Following his overall win in the Giro del Trentino last week, Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) was among the hotly tipped favourites for yesterday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

But when the chips were down, the Sicilian was not in the mix, having sacrificed his own prospects in order to work for teammate Enrico Gasparotto when he felt that his own powers were insufficient for a win on the day.

“I lacked the necessary explosiveness,” Nibali confessed on Italian TV-channel Rai. “If you don’t have the proper amount of explosiveness on the day, you can’t win a Classic like the Liège-Bastogne-Liège. When I realized that I had no chance of winning, I decided to work for Gasparotto because he is a very fast rider and I knew that he could achieve a good result in a sprint, which turned out to be true.”

Gasparotto finished 6th overall while Nibali had to settle for 23rd. Next on the agenda for Nibali is the Giro d’Italia which kicks off on May 4 in Naples.