Vincenzo Nibali fights to hold on to top ten Tour spot

Lance Armstrong (Astana) and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) finish together.

view thumbnail gallery

Italian finds ally in Lance Armstrong as the two seek to limit losses

Vincenzo Nibali fell one place to seventh overall yesterday in Tour de France's stage 17 to Le Grand Bornand. He lost ground when rival Carlos Sastre attacked at the base of the Col de Romme, 38 kilometres before the finish.

"We are in the third week and these accelerations do damage," said Nibali (Liquigas). "The Romme has a lot of very steep grades, I suffered a lot. I was able to respond easier to the attacks yesterday, but not today."

Nibali, 24, started the Tour de France as an outside favourite. In only his second participation in the race Nibali has performed well during the first 16 days and lost only 2:18 yesterday.

"Pellizotti came back and helped me re-enter the main group. I found my rhythm from there forward and I could stay with the others until the finish."

Nibali re-entered a group with Lance Armstrong and Bradley Wiggins on the final climb of the day, the Col de la Colombière. The three then pursued a group containing Andy Schleck, Fränk Schleck, Andreas Klöden and race leader Alberto Contador.

Nibali proved stronger than Wiggins as the Italian set off behind Armstrong, after the American attacked in the final kilometres of the Colombière. He used his strong descending skills to catch the seven-time tour winner on the 15 kilometre run down into Le Grand Bornand.

"On the descent we worked together, to lose as little less time as possible," said Nibali after crossing the line alongside his temporary ally, Armstrong.

Nibali was able to pull back nine seconds on Andreas Klöden and 49 seconds on Wiggins. He now sits seventh, 5:09 behind Contador in the overall classification, 25 seconds behind Klöden and 16 seconds behind sixth-placed Wiggins.

The race ends on Sunday in Paris. For Nibali there are two critical days beforehand: Today's 40.5-kilometre time trial in Annecy and Saturday's stage to Mont Ventoux.

Nibali is likely to lose time to the favourites on Thursday, but will expect to perform strongly on the penultimate day to Ventoux.

For images of stage 17 click here

Follow Cyclingnews on Twitter for the very latest coverage of events taking place in the cycling world - twitter.com/cyclingnewsfeed

• Back to top
• Send this page to a friend
• Share this page with others
• Print this page