Vincenzo Nibali reborn on Blockhaus summit finish: "I felt maybe better than I was hoping for"

Vincenzo Nibali is racing his final Giro d'Italia, and it would seem as if the inspiration and cheering on that he is receiving in the peloton and on the roadside has helped him onto a ride which has been his best ascent for quite a long time.

Nibali finished eighth in the brutal stage to Blockhaus this past Sunday, and has consequently climbed to 13th in the overall classification. After announcing his retirement, and with the time loss he suffered at Mount Etna, it seemed evident that the Italian veteran would be letting the GC riders go, and fight for stage wins later on in the race, however that was not the plan. "Well, I tried to do this climb in a regular rhythm, because my plan was to defend and not to attack. Today, together with the team we decided to try to keep strong during the day and to see, where I can reach at the end of the stage. Actually, the legs worked pretty well, and I felt maybe better than I was hoping for," he said in a post-race interview.

He started the final climb near the INEOS Grenadiers riders who set a strong pace up the Appennine ascent, and looked relatively comfortable as many cracked in the back of the group. His time loss in his home region meant that he couldn't climb onto the Top10, however the overall classification appears to still be a goal for the 37-year old.

"It was a very hot day, maybe the first really hot day of this Giro, so many riders were suffering because of it. Also, the stage turned out to be a real challenge with D+ over 5000 meters, looks like many years passed since the Giro had a stage of 5000 meters of elevation. However, I think, it was a good stage for us, and now I am happy that we are heading into the rest day, which will bring us a possibility to recover a bit," he concluded. As a Grand Tour specialist, and leader of the Astana Qazaqstan Team, it is possible that he will keep testing himself in the coming weeks, and play a role in the fight for the Top10 as the race enters the Alps later on.