Trek-Segafredo have confirmed that Vincenzo Nibali will ride the Giro d’Italia despite fracturing his wrist three weeks ago. The two-time Giro winner has been named in their eight-rider line-up that also includes Bauke Mollema, Giulio Ciccone and sprinter Matteo Moschetti.
Nibali and Trek-Segafredo confirmed he would travel to Turin for the start of the Giro d’Italia after a final medical check-up with the Lugano-based surgeon who recently fitted a plate to his wrist.
The team used a series of social media posts based on the Jaws movie to announce Nibali’s presence in the team. Nibali is nicknamed ‘Lo squalo dello Stretto di Messina' - 'The shark from the Messina Strait,’ referring to his style of attacking and origins from Messina in Sicily.
"We’re gonna need a bigger boat! The Shark is coming to the Giro d'Italia," the team wrote, citing a famous line from the Jaws movie.
Nibali fractured the radius bone in his right wrist on April 14 after crashing in training near his home in Lugano. He underwent surgery two days later, with a small plate and screws fitted to hold the fracture together. He was cleared to resume training on the road, with a special carbon fiber brace helping to reduce the pain and he has recently spent nine days at altitude near Livigno.
Nibali missed the Tour of the Alps as a result of his injury and hasn’t pinned on a number since Milan-San Remo, meaning that he will have gone seven weeks without racing but, at 36 and possibly in his final season, Nibali did not want to miss his home Grand Tour.
"The pain is there, but the determination to go ahead, the thought of the Giro is stronger than anything else," Nibali said in a recent video posted on Instagram.
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"It was a race against time and I’m very happy that I’ve won it," Nibali said in a press release on Monday. "Since the day of the crash, April 14, I’ve done nothing but think about recovering in order to be at the Giro. I don’t have the top condition, which I had hoped to achieve without the crash, and I’ll also need a lot of caution pedaling in the peloton.
"But now, finally, I can only think about the competition that, now more than ever, will be to experience day by day. I want to say it clearly: it’s useless and impossible to say if I’ll target the general classification or I’ll aim for stage wins. I want to try to leave a mark on the Giro, but I’ll only understand how to do it along the way.”
Trek-Segafredo for the Giro d’Italia:
Vincenzo Nibali
Koen De Kort
Gianluca Brambilla
Giulio Ciccone
Bauke Mollema
Jacopo mosca
Matteo Moschetti
Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier.
We’re gonna need a bigger boat! The Shark @vincenzonibali is coming to the @giroditalia 🦈#Giro 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/MY2c7k373sMay 3, 2021
Stephen is one of the most experienced members of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. Before becoming Editor-at-large, he was Head of News at Cyclingnews. He has previously worked for Shift Active Media, Reuters and Cycling Weekly. He is a member of the Board of the Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC).
