue to test the rider ahead of a series of Italian races he is set to compete in.

>>> Mathieu van der Poel rues puncture that cost him chance of Strade Bianche glory

"At the end of the tests the diagnostic doubts will be clarified and the presence of the rider in the upcoming races will be evaluated," Trek-Segafredo said, saying the 35-year-old will first see how comfortable he is on the bike at Gran Trittico Lombardo on Monday August 3.

The two-time Giro d'Italia and Tour de France winner will then race Milano-Torino, Milan - San Remo, Gran Piemonte and Il Lombardia, before lining up for Tirreno-Adriatico and eventually the Giro d'Italia.

Despite Elisa Longo Borghini's fifth-place finish in the women's Strade Bianche, it was pretty much a weekend to forget for Trek-Segafredo, as the women's squad had six bikes stolen from their truck the night before the race, and Lizzie Deignan sustained a painful-looking injury after a crash.

Update from Trek-Segafredo: Good news for Vincenzo Nibali. The medical tests he underwent this afternoon, x-rays and MRI scan of his left hand and wrist, excluded any fractures. A significant blunt trauma to the area of the thenar eminence area still remain, but will not affect his racing schedule. Nibali’s presence tomorrow at the Trittico Regione Lombardia is confirmed.

Vincenzo Nibali has identified Remco Evenepoel as a "real rival" when the young Belgian sensation takes the start line in his first Grand Tour at the Giro d'Italia later this year.

Evenepoel was first to the summit finish on stage two of the Volta ao Algarve, attacking with 200m to go and beating a number of elite and experienced climbers including Nibali, Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Miguel Ángel López (Astana).

The victory is only the 20-year-old's eighth professional win, and Nibali remembers one performance from the Deceuninck - Quick-Step rider in last year's Deutschland Tour that highlighted his talent.

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"In one of the stages, he attacked a hundred kilometers from the finish. I was very impressed," Nibali told Wielerflits. "The performances he put in over the following weeks confirmed my feeling and his victory today really proves that he is an extraordinary talent if you can do this at the age of 20."

Following a silver medal in the elite men's time trial at the Yorkshire World Championships, Evenepoel began 2020 with overall victory at the Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina, and now looks set to defend the race lead at the Volta ao Algarve with an individual time trial still to come.

Later in the year, Evenepoel will make his Grand Tour debut at the Giro d'Italia, which Vincenzo Nibali will be focusing on instead of the Tour de France, and the Italian sees the Belgian as a rival for the top of the general classification.

"He will be a real rival, I think," Nibali said. "His only downside is that he is still young. How does a twenty-year-old rider cope with a three-week race? Young riders need some time before they can really compete for a Grand Tour victory. But I gradually get the feeling that this theory does not hold true for Remco Evenepoel."

Giulio Ciccone says riding with Vincenzo Nibali as a team-mate “is a dream” as the Italian Grand Tour winner joins Trek-Segafredo.

Ciccone had a phenomenal 2019 season with Trek, winning a stage of the Giro d’Italia and wearing the yellow jersey at the Tour.

The 24-year-old is facing a new adventure next year, as he will race alongside Grand Tour superstar Nibali, who Ciccone recalls watching on TV as a youngster.

Nibali is now making the switch to Trek-Segafredo, where he will fight for three-week victory alongside Richie Porte.

Speaking at the Rouleur Classic show in London, as his Trek-Segafredo team unveiled their new kit for 2020, Ciccone told Cycling Weekly: “Next year we have Vincenzo, so we need to choose the programme because we need to know whether it's better to do the Giro, Tour, or Vuelta.

“I think Vincenzo is still competitive and can take the win.

“I always saw him on TV and now he is my my team-mate. For me it's a dream, so I will do my best for him. He was one of the best riders that I always watched on TV.”

Ciccone is one of the emerging hopes of Italian cycling, having now won two stages of the Giro and leading the Tour de France for two days this year after finishing second on La Planche des Belles Filles.

He will now be joined by one of Italy’s biggest stars, as Nibali makes the move to US team Trek after three years with Bahrain-Merida.

Nibali, 35, has already won all three Grand Tours and still looks competitive over three weeks, having finished second in the 2019 Giro d’Italia.

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For Ciccone, the next few seasons are a blank slate.

When asked what he hoped for in the coming years, the Abruzzese rider said: “Honestly it's difficult to say because in my head, I want to go for GC, but I think is a little bit early now, so I can try to take a lot of experience with Nibali and other leaders, and maybe I can try to take one stage.

“[In the Tour de France] I missed the stage so maybe in the future I can try again, but I took the yellow jersey and I think that the yellow jerseys is not the goal but it's great, so I'm very happy about this.

“I had a very good year for me and also for the team.”

Vincenzo Nibali is set to miss the 2020 Tour de France as he focuses on claiming Olympic gold in Tokyo, while also targeting his home Grand Tour, the Giro d'Italia.

According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Nibali's desire for an Olympic gold medal will mean he will miss out on a ninth Tour de France appearance, as the French Grand Tour finishes only six days before the men's Olympic road race in Japan.

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Therefore, the 34-year-old will instead target a third Giro victory, having finished runner-up behind Richard Carapaz (Movistar) this year, his sixth podium at the race.

Nibali has also ruled out starting his 2020 season in January, electing to miss both the Tour Down Under and Vuelta a San Juan, by which time he will have left Bahrain-Merida and joined Trek-Segafredo. The two-time Giro winner says he is disappointed with his third and final year at Bahrain-Merida, but is looking forward to a fresh start at the American team.

"This season has not been super. In the last part I got a little carried away, it was also emotionally difficult. But for 2020, with the change of team, I have new and great feelings," Nibali told OA Sport.

Age has not appeared to curtail the Italian's ambitions, with Nibali apparently also targeting the 2020 UCI Road World Championships, with a Swiss parcours in Aigle-Martigny suited to climbers.

The 2020 Tour de France route is set to be unveiled on Tuesday October 15, while the Giro d'Italia route will be announced a week later on Thursday October 24.

Missing the 2020 Tour de France could prove to be a wise move for the Italian, who has not managed a top 10 finish at the race since 2015 when he finished fourth, a year after claiming the yellow jersey in his sole victory.

Meanwhile, in his three Giro d'Italia appearances since 2016, he has finished on the podium every time, with his second win coming at the 2016 edition.

