After Astana manager Alexandre Vinokourov made comments to La Gazzetta dello Sport saying Nibali had to finish the Tour de France and would then ride the Vuelta. Spanish paper AS said Vino was looking to remove Nibali from his team in 2016. 

Nibali and his agent Alex Carrera both said that this comment is false and that if anything was said, it was to motivate the Italian road race champion.

“Vino said that to motivate me, to bring out a bit of nastiness in me,” Nibali said after the stage of Vinokourov’s harsh assessment. “We spoke ourselves afterwards. Maybe he thought I could give a bit more but I’m human, it’s normal. Like I said, I haven’t missed a podium since 2010.”

Even though he did miss the podium in the 2011 Vuelta by finishing 7th, Nibali is consistent. But this year third place may just be too much for him after such horrific time losses so far.

“There are perfect seasons and seasons that don’t go well,” Nibali said of his Tour. “I could give you the example of a rider, a great champion, who I admire a lot: Cadel Evans. He was a great rider who had a great career but he had some years that weren’t super but he remained a champion.”