It’s uone of the seven cyclists in the world to have won at least one edition of the three Grand Tours: the Vuelta a España, the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France:. He is Vincenzo Nibalior rather, “the shark”. Sicilian by birth, born in 1984, Tuscan by adoption. It is no coincidence, in fact, that he received, on Monday 3 June 2024, the Golden Pegasus, the highest honor of the Tuscany Region, as a sign of recognition and gratitude for having brought prestige to the regional sports movement.
The Strait Shark
After eighteen seasons as a professional and ten in the youth categories, Vincenzo Nibali ended his extraordinary career at the Giro di Lombardia in October 2022. The strongest Italian cyclist of modern times and one of the strongest cyclists internationally.
But although his radici are well planted in the ground in his native land in Sicilythe shark he grew professionally in Tuscany. To be precise in Pistoia, edeafening in the Under 23 category with the Mastromarco of Lamporecchio with which he achieved his first great successes, including two stages at the Linz-Passau-Budweis, victories that allowed him access to the European and world championships, opening the path to professionalism, where he distinguished himself at an international level.
There was a lot of satisfaction for the golden Pegasus
The now retired champion, who has a younger brother, Antonio Nibali, also a professional cyclist and his teammate between 2017 and 2022, said he was moved by the important recognition that comes from a land, Tuscanyfrom which he received hospitality and training and to which he gave a lot in human terms and sporting successes.
Now let’s look at the Tour del France who will touch the beauties of Tuscany and who will have his own starting right from Florence.
“When the Tour arrives it will be a moment of great celebration and will certainly also give great importance to the territory, so I am happy that the Tour has decided this year to start from Florence, a city of art but which also remembers athletes who made the history of our cyclingand more”. These Nibali’s wordswho knows that tour well having won in 2014, speaking of the departure of the Grande Boucle from the Tuscan capital on June 29th.
“The Tour will certainly be overwhelming and will bring many new things to the area”, concluded Nibali.
But who are the favorites of the yellow caravan?
Speaking of the favorites for the race, the former cycling champion observed that:
“no one knows what condition Vingeggard will be in when he shows up, because he will be returning from an injury. We will have to see if he will make some passes in a previous race or not”, while “Pogacar won the Giro d’Italia, he did it almost with simplicity and We’ll have to see how he recovers his energy before showing up for the Tour. Everything gives us hope that there will be a wonderful duel.”