The 2020 Tour de France is also set to be stacked with climbing talent, as Ineos and Jumbo-Visma take the two strongest line-ups. Ineos will have four Grand Tour winners to choose from in Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas, Egan Bernal and Richard Carapaz, while Jumbo-Visma boast new signing Tom Dumoulin as well as Vuelta a España winner Primož Roglič and Steven Kruijswijk, who finished third in the Tour this year.

Vincenzo Nibali has voiced his support for the environmental movement, saying being a professional bike racer has provided him with the perfect vantage point to gain perspective on the issue.

"I feel like a sailor pedalling for 35,000 kilometres a year," Nibali told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in an illuminating and expansive interview. "On the bike I see the world increasingly suffocated by plastic. I'm with the guys who demonstrate for the environment because no one but them seems to care about our destiny.

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"The bike is a perfect observatory of traffic and pollution: the situation is dramatic. You find plastic everywhere. Politics should impose different rules on producers," he said.

Nibali will ride his final race of 2019, also his last for Bahrain-Merida ahead of his move to Trek-Segafredo in 2020, at Il Lombardia on Saturday October 12. While the Italian will be targeting a third win in the race, he says when it comes to politics he prefers a less combative approach.

"Importantly I do not take sides," Nibali said, "but I think a politician - like an athlete - cannot face decisive challenges full of hatred for his opponents and looking for a fight. They are for those who do politics respecting their neighbour and without shouting."

The 34-year-old began his professional career in 2005 with Fassa Bortolo before moving on to Liquigas and Astana, where he won four Grand Tours over the years. His journey began five years earlier in 2000 after leaving the island of Sicily aged 16 to pursue his dream of turning pro.

He says this experience reminded him of his grandfather, who also emigrated for work, albeit less glamorous employment. Nibali points to this as instilling in him a duty of care for immigrants, especially giving the European migrant crisis that has seen many lose their lives attempting to cross the Mediterranean near to his home.

"My [home of] Sicily is a land of emigrants, I left the island at 16 to be a cyclist and my grandfather left by boat for Australia where he worked for five years as a bricklayer to build a house in Messina. They [governments] are to welcome those who run away from war or starvation, I wonder if to help these people we should risk their life on the boats and why Europe does not give us a hand."

Nibali has signed a two-year contract with Trek-Segafredo, but at 34 years old questions about his eventual retirement will only start to increase in number. The Italian says he does not wish to pursue a role as a sports director of a team, and instead his retirement dream will remain a secret for the time-being.

"I do not know," Nibali said. "Not the sports director: I have neither the qualities nor the character...I have a secret dream, but I don't say it."

Vincenzo Nibali has confirmed his move to Trek-Segafredo for 2020.

The Italian has ridden with Bahrain-Merida for the last three seasons, but will switch to the US-based team in search of another Grand Tour title.

Nibali, 34, will ride alongside Trek’s other general classification hope Richie Porte.

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Announcing his new two-year contract, Nibali said: “I followed my heart and chose this team, knowing that their project is very serious and competitive.

“The great confidence Trek and Segafredo and all the other sponsors are showing in me is very motivating. I am really happy to continue my cycling career at Trek-Segafredo and look forward to 2020.

Nibali has one of the most complete records in the professional peloton, with GC wins in all three Grand Tours and victories at both Il Lombardia and Milan-San Remo.

But Nibali is still chasing Grand Tour success, having finished second at the 2019 Giro d’Italia behind Movistar’s Richard Carapaz, then going on to win the final mountain stage of the Tour de France at Val Thorens.

Trek-Segafredo general manager Luca Guercilena said: “Vincenzo is obviously a great champion and like always, having such riders on the team gives a lot of opportunities to the other riders to learn from his experience and excel themselves as well.

“We are all very excited to have him with us as of next year, and we are confident he will battle again for an overall victory in a Grand Tour.”

Nibali will be joined at Trek by his younger brother Antonio, who also currently rides for Bahrain-Merida.

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Antonio, 26, said: “I am excited to join Trek-Segafredo next year. I know Giulio Ciccone very well, he’s actually a good friend of mine, and he told me about the good atmosphere within the team and about how professional the team works, so I am really looking forward to getting to know everybody and continue my career with this team.

“It’s obviously also important to be able to stay close to my brother and help him in the next two years of his career. I will give it my all to help him and the other leaders of the team to get great results in the biggest races on the calendar and hopefully get some results myself too.”

Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), stage winner in the last Tour de France, says that riders no longer have the same respect they used to have for one another in the peloton.

The Italian remembered when he turned professional in 2005 and raced his first events with Fassa Bortolo. Over a decade ago, fellow riders would quickly put one in his place.

"Now, in my view, that sense of respect among the athletes is lacking," Nibali told La Gazzetta dello Sport. "In the past it was not like that.

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"If was I not careful, back when I turned pro, I'd be slapped. But real slaps. Punches. Those in control would would give them to those who were the most out of control. Today you can't, if they film you doing so with a mobile phone or with the camera, they kick you out."

Nibali has won all three Grand Tours in his career and more recently, on the final 2019 Tour mountain stage to the Val Thorens ski resort, he celebrated a stage win.

Victories however seemed unimportant this week after the death of young Lotto-Soudal rider Bjorg Lambrecht, with the sport's collective thoughts now shifted to another death in cycling's peloton.

Lambrecht, just 22, crashed around 40km into the Tour of Poland's stage three and in his fall, he hit a cement drainage structure. His Lotto-Soudal team said that there was "a big liver laceration which caused a massive internal haemorrhage. As a consequence, Bjorg suffered a cardiac arrest."

Nibali did not know him personally, but was impressed by him in the 2018 Tour of the Basque Country where the Belgian almost won a stage.

"I had not recovered from the efforts of Flanders, I was going slowly," Nibali explained. "And there was this boy who was very strong, he lined out the group.

"I went to our sports director, Franco Pellizotti and asked, 'Who is this?' 'Lambrecht,' he said. 'The way he going, he should be called Lambretta.' We had joked like that. He smiled and maybe he understood us, who knows."

The 34-year-old noted the many difficulties in a sport run on open roads under any condition.

"We ride on open roads, every day. If anything, we are more like rally drivers. We are more subject to the unexpected. Routes that we do not know. The asphalt ruined. The cat's eyes indicators. A crack," he continued.

"There are those [dangers] from the road and those not caused by the road. The group goes fast, strong. Always more. Just a little inattention, a little longer braking, a little less. Someone slips, and you can't do it anything about it. Some risks are inherent to cycling, which is not an easy sport. On the contrary, it is a tough sport, which does not forgive."

