Giro d’Italia: Nibali looks to limit losses to Roglic in San Marino time trial
Pesaro may have been festooned in pink to celebrate the visit of the Giro d'Italia but, by the time Vincenzo Nibali emerged from anti-doping following stage 8, it was beginning to have the air of the coastal town they forgot to close down.
Grey waves were crashing onto wet sand on the seafront, while leaden drops of rain were falling steadily over the finishing straight, where the podium and television area were already being dismantled. The boisterous crowds that had lined the final kilometres had long since dissipated in search of shelter.
As Nibali soft-pedalled towards the Bahrain-Merida bus, he slowed to offer a perfunctory account of the Giro's longest day. The 239km leg along the Adriatic coast had passed off without incident – "Nothing to report," he said – and thoughts were already turning to Sunday's pivotal time trial to San Marino.
So far on the Giro, few days have been like Sunday, where the overall favourites will face off on the 34km course from the Adriatic coast to the mountaintop republic. Nibali and his rivals have been eyeing one another closely all week. Sunday will confirm or rebut their impressions. "Tomorrow we'll take stock of the situation," Nibali said.
Nibali reaches the final act of the Giro's opening week in 16th place overall, 6:03 down on maglia rosa Valerio Conti (UAE Emirates), though the gaps of greater concern the Sicilian are to Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) and Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott). He will set off from Riccione 39 seconds down on Roglič and just 4 behind Yates.
Roglič, an emphatic winner of the opening time trial in Bologna, is the overwhelming favourite to triumph again here. Nibali's coach Paolo Slongo acknowledged that a successful outing for Nibali would entail limiting his losses to the Slovenian and roughly breaking even with Yates, whose improvements against the clock carried him to time trial victory at Paris-Nice earlier this season.
A real time trial
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