Vincenzo Nibali of the Italian Liquigas team will skip this year's Tour de France, despite the fact that he initially marked it as his season highlight. Nibali was a last-minute replacement for Franco Pellizotti in the Giro d'Italia, so instead of racing in France, the Italian will take a two-week break.
His next race will be the Tour of Poland, according to eurosport.fr. Nibali will shift his next big goal to the Vuelta a España, which runs from August 28 to September 19.
Nibali had gotten a late notice to race the Giro d'Italia after Pellizotti was prevented from racing. Nibali did extremely well, finishing third overall, despite part of his efforts dedicated to helping Ivan Basso win the overall. Nibali even spent time in the pink jersey.
His good form is still there, just having won the Tour of Slovenia. But in order to not burn himself out, he is skipping the Tour de France and will now shift his goals to the later part of the season.
Nibali has already won the Tour de San Luis earlier this year and after his Giro d'Italia performance, he has to be one of the hot favorites for the Vuelta a España.
In the Giro d'Italia, Nibali virtually achieved all the things he could dream of, except the overall victory. But that, at least, went to his teammate Ivan Basso. Nibali took over the pink jersey after Liquigas won the team time trial in stage four. While he did lose the lead on stage 6, he went on to win stage 14, escaping the break he was in by 23 seconds. Teammate Basso was second, capping a perfect day for Liquigas.
Nibali was then fourth in the tough Plan de Corones time trial and fifth in the final time trial in Verona. This shows that he is a man of all terrain and he could well be ahead in the Vuelta.