A spectator too close to the race caused Nibali to crash while climbing Alpe d'Huez in the 2018 Tour de France. His camera strap caught Nibali's bars and forced him down, breaking his his vertebrae and ruining the his Tour and the rest of his season.

"There are so many unforeseen events, and you have to improvise a lot. The road hides a large number of pitfalls. More than the past. Many more roundabouts, more traffic," Nibali added.

"You are not afraid, but you must have the experience to move in the right way. Especially when you do not know the course well. The risks can never be eliminated. But trying to reduce them is a duty for everyone."

Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) says the final few hundred metres to the summit finish of stage 20 of the 2019 Tour de France felt "never ending."

The Italian went solo from the day's breakaway with just 13km to go on the shortened 59km stage, holding off the chasing GC contenders behind to take victory, with race leader Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) finishing safely to seal the overall win.

>>> Egan Bernal sets up Tour de France 2019 win as Vincenzo Nibali takes stage 20

The stage consisted of just 26km of flat before the start of the 33km climb to the ski resort of Val Thorens, with Nibali making it into the early break as he looked for a stage victory to make his Tour a success.

The 34-year-old, one of the most decorated riders in the current peloton, hasn't won since his 2018 Milan-San Remo victory. He took second overall at the Giro d'Italia in June, but a GC bid at the Tour faltered early in the first week.

He went out in numerous breakaways through the mountain stages in the Pyrenees and the Alps, at one point trying to compete for the king of the mountains jersey as well as take a stage win. On stage 20 though he finally succeeded, finishing 10 seconds ahead of Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) as the GC group quickly gained on him as he fought to stay ahead in the steep final kilometre to the line.

"It’s been a feeling of liberation when I crossed the line because the last few hundred meters felt like never ending," Nibali said.

"My only way to make it was to attack from far out. With the advantage we had at the bottom of the climb, I believed I could make it.

"I hadn’t won since last year. It’s a nice revenge."

Overall winner of the 2014 Tour de France, the victory is Nibali's first win in the race since stage 19 of the 2015 edition and his sixth stage victory in total.

The win is Bahrain-Merida's second of this Tour after Dylan Teuns won on La Planche des Belles Filles on stage six, making the one of only eight teams to take a stage win ahead of the final day in Paris on Sunday.

Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) has said he expects Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) to challenge him for the King of the Mountains classification at the Tour de France 2019.

The Belgian has held the polka dot jersey since stage three, after getting in the day's break and sweeping up KoM points during his time off the front.

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Since then the 28-year-old has continued to animate the race, placing himself in moves or getting team-mates to challenge potential competitors for points in what has been a clear indication that he intends to fight for the jersey all the way to Paris.

However, as the race heads into the mountains, and the points available at summits massively increase as the peloton takes on HC-category climbs, purer climbers than the Belgian will become interested in challenging Wellens and taking the jersey off of his shoulders.

On stage 14, Wellens once again got himself up the road, targeting the category one Col du Soulor to try and limit his losses, before the GC contenders took over and battled for the 40 KoM points available at the top of the Tourmalet's summit finish.

However, Nibali had attacked from the flag drop, getting himself in the break alongside Wellens, sticking with him until 400m to the summit of the Soulor until the Belgian rode the Italian off his wheel to take maximum points.

There are still many mountains and KoM points available before the Champs-Élysées, though, and Wellens expects Nibali to be one of his main challengers for the prize.

"Nibali is now a clear candidate for the KoM," Wellens said, "I already said yesterday that I’d target the Soulor only and it worked out. I wanted to make the breakaway. The battle for the breakaway didn’t long."

Wellens says he knew the 2014 Tour de France winner was interested in the polka dot jersey even before they started climbing the Soulor, saying: "I realized that Vincenzo Nibali was interested in the polka dot jersey when he even went for the fourth category climb. My sport director told me to pay attention to his attack on the Soulor.

"Now it’s clear that he’s a candidate for the King of the Mountains.”

Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) fought through to the end of the Giro d'Italia for second overall, but it leaves him in doubt where he stands in the Tour de France.

On Thursday, in the first summit finish at La Planche des Belles Filles, the Italian star lost 51 seconds to rival Geraint Thomas (Ineos). A result much different than in 2014, when he won on his way to taking the eventual overall title.

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"Let's see. I don't know," Nibali said. "I wanted to understand how my form was after the Giro."

Nibali is typically a playful, but cagey one off the bike who will speak until the last minute. On stage six, after racing 160.5 kilometres and finishing behind all of the big stars, he did not want to talk and when he did, it was briefly.

"I was the only [big] rider who did the Giro and is now here," Nibali said. "Mikel Landa was there, and he did that attack and was truly strong in the final, but..."

Nibali went deep in the Giro to try to win a third title by pushing Richard Carapaz (Movistar Team) off the top step. The Ecuadorian prevailed, however, and Nibali ended second best.

After a rest, he raced only the GP Lugano and the Italian Championships in June. However, he believes he knows how to pace himself well towards a major event having won the Tour before, the Giro twice and the Vuelta a España.

He usually does so well, but in the last kilometre today on stage six, the lights began to flicker. His team-mate Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida) won the stage from the early escape. In the star group behind, Thomas fired in the final few hundred metres and Nibali faded behind off the back. He never really found his place when the Tour climbed the new gravel sector added on top.

"I felt OK, I just paid in the last piece. But let's say I'm not 100 per cent satisfied with my day, but..." Nibali continued.

"I don't know, it was a tough day – the whole day. Difficult.

"I paid in the final 500 metres, which were very demanding. If you got up you would spin your tyres but you couldn't do much more."

In his favour, the Tour only completed its first big mountain day of many more to come in 2019.

With the bus running, Nibali could not be held longer and mentioned nothing of his team-mate's first stage win in the Tour. He showered as the team celebrated and on the podium, Teuns took the flowers.

"That's it," Nibali said. He had to go, adding, "Ciao."

A boss of Trek-Segafredo has confirmed Vincenzo Nibali will be joining the US-based team next season.

Massimo Zanetti, owner of the coffee giant and second team sponsor Segafredo, has said in an interview he was determined to sign the Italian Grand Tour star, who will move from Bahrain-Merida at the end of the year.

Nibali, runner-up in the 2019 Giro d’Italia, will bolster the Italian contingent in the squad.

>>> Giro d’Italia 2019 ratings: How did each team perform?

Zanetti told Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport: “In 2020, Vincenzo Nibali will be riding for Trek-Segafredo.

“I’ve wanted this very strongly and finally I did it.

