Vincenzo Nibali set to miss World Championships as he recovers from fractured rib

Fractured rib from Vuelta a España crash means Italian rider will skip Bergen World Championships

Vincenzo Nibali on stage eight of the Vuelta a España

(Image credit: Yuzuru Sunada)

Vincenzo Nibali is set to miss out on a spot in the Italian team at the upcoming World Championships as he recovers from a crash at the Vuelta a España.

Nibali crashed on the penultimate stage of the Spanish Grand Tour, and although he was able to complete the race and finish second overall, is still suffering pain in his ribs, with x-rays confirming a fracture.

>>> Vincenzo Nibali: 'Chris Froome isn't invincible'

“I have to understand how I'm feeling and see what I've done to my ribs, because I felt the blow," the Bahrain-Merida rider told Gazzetta dello Sport.

"Having spoken with the national coach, I realised that the course wasn't suited to me and that the national team already has the right pieces."

A fourth-place finisher in the road race at the World Championships in Florence in 2014, Nibali would have struggled to deliver a result on a gently rolling course, with only one relatively modest climb on each of the 11 laps of the circuit around Bergen.

>>> UCI Road World Championships: Bergen 2017 route preview

However Italian national coach Davide Cassani says that the 32-year-old is already setting his sights on the 2018 World Championships in Austria, where the road race circuit is expected to contain two much more testing climbs with as much as 5,000m of climbing in the route as a whole.

"It’s only an arrivederci," Cassani said. "He’s already thinking about the 2018 Worlds. That suits him a lot more.”

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Henry Robertshaw began his time at Cycling Weekly working with the tech team, writing reviews, buying guides and appearing in videos advising on how to dress for the seasons. He later moved over to the news team, where his work focused on the professional peloton as well as legislation and provision for cycling. He's since moved his career in a new direction, with a role at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.