Vincenzo Nibali aims to leave controversy and bad results behind at Abu Dhabi Tour

Tour de France winner will race in the first Abu Dhabi Tour that begins on Thursday, and will be one of the favourites to secure overall victory, writes Osman Samiuddin.

Italy's Vincenzo Nibali will race in the first Abu Dhabi Tour that begins on Thursday, and will be one of the favourites to secure overall victory. AFP PHOTO / JEFF PACHOUD

Vincenzo Nibali made a promise to the mother of Marco Pantani, the Italian who won the Tour de France winner in 1998 and one of cycling’s greatest climbers.

Pantani died in 2004, at the age of 34, in circumstances that continue to produce headlines.

The original autopsy found he died from an accidental drug overdose.

Last year, his mother alleged he was murdered. The case was reopened but last month an inquiry concluded he committed suicide and was not murdered.

Pantani, or Il Pirata (The Pirate) as he was widely known, was a hero to Nibali.

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His 1998 triumph was the last by an Italian until Nibali won cycling’s most prestigious Tour in 2014.

In February 2014, before Nibali’s win, Pantani’s mother Tonina gifted Nibali one of Pantani’s yellow jerseys. Nibali promised to reciprocate if he won the Tour de France.

“I did it last year,” he said.

Nibali will race in the first Abu Dhabi Tour that begins on Thursday, and will be one of the favourites to secure overall victory.

Pantani’s career was beset by allegations of doping, though there was never definitive proof of it.

But he was a supremely charismatic figure, loved for his attacking style.

To many he was a hero, even if flawed – or as Nibali enigmatically put it: “I liked Pantani because he was strong but especially unpredictable.”

Nibali is cut from a different cloth, though in achievements at least he can claim a similar, if not more exalted, space than his hero.

When he won the Tour de France in 2014, he became one of only six cyclists to have triumphed in the three Grand Tours, having won the Vuelta a Espana in 2010 and the Giro d’Italia in 2013.

“I’m Italian, so winning the Giro is the goal of any Italian rider. The Vuelta is one of the three big Tours so is important. And the Tour is the Tour,” he said.

“For me, winning the Tour de France was a great emotion and the fulfilment of a dream. I think winning the Tour is a very special thing.”

Since the 2014 triumph his results have tapered off a bit.

A difficult winter followe as he was hindered by an Achilles problem of which he rarely spoke.

There has also been some controversy. He irked Chris Froome during his Tour de France defence. The Briton, who eventually won the Tour, accused him of unsportsmanlike behaviour during one of the stages. Then Nibali was disqualified from this year’s Vuelta after camera footage showed him holding on to a team car as he chased the peloton after a crash.

It has rather taken the gloss away, not helped by a 42nd-place finish at the World Championships in the US earlier this week.

Nibali is, well, philosophical.

“The Vuelta is an important race and so it was normal to have some lights on,” he said. “Each season can be very different compared to another one, but it’s not a problem; it’s sport; it’s life.”

Abu Dhabi offers an opportunity to reboot, an opportunity enhanced by regular appearances in the region’s premier races.

He has raced in both Dubai Tours, as well as the Tour of Oman.

“I’m very pleased to see how cycling is developing everywhere in the world and I think to ride in Abu Dhabi will be very charming. I hope to be a protagonist on the climb to Jebel Hafeet, which is a good finish for me,” he said, referring to the steep grade that ends Stage 3.

“A race is a race everywhere, and so you will need strength and concentration in Abu Dhabi like in other places in the world.”

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