“Vincenzo is the best Italy has and one of the best in the world.”

Trek-Segafredo is currently built around Grand Tour hopeful Richie Porte and sprinter John Degenkolb, with Bauke Mollema also offering strong Grand Tour performances and Jasper Stuyven their leader in the classics.

The UCI rules state that transfers can only be announced from August 1, but Zanetti has only confirmed long-standing rumours about Nibali’s switch.

After finishing second in the Giro, Nibali said he will now turn his attention to the Tour de France where he will target stage wins and the polka dot jersey of the mountains classification.

Zanetti added: “I’ve noticed that all riders nowadays need a family atmosphere in a team. Nibali will find that with us. We will build a good team around him.”

Nibali is expected to take his brother Antonio, coach Paolo Slongo, masseur Michele Pallini and doctor Emilio Magni with him to Trek.

>>> Simon Yates reflects on ‘heart-breaking’ Giro d’Italia 2019

Transfer rumours also suggest the Mikel Landa is set to replace Nibali as the Bahrain-Merida leader, making the move from Movistar.

Long-time Team Ineos performance director Rod Ellingworth will become the principal for the Bahrain team.

Ellingworth is currently on gardening leave from the British WorldTour outfit and will officially be leaving this summer.

Landa and Ellingworth worked together during the Spaniard’s two-year stint with Team Sky.

Vincenzo Nibali has announced plans to ride the Tour de France in search of stage wins and the polka dot jersey.

The Bahrain-Merida leader has just finished second in the Giro d’Italia and is already looking ahead to his next targets.

Nibali looked back to his best in his home tour but was unable to close down an unshakeable Richard Carapaz (Movistar), who became the first ever Ecuadorian Grand Tour winner.

The Italian will now line up at the Tour next month, with a different set of goals.

>>> Why the Giro d’Italia 2019 failed to deliver the dramatic spectacle it promised

Speaking after the final stage of the Giro, He told Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport: “It will depend on my condition. I won’t necessarily go for the general classification. We’ll see.

“My idea would be to focus on stages and perhaps the polka dot jersey for the mountain classification.

“I spent a lot of energy in this Giro.”

Nibali has already won all three Grand Tours during his career, and at 34 he may be approaching the end of his three-week best.

But looking strong in the 2018 Tour, Nibali was taken out by a fan on the Alpe d’Huez stage and forced to abandon so we never discovered depth of his form.

His Giro was an entirely different story, as he was the main challenger for the entire race, first to Primož Roglič and then to Carapaz, who he eventually finished 1-05 behind in Verona.

>>> Simon Yates reflects on ‘heart-breaking’ Giro d’Italia 2019

The Giro-Tour double is becoming increasingly common amongst the top tier of GC riders with Nairo Quintana (Movistar) riding both in 2017, finishing second and 12th respectively.

The following year Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) and Chris Froome (Team Ineos) both rode in Italy and France, with Dumoulin finishing second in both while Froome won the Giro and finished third in the Tour.

Dumoulin had intended to ride the double this year, but crashed out of the Giro in the first week and is now all-in for the Tour.

Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) gave everything to overthrow Giro d'Italia race leader Richard Carapaz (Movistar Team) in the final mountain stage but will likely have to settle for second overall in 2019.

The Sicialian sits behind Carapaz at 1-54 minutes ahead of the final time trial in Verona on Sunday. He should be able to defend it and hold second place over the 17km, but victory is now out of reach.

>>> Five talking points from stage 20 of the Giro d’Italia 2019

"I tried to the very end, but it was difficult to do much with Carapaz and Landa so strong," Nibali said.

"The Movistar team was strong too, they have four riders on the front in the finale and there's not much you can do when a team is so strong."

Nibali already won the Giro d'Italia in 2013 and 2016, as well as Tour de France and Vuelta a España titles.

He appeared to be charging back towards the top. He rode well in the Mortirolo stage, but on Saturday, he was distanced early on over the Manghen and could not make a difference later climbing to Monte Avena.

"The last climb was hard and came after a long, hard day out and a hard Giro, so one attack could have made a big difference," continued Nibali.

"I'm not really disappointed with my Giro. I'm on the podium if everything goes well in the time trial."

Nibali first saw Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) take control of the race and then Movistar with Carapaz. Nibali ran out of time, however, in the last week.

"I tried to go on the attack whenever possible. Carapaz raced smart and was also a bit of a surprise. Who really thought he could win the Giro at the start?" Nibali said.

"People said we let him get away but that's not the full picture. While all the big-name rider marked each other, he was quick-thinking and went on the attack at the right moment and in the right way. He had the legs to get away on the road to Courmayeur."

Nibali, now 34 years old, will race the Tour de France this summer.

"34 can be a limit in some ways but Chris Froome is just six months younger than me and he's still going strong," Nibali added.

"We're very professional in how we approach our training, racing and our lives. That's makes a difference."

Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) is taking an all or nothing approach as he heads into the final stages of the 2019 Giro d'Italia.

As the race enters the concluding mountain days, Nibali is expected to gamble everything for a third Giro title. He currently sits second overall, just 1 minute 54 seconds behind race leader Richard Carapaz (Movistar Team).

"I've come to a moment where I've already won two editions of the Giro. I'm here. I certainly want to fight for a third Giro," Nibali said, surrounded by fans at his red Bahrain-Merida team bus.

"Given what I've done before and where I am, winning or losing counts a lot more. Finishing second or third doesn't count for anything."

>>> Giro d’Italia 2019 route: stage-by-stage analysis, elevation and maps

In the last mountain days, specifically on Mortirolo, Nibali fought his way up to second overall. He moved ahead of Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), who sits third overall at 2-16.

"But I have to see what the legs say, and I also have to have respect for the team which has always given me great support these past days. I have to think about what they've given for me out of a sense of respect for them," Nibali continued.

"But obviously I don't know how I'll be in two days. If the legs aren't there it would be difficult to make an attack like Chris Froome's," he said, referring to the then Team Sky rider's unforgettable race winning breakaway. "It's hard, they're very risky attacks because you [can] just blow up completely and lose everything," Nibali added.

During stage 19 last year, Froome rode away solo with 80 kilometres to go, turning a 3-22-minute deficit into a pink jersey lead. He won the race two days later in Rome.

"You need the legs as well to do an attack like that," added Nibali. "You need a really strong team that sets down a really high tempo. I'll have to see how my team mates are, we'll have to see and decide how to play our cards.

"Every Giro has its own story, every race has its own story, and every stage has its own story, it's not straightforward."

