An unprecedented May for Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo): since his debut in 2007, the Sicilian has competed in the Giro d'Italia eight times, winning twice and finishing on the podium six times.

The year Nibali skipped the Giro, he retreated to a training camp in May, methodically preparing for the Tour de France in the morning and watching the Corsa Rosa on TV in the afternoon.

The 2020 Giro was scheduled to start on Saturday in Budapest, but was postponed to March due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and then tentatively rescheduled for October 3-25. Nibali told La Gazzetta dello Sport (opens in new tab) that the Giro's departure from its usual early summer schedule was "strange."

"I miss the Giro very much. It must have been days of tension, doubt, adrenaline, and fear, but also days of awareness. You have to be focused, pay attention to details, and ask yourself, 'Did I prepare well? Instead, I am calm now and can allow myself the odd slip of the mind. For the last 15 years, May has been the peak of the season for me."

The coronavirus pandemic interrupted pro cycling from Paris to Nice in March, but the UCI this week released a revised fall race calendar for when COVID-19 restrictions are sufficiently lifted in Europe to allow competition to resume. Under the best-case scenario, the season would resume with the Strade Bianche on August 1, and the Tour de France would run from August 29 to September 20, but Nibali admitted that he is not yet ready to resume planned training.

"I don't have a mandatory program in mind yet. Then we will replace the "chip" and go back into race mode. Of course, we still want to be professional. This is a moment none of us have had in May."

Nibali was originally scheduled to compete in the Giro, Olympics, Vuelta a España, and World Championships in 2020, but his race schedule has not yet been set with the calendar changed to three months.

"The Giro d'Italia is still in my mind, but it's not certain yet. The Giro d'Italia is still in my mind, but it's not a certainty yet. I will talk to the team and decide everything," Nibali said, expressing disappointment that the Giro would coincide with both the Monument Classic and the opening round of the Vuelta.

"We knew it would be very compressed and difficult to achieve better results. Indeed, I was not at all happy when I saw that Liège-Bastogne-Liège was clashing with the Giro! I like to think of it as a draft, in the sense that there is still the possibility of some modifications being made"

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In a wide-ranging interview with La Gazzetta (opens in new tab), Nibali also reflected on past Giro's and confessed that in 2015 and 2016 he struggled with the demands of being a Tour de France winner. The turning point came in the 2016 Giro when, after struggling in previous races, he won the final two days of mountains with two long-distance attacks.

"I was completely overwhelmed by the Tour and even my approach to the media changed," Nibali said. I was always very friendly. I was always nervous and bitter. Every race, I wondered what would be written and what wouldn't ...... I even thought about my family. Then in the 2016 Giro I reset and realized I had to cover my ears and be determined to go my own way."