Nibali to ride Tour of Flanders this year

Manama : Bahrain-Merida’s leader Vincenzo Nibali will ride the Tour of Flanders for the first time in his career this spring, according to a report in yesterday’s edition of Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport.

The Bahrain-Merida rider has toyed with the idea of racing the Ronde in the past but it has never materialised.

Now, though, Gazzetta say that ‘Operation Flanders’ is underway and there are just a few logistical details to be ironed out before the participation on April 1 is made official.

“Vincenzo has long expressed his desire to race Flanders, and we will not object to his will,” Nibali’s coach Paolo Slongo said. “We have talked about it better in the last days, and from us there is the green light.”

Nibali came close to riding the Tour of Flanders in 2014, the idea being to gain racing experience on cobblestones ahead of the cobbled stage of that year’s Tour de France.