Nibali has already won the Tour de France and Vuelta a España, and the Giro in 2013 and 2015.

Ahead in the 2019 edition, the San Martino di Castrozza and the Monte Avena mountain stages remain.

High expectations are being placed on Saturday's stage, with 4000 metres of climbing and the final Avena summit finish as the true test. On Sunday, a 17km time trial ends the race in Verona.

"I don't know, I don't know," Nibali responded when asked how he could win the Giro.

"There are these two days coming up that are very difficult. You know, at the end of the Giro, the energy levels are what they are for everybody. Some people have a bit more others a bit less but it's not easy.

"We have to take on three very difficult days. We'll see. I've nothing to lose. Whatever happens, va bene [all right]."

Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) "sprinkles pepper in his interviews" which is not a bad thing, according to Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida).

This morning in Bologna ahead of stage two, Nibali responded to the pair's back and forth that has been taking place over the last couple of days.

"We are all in form and ready," Nibali said. "And then a little bit of pepper in the interviews is never a bad thing.

"I'm not offended by this and it's a pleasure to know that there's a leader like that, motivated and a reference point in the group."

Yates, who was explaining that he is in good form, said on Friday that he would be "sh**ting myself" if he were his rivals. On hearing that, Nibali warned Yates to "show some respect".

The Brit then went on to say after stage one: "I respect all of my rivals greatly, I didn't mean to disrespect anybody". Yates finished second to Primož Roglič in stage one's opening time trial.

When asked whether he'd spoken to Nibali at the start of today's stage, Yates said: "Why do I need to catch up with him? I didn’t mean to be disrespectful. And if he's taken it that way, then it is what it is."

"For sure, it was ironic [Yates original comment], yeah," Nibali continued today.

"You also have to see how the newspapers reported and amplified it, to the biggest factor. And so that's normal. And it's normal that everyone has ability to say what he wants."

Nibali appeared to blow it off only hours after saying "we've all got to show some respect." He pulled out the "pepe nelle interviste" (pepper in interviews) phrase which brought smiles to those around listening to the Italian speak.

"Maybe it's over the top. I tried to always not go over the top and say too much," Nibali said. "We've seen things like this in other sports, like F1, we've seen things like this and maybe even worse."

>>> Giro d’Italia 2019 route: stage-by-stage analysis, elevation and maps

Yates is seeking revenge in the Giro d'Italia 2019. Last year, he slipped out of the lead with two days left to race. He returned later in the year to win the Vuelta a España, but the Giro remains a goal.

Nibali has already won the Giro d'Italia twice in 2013 and 2016 and this will be his last Giro with Team Bahrain-Merida before he switches to Trek-Segafredo for 2020.

When asked whether the Italian could remember times when he peppered his answers in interviews, Nibali said: "Maybe so maybe so, but now standing here I can't quite remember a time, but it's difficult that I would give a response so directly like that.

"I would say that's not my style but maybe I would come and say something like that afterwards."

Vincenzo Nibali currently sits in third place in the Giro d'Italia 2019, four seconds behind Simon Yates, with Primož Roglič a further 19 seconds ahead after stage one's 8.2km time trial.

Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) should show more respect to his rivals, says Giro d'Italia star Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) as the 2019 edition began on Saturday in Bologna.

Yates began the Giro full of confidence and responded to an earlier interview, when he said that if he were his rivals, "I would be scared, I'd be sh**ting myself."

>>> Five talking points from stage one of the Giro d’Italia 2019

"I'm interested in seeing how Yates performs because he said we all need to 'go to the toilet,'" explained Nibali. "I don't know if that's what he exactly what he said, things get blown up at the Giro.

"We've all got to show some respect for everyone who is fighting for victory in the Giro."

The 26-year-old British rider lit up the pre-race press conference with confidence on Friday.

"I've been thinking about this race for almost 12 months, I'm very focused, I'm been very dedicated towards it," Yates said.

When asked who the number one favourite for the Giro d'Italia, Yates said, "me."

Nibali and all the other stars began the eight-kilometre time trial from Bologna to San Luca early for fear of bad weather. Simon Yates was the only star to start in the back-end, just finishing before the storms rolled in.

Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) won the stage and took the pink jersey. Yates finished 19 seconds back and Nibali at 23 seconds while Miguel Angel López  (Astana) and Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) were at 28 seconds.

Simon Yates was relatively pleased with his day and spoke about what Nibali said with ease and understanding.

"I respect all my rivals greatly, I didn't mean to disrespect anybody if that's how they've taken it," Yates said.

"Maybe I should be the one shitting myself then, from Roglič, he's done a great ride today."

Regarding his ride, finishing second, Yates said, "I did all I could. It was good."

He decided to ease into this grand tour after coming in hot in 2018. He led the race for 13 stages but faded when Chris Froome attacked in the 19th stage.

"It would've been nice, but I just went out to do the best I could. If I took the pink jersey, then that was that," Yates added. "I came up short, but that's OK."

Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) has yet to win in 2019, but says his form is "right where it needs to be" as he aims for a third Giro d'Italia title.

Nibali won the race in 2013 and 2016 in addition to the 2014 Tour de France and 2010 Vuelta a España. He was last seen firing in Liège-Bastogne-Liège and in the Tour of the Alps, trying to upset the Team Ineos duo Pavel Sivakov and Tao Geoghegan Hart.

He will return to his home Grand Tour this weekend, as the race kicks off with a short time trial in Bologna on Saturday (May 11).

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"I've always done the same amount of training that I've done before other races but sometimes your body responds a bit better. This year I haven't changed much but it seems that my condition is right where it needs to be," Nibali said during a pre-Giro press conference. "My form this year is good and I've worked so much to get to that form."

Nibali launched attack after attack in the Tour of the Alps to earn third overall.

In Liège the following Sunday he rode to eighth place, as the riding style that earned him 'The Shark' nick-name surfaced just in time.

Nibali will face strong challenges from stars like 2017 winner Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb), Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) and Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma).

"The Giro was the first biggest stage race that I took on and it's been the race that have dreamed about since I was a kid," Nibali added.

"And it's a race I won twice, so I've accomplished that dream and it brings a lot of emotion and I want that emotion of winning again.

"The race has always been a home race and you can feel all the fans' respect and passion so that helps you give that extra bit."

The high mountains do not appear on the menu until the 13th stage to Lago Serrù. The Sicilian can handle the nervousness of a tight general classification and the stress of Italy's tricky roads, but the time trials could be his downfall.

