I know nothing about Flanders: Nibali

Manama : Bahrain-Merida’s leader Vincenzo Nibali admits that he knows as much as the average cycling fan when it comes to racing the Tour of Flanders this April 1.

The Italian will race Belgium’s most famous race with an eye on returning to win in the future and preparing for the Tour de France‘s cobble stage later in the summer.

Complicating matters, he must get to Bilbao that evening to start the Vuelta a País Vasco the next day. The experience will be entirely new for the 33-year-old, 13 seasons a professional.

“I know nothing about Flanders, just what I’ve seen on TV!” Nibali said.

“I’ve never done it, I want to try it and do it. It’ll be a great experience like the year Bradley Wiggins took a stab at Paris-Roubaix. He fell in love and wanted to win it afterwards.”

Bahrain’s Nibali is the only Grand Tour star in recent years who has added a one-day Monuments to his palmarès. He won Il Lombardia twice and placed third in Milan-San Remo and second in Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

The other two Monuments, Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, differ drastically with their cobbles and favour the more powerful riders over the lightweight climbers.

“I’m not doing Roubaix! That’s for sure, I’ve already did my bit in the 2014 in the worst possible conditions,” said Nibali, who won the 2014 Tour de France thanks in part to the Roubaix stage.

“It’s a big thing, completely new. I don’t know the route, I don’t know the race, I don’t know how it is. It’s my idea to race, I wanted to do it to see if I can return in the future and take a serious swipe at it and anyway, it’s a great way to add to my confidence for the Tour’s pavé stages in 2018.”