Vincenzo Nibali will ride Tour de France to target stages and polka dot jersey

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.

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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.

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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.