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"There are three time trials that are very difficult and that one to San Marino [stage nine, 34.8 kilometres] is the most difficult. I will have to take that on in the best way possible."

The race opens with an eight-kilometre time trial to the San Luca Sanctuary above Bologna and ends with another TT, this time 17km in Verona.

"And there are the mountains too," continued. "At the moment it's difficult to say which stage will cause the biggest surprise, there’s a lot of difficult stages along the road."

Italian Grand Tour star Vincenzo Nibali will leave Bahrain-Merida for Trek-Segafredo in 2020, sources confirmed to Cycling Weekly.

Nibali has won all three Grand Tours, including the Giro d'Italia twice and the 2014 Tour de France. Last year, in the colours of the Arab island state, he soloed to victory in Milan-San Remo.

>>> Giro d’Italia 2019 route: stage-by-stage analysis, elevation and maps

Sources explained the 34-year-old Sicilian will take his talents, as well as his close circle, to the US-registered team with the Italian coffee sponsor Segafredo.

Younger brother Antonio Nibali will switch teams to race with Trek-Segafredo, too. Also, his doctor Emilio Magni, trainer Paolo Slongo and masseur Michele Pallini will make the switch.

One source said the Trek-Segafredo/Nibali contract will be for two years and Nibali should earn around €3 million a year.

Astana tried to convince Nibali to return to their team, where he raced from 2013 to 2016. With the team, he won the Tour and the Giro twice.

Nibali instead heads to Trek-Segafredo, which hired Richie Porte at the beginning of 2019.

General manager Luca Guercilena and Segafredo boss Massimo Zanetti made a serious push for him this winter. The team courted him at the end of the 2016 season, before he moved from Astana to help Prince Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa start Bahrain-Merida.

The prince and several major Bahraini companies back the WorldTour team. But changes are happening in 2019.

British motorsport giant McLaren joined as a 50 per cent partner. The team brought in Rohan Dennis and signed a deal with Sky coach Rod Ellingworth.

Basque rider Mikel Landa is rumoured to join Bahrain, leaving Movistar, for 2020.

The next two years could likely be Nibali's last. He won all three Grand Tours – the 2014 Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia in 2013 and 2016, and the 2010 Vuelta a España. His palmarès also includes victories in Il Lombardia and Milan-San Remo.

Next on Nibali's radar is the 2019 Giro d'Italia with Bahrain-Merida and supported by Trek-Segafredo, the 2020 Olympics and World Championships.

He is currently racing at the Tour of the Alps, but has not commented on his future plans. When last asked in February, Nibali said, "I don't want to talk about this now."

Trek-Segafredo's manager Luca Guercilena could not be reached for comment before this article was published.

Bahrain-Merida's manager Brent Copeland said: "We are waiting to hear back from him and his agent, we have had talks about renewing, but cannot confirm anything yet. We first must wait on Nibali to decide if we need to hire other GC rider."

Under UCI governing body rules, teams and riders cannot sign contracts before August 1 for the following year. However, often deals are made beforehand and confirmed later – which appears to be the case for Nibali.

Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) is set to use the Tour of the Alps as a launch pad as he targets success in both Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Giro d'Italia, the latter being his main focus for 2019.

The Italian has just finished an altitude training camp at the Teide volcano in Tenerife, and whilst the work has been intense he still needs to find race rhythm. He will head to the Tour of the Alps next week before flying to Belgium for Liège-Bastogne-Liège, with Nibali saying these two races provide the perfect set up for his tilt at a third Giro title two weeks later.

"I really like the Tour of the Alps formula, made of short and demanding stages," Nibali said, "and that's the way Grand Tours also seem to be going. Tour of the Alps stages are usually contested at the beginning, providing a great spectacle for the audience and a challenge for the riders."

His main competition in the Alps will be the man who won the maglia rosa last year, Chris Froome. Between them, the two riders have 10 Grand Tour victories. However, it will be the four-time Tour de France champion's team mate, Egan Bernal, who will lead Team Ineos at the Giro, with Froome and Nibali instead battling it out across five alpine stages next week.

"I think Chris Froome will be competitive. The Tour de France is still quite a long way, but we are talking about a champion. This will be my first race since Milan-San Remo and the altitude training: I am looking forward to test my feelings before the Giro."

As well as having two Giro wins to his name, Nibali has two Tour of the Alps wins, albeit when the race was called Giro del Trentino, before the rebrand in 2017, and the race is special to the Italian. "I feel related to this race, I won my first Giro del Trentino in 2008, repeating the success in 2013, the season of my first Giro d'Italia success. I still remember the emotions of the win in Folgaria, which I won ahead of Franco Pellizotti, who will be in my team car as sports director this time around."

Italian star Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) says that cycling is suffering at home amid pushes for a crowdfunded WorldTour team to put the country back in the top ranks.

Italy has lacked a team in the top ranks since Cannondale-Liquigas folded in 2014 - of the 18 WorldTour teams, none come from cycling's heartland.

"At this moment, Italian cycling is suffering," Nibali told Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport.

"For a rider to join the highest ranks is more difficult compared to before. Every team has more than one captain and he works for them. But the main reason remains globalisation."

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Teams now come from the Middle East, the U.S. and Australia. Some reports suggest a top team from China could launch soon. Nibali, the 34-year-old winner of all three Grand Tours, has taken note.

"For example, Australia, Norway, Poland never had won the Milan-San Remo before Goss, Gerrans, Kristoff, Kwiatkowski. Or think of the Slovakia before Sagan.

"Anyway Italy has not started the season badly. The victories have come and the UAE Tour showed a young rider born in 1996 like Moschetti, who seems very interesting," Nibali said.

"Of course, but at the same time you have to make important investments. The costs have risen and if there is no tax relief or concrete help then it is difficult to start a high-level team.

"In fact, Italy has found itself without teams in the WorldTour, despite our DSs and riders being very much at the top of the market. I believe that in Italy, the potential to re-launch exists, both from a technical point of view and economic."

Italy's top sports newspaper ran a series of articles with people like Mario Cipollini and Luca Guercilena in the last months to highlight the crisis and to promote a solution.

Yesterday, it interviewed the head of Italy's top think tank, Valerio De Molli. He suggested the Italian fans could support a top a team via crowd funding.

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"There was certainly a lack of real projects, and investors need to see signs and projects. We need involvement of the great sports leaders because they give concreteness and project competence, like what Ivan Basso and Alberto Contador are doing," said De Molli.

"Where to start? With crowdfunding, mobilise the noblest portion of the sport. There 5.5 million fans in Italy: if everyone put in €10, we would have €50 million, the funds for a great team.

