Shark Tale

Vincenzo Nibali's retirement last autumn meant bidding farewell to one of professional cycling's most versatile and enterprising racers. The Italian legend goes on a deep dive of his career, the state of the modern sport and what's next for him

- ANDY MCGRATH

I’ve always thought that the hardest thing is not winning, it’s doing it again,’ says Vincenzo Nibali. As he talks about the void left in Italian stage racing by his retirement, he inadvertently strikes upon a key part of what made him so special: ‘It’s hard because everyone knows you’re strong so you get marked. You think the same preparation might be right again, but it never is, so you have to come up with something new.

‘It’s like in Formula 1 – the engine is different every year and preparation changes too. If you do training that works one year and repeat it, it won’t go as well because your body remembers it. You have to change it to get the best out of it.’ Nibali was a master of this art of re-invention, getting more out of himself year in, year out. The result was four Grand Tour wins and three Monuments, with a podium finish in at least one of them every year from 2009 to 2019. He was a Boy’s Own cyclist with a knack for the spectacular, whether carving down descents with laser precision, racing from the front on the muddy cobbles of northern France or shining bright through the snow in the Dolomites.

There is no more repetition needed now. We meet three months into his retirement – if you can call it that, because Nibali has hardly stopped. A week after bowing out at Il Lombardia in October 2022, he jumped on a mountain bike and raced for fun – he has loved off-road since childhood, but it was practically forbidden during his career. He has done a photo shoot on Mount Etna for Italian clothing brand Q36.5 and has been advising its new pro team as a consultant. Then there have been trips to South Africa, Singapore and Japan to ride or race criteriums. As we chat in a Spanish training camp hotel, he reflects that he hasn’t had a holiday.