"And we need a public policy to lead the way, starting from the cycling-rich regions like Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia Romagna, they must invest in the lower/junior levels and in the basic structures."

Nibali underlined that the talent exists to support a team. He and Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) lead the way in Grand Tours and Elia Viviani (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) in the sprints.

"And the young riders? Filippo Ganna impressed me on the track. I don't know him very well, but if Team Sky has invested in him that says a lot, that they believe in him and the margins of improvement can be huge," continued Nibali.

"Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) took a beautiful victory in France this month, ahead of Pinot and Bardet. He had already won at a very young age [21] at the 2016 Giro d'Italia, then he had some problems physically, but it's amazing that he is still just 24."

Grand tour star Vincenzo Nibali is working with his new Bahrain-Merida team-mate Rohan Dennis to improve his time trial ahead of the Giro d'Italia.

Nibali and Dennis, the current time trial world champion, will enter the wind tunnel once they return to Italy from the UAE Tour.

"I'm going right to the wind tunnel after this to do a check and work on my position," the Sicilian told Cycling Weekly.

"The time trial is very important these days. I've always gone well, but you have to work on it. Clearly the better you go, the less you lose.

"For stage races, you better be able to ride a time trial."

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Nibali has won the Giro d'Italia twice, in addition to the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España. This year's Giro he'll face time trial experts Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) and Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) in the race for the overall classification.

The race includes 58.5 kilometres of individual time trial kilometres, more than the 2019 Tour de France. However, the first two are uphill to San Luca in Bologna and to San Marino.

"There's time to go and look at them to get to know them," Nibali said.

"Roglic and Dumoulin are very strong riders in the time trials, so you have to try to be ready to fight. Then you have to look for your chances in the mountains to make it up. There are many others who are going to try to gain time in the mountains."

At the 2018 Giro, Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) worried about Chris Froome and Dumoulin,  forcing him to find time in the mountains before the time trial. The Brit led the race for 13 days but cracked under pressure on the penultimate mountain stage.

"Yates and I are more or less in the same boat," Nibali added. "There are many riders that are good at one discipline and others who go well in others."

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Australian Rohan Dennis joined Bahrain-Merida for 2019 from BMC Racing. Before doing so, he won the worlds time trail in Innsbruck. Some of that greatness is rubbing off on Nibali.

"He does a lot of specific training to be ready for time trials. I don't need to do what he's doing, but we can learn, like in the time trial," explained Nibali.

"The Giro days time trial days are very important, they hold a lot of weight, but we have the mountains too."

Vincenzo Nibali says the Giro d'Italia will be his primary goal for 2019, with a reduced Classics season ahead of the Italian Grand Tour, which he'll follow up with a ride at the Tour de France.

With two Giro victories already on his palmarès, the 34-year-old Italian will focus on a third maglia rosa in 2019.

“The first goal is the Giro d’Italia and afterwards I will train for the Tour de France,” Nibali told Cycling Weekly. “I have never said I am going to win the Tour and the Giro, but if I do it will be better!

"I know the [Giro] route but of course I will go and see the course more deeply, some stages are new, there is one near Turin and there is a new climb so I will go to see it."

With seven summit finishes this year's race could well suit Nibali, though he is bound to meet stiff challenges from the likes of Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) and Team Sky's Colombian sensation Egan Bernal.

One of only seven riders in the sport’s history to have won all three Grand Tours, a relaxed Nibali was speaking at a Bahrain-Merida team training camp in Catalunya, and justified his attendance in France this July.

“Usually I have two Grand Tours every year. I am not obliged to, but for a rider with my characteristics Grand Tours are the best things to do. What do I do from August to October, I have to find something to do,” he joked.

Nibali’s record in three week races is exemplary. He raced his first in 2007, finishing 19th at the Giro and has competed in two each in nine of the ensuing years.

Highlights of his 12 Grand Tour top-10 finishes are victory at the 2010 Vuelta, which he followed with the Giro success in both 2013 and '16, and the Tour de France in 2014.

However, after winning Milan-San Remo last year, his 2018 season was derailed when he crashed after colliding with an errant fan on the Alpe d’Huez stage of the the Tour. Though he managed to remount and finish the day in seventh place, a broken vertebra meant he was forced to abandon the race, the injury blighting the rest of the year.

“Last year was a good season without the crash, it ruined the season,” Nibali continued. “I was very good in the Tour de France, I was very motivated, my position in GC was very nice, there were many stages ahead that were good for me.

“When I spoke to the police on Alpe d’Huez they explained that many people were very, very drunk, it’s a big party. They said they probably need more policemen, but it is very difficult, it is the same for Zoncolan you know, it is very, very difficult to control the race.

“On the Tour Down Under we saw people people almost hitting riders in the sprint with their telephone trying to get the selfie, it is very dangerous, but it happens in the Tour the Vuelta and the Giro.”

After winning the race last season, Nibali’s focus on the 2019 Giro means he is unlikely to target a second success at Milan-San Remo, and though he rode the Tour of Flanders last year he ruled out a repeat.

Instead his final preparation for the Giro will consist of the Tour of the Alps and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, though he expects his effort in the Ardennes to be compromised by his Giro preparation.

“I look forward to going to Liège and doing well, the problem is that if you are focusing on the Giro you have to be ready later. I will prepare at altitude and race Trentino [Tour of the Alps] and Liège.

“But I have one target and that is the Giro d’Italia.”

Trek-Segafredo lead the team race to sign Italian star Vincenzo Nibali for 2020. A decision on his future is expected before the start of the Giro d'Italia in May.

The American team sponsored by the famous bike manufacturer and Italian coffee giant met with Nibali on Monday. The package: a two-year contract and an ambassador role beyond 2021.

It is more than the offer from Nibali's current team Bahrain-Merida, who so far have proposed one year and little beyond that.

"Trek made a good offer, I liked it a lot," Nibali's agent Johnny Carera told Cycling Weekly.

"What can I say? We were also close to them three years ago before joining Bahrain-Merida. The fact that the heads were there make it easy for the team to continue beyond 2020, it's the entire package with Vincenzo."

Trek-Segafredo general manager Luca Guercilena and Segafredo's representative Luca Baraldi met with Nibali and Carera on Monday at the Milan Malpensa airport.

The team currently has deals with sponsors through 2020, but everyone is ready to continue and hoping to do so with Nibali on board. The team currently has Australian stage racer Richie Porte, who they signed in the off-season from BMC Racing.

Nibali has won all three Grand Tours, Il Lombardia twice and Milan-San Remo last spring. At 34, he wants to continue through the 2020 Olympics and World Championships and the 2021 season at a high level.

He helped kick-start the Bahrain-Merida team for the 2017 season after a chance ride with Bahrain's Prince Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa. Following negotiations in 2016 with Trek-Segafredo and his then team Astana, he decided on a three-year deal with the new Middle Eastern team.

On Monday evening, Nibali and Carera met with Bahrain-Merida general manager Brent Copeland and managing director Milan Erzen to talk about a renewal contract. So far, they have only offered one-year. With British racing group McLaren now with a 50 per cent stake, more meetings need to happen before another offer will be extended.

"We heard their request of two years, we need to talk it over with McLaren and Sheikh Nasser," Copeland explained. "Then we are going to hopefully be able to make an offer for two years."

Copeland should extend an offer to his star rider by the end of January.

"We haven't discussed [a role after his racing career]. I know Trek-Segafredo is offering it. They can gain from it, a bike brand, and Segafredo is Italian," added Copeland.

"I don't see how a team that is sponsored by a consortium of sponsors in a country like Bahrain is going to benefit from that."

The ambassador role could be the decider for Nibali as he begins to look beyond 2021. It would mean changing teams at the end of 2019, riding new equipment and ensuring his staff follow, but it would offer him more security.

"It's not like one team is offering two million and the other 10 million euro, but it's that Trek-Segafredo is offering a future as an ambassador," Carera added. "We also have to consider the positive things in the team that we have now.

"The team started off with that [idea of an ambassador role], that was part of the reason we decided on Bahrain in 2017. Things changed, though, McLaren is in. They are going to have their say now, 50 per cent of the team, and the Prince too will have his say."

Nibali wants to wrap it up by the Giro's start, on May 11 in Bologna. He will race for a third title before going on to try to win the Tour again in July.

Another factor is Team Sky. If Nibali waits too long and David Brailsford fails to find a sponsor, both Bahrain and Trek could lose some interest with more star riders on the market.

Italian star Vincenzo Nibali is considering a 2020 team switch, possibly closing out his career with Trek-Segafredo.

Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that Nibali is meeting with the team and their Italian coffee sponsor Segafredo on Monday to discus a two-year contract through 2021. Nibali, 34, will also meet with his current team Bahrain-Merida in the evening about extending his current contract beyond 2019.

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Nibali, winner of all three Grand Tours and Monuments Milan-San Remo and Il Lombardia, helped start Bahrain-Merida in 2017. However, waters became rough when only a one-year contract extension was offered, through 2020 and the Tokyo Olympics.

"It's not that he's not unhappy with the 2020 offer we made," general manager Brent Copeland told Cycling Weekly.

"His original request was to race until Tokyo 2020. We made an offer for 2020 which he seemed happy about. Then he came back after a couple of months saying he'd like to race though another year, 2021."

Since, the team has since partnered with British Formula One group McLaren.

"That was at the time we were negotiating with McLaren, so it wasn't easy to negotiate with him until we closed up the McLaren deal," continued Copeland.

"We had to close up the McLaren deal first before going ahead with negotiations with Vincenzo. That's why it's starting again now with his agent today. Obviously with McLaren being 50 per cent partners in the deal now they have to be involved in all negotiations."

Nibali won the Tour de France in 2014, the Giro d'Italia in 2013 and 2016, and the Vuelta a España in 2010. He is one of cycling's most complete Grand Tour stars with a palmarès that includes Il Lombardia twice in 2015 and 2017, and Milan-San Remo last spring with a solo attack from the Poggio climb.

A chance bike ride with the prince of Bahrain, Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, helped form the team for the 2017 season. Nibali left Astana and signed a three-year deal earning around €3 to €3.5 million, which takes him through the 2019 season.

Massimo Zanetti, boss at the Italian coffee giant Segafredo, already wanted Nibali in his team at that time. With the window open again, Segafredo is pushing to get its home star in the team.

The US registered team Trek-Segafredo hired Australian Richie Porte over the off-season to lead their Grand Tour charge. They signed 33-year-old Porte on a two-year deal through 2020.

Trek-Segafredo need to confirm further sponsorship funding for the future, with current deals only running through 2020.

"It would obviously be nice to have him close his career with us," Copeland added. "He's been with the team since it started, he was one of the most important points of the team starting up when he met with prince Nasser, but that's his decision. We can only offer the best we can and he has to decide."

Nibali has also been linked to UAE Team Emirates for 2020. Any decision is likely to happen before he lines up in the 2019 Giro d'Italia, starting 11 May.

Vincenzo Nibali plans to ride both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France in 2019.

The Bahrain-Merida rider is continuing to chase big results, having won all three Grand Tours and both Italian Monuments.

News of the Grand Tour double attempt comes as Nibali’s team announced a new sponsor – the McLaren Group.

McLaren will become a 50 per cent join partner in the Bahrain-Merida team.

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Speaking at the team presentation in Hvar, Croatia, Nibali said: “Next year, I will do the Giro and the Tour. The Giro d’Italia is my main aim.”

Nibali, winner of the 2017 Il Lombardia and 2018 Milan-San Remo crashed out of the Tour de France after a collision with a fan on the Alpe d’Huez stage.

The 34-year-old suffered a fractured vertebra and only showed return to form during the final big race of the season, the 2018 Il Lombardia, where he finished second.

Nibali has said he is still not satisfied with his glowing palmarès and vows to continue chasing big results.

The team also announced a new partnership during the presentation, Surrey-based automotive firm McLaren.

Initially a Formula One team, McLaren has spread its roots out to the wider car and technological interests.

The company worked with the British team ahead the London 2012 Olympics, in cycling, rowing, sailing and canoeing.

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McLaren’s chief marketing officer, John Allert, said: “Racing, technology and human performance are at the heart of everything we do at McLaren.

“Cycling is something we have been involved with in the past and have been looking at entering for some time.

“It is a completely natural fit for our skills and our ambitions and a perfect partnership with Bahrain-Merida who have the right vision and approach for the future.

“We will be working tirelessly in the months ahead as we know the world of professional cycling is home to some of the best athletes and competitive teams in the world of sport.

“What Team Bahrain Merida has achieved in less than two years, off a standing start, is hugely impressive. Working together with a team this driven is a very exciting prospect indeed.”

The Bahrain-Merida, McLaren partnership will involve work on technical areas, human performance, and marketing and commercial services.