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Chasing the double: Can Tadej Pogačar really succeed at the Giro and the Tour?

The Slovenian could be the first rider in 26 years to win the two Grand Tours in the same season

Words: Stephen Puddicombe

Photos: SWPix.com

Winning both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France in the same season has over the last few decades become notorious as an impossible frontier in men’s cycling. Though the double has been achieved by seven riders in the past (once each by Jacques Anquetil and Stephen Roche, two times by Fausto Coppi, Jacques Anquetil and Miguel Indurain, and three times by Eddy Merckx), nobody has managed it since Marco Pantani in 1998, leading to an ever stronger consensus that it is incompatible with the demands of modern cycling. 

Some have tried in the years since, but few have come even close. For the great Grand Tour riders of the past few generations, the double has been perceived as a challenge to seek out, something to strive to add to the palmarès when circumstances dictate. Wanting to ride the Tour, but not wishing to sacrifice his home Grand Tour, Ivan Basso targeted the double in both 2006 and 2010, but, despite winning the Giro each time, was respectively refused entry in the aftermath of the Operation Puerto scandal, and suffered a lack of form.

In 2011, Alberto Contador was prompted to ride (and win) the Giro when the possibility of a doping suspension threatened his participation at the Tour, and, even though he was ultimately cleared to ride the Tour, his form also suffered, finishing down in fifth. After both those results were annulled by the delayed doping sanction, he tried again in 2015, achieving the exact same results of first and fifth respectively. And in 2017, Nairo Quintana’s attempt fell at the first hurdle when he lost out to Tom Dumoulin at the Giro, before tiredly dragging himself to a lowly 12th place at the Tour.

Chris Froome came the closest in 2018, capitalising on a slightly modified calendar that allowed for an extra week’s rest between the two races. Though he toiled to win the Giro, taking the pink jersey only after his now legendary 80km comeback attack, he was clearly still relatively fresh at the Tour. But he still couldn’t quite complete the double, finishing third behind Sky team-mate Geraint Thomas, and Tom Dumoulin — who, having also finished second behind Froome at the Giro, reiterated the double’s feasibility that year. The calendar has since reverted back to normal, removing that key extra week of rest, and none of the new generation of Grand Tour stars have attempted it since. 

That’s why Tadej Pogačar’s announcement on Sunday that he intends to ride both races in 2024 has caused such a stir in the world of cycling. Many have greeted the prospect with glee, anticipating with bated breath the best rider in the world taking on one of the sport’s great challenges. By contrast, others are questioning the rationale of the decision, predicting that it is in effect handing Jonas Vingegaard the yellow jersey on a platter. The double has come to be seen as something unrealistically idealistic, a hubristic pursuit in denial of how the real world operates, a folly even for a rider as brilliant as Pogačar. So much so, that the Slovenian was uncharacteristically coy when asked about whether he was indeed targeting GC in both, saying: “Let’s see first how it goes with the Giro, and then how it goes with the Tour. Let’s not think about the double, let's just go to enjoy racing."

Leading this vanguard of change is Pogačar himself, achieving results previously not thought possible any more. By winning Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 2021, he became the first rider since Bernard Hinault 30 years earlier to win a Monument and the Tour in the same season; then following his Il Lombardia success later that year, the first to win two Monuments plus the Tour since Eddy Merckx. And though he did not couple it with a Grand Tour victory last year, his victory on the cobblestones at the Tour of Flanders totally ripped up the rulebook; nobody had won both the Tour of Flanders and the diametrically opposed Il Lombardia in the same season in 32 years, while you again had to go back to Merckx for the last time someone made the Tour de France podium as well. 

Still, the Giro-Tour double feels like an extra level of difficulty, and one that Pogačar is having to accommodate for. Something has to give from his race program, especially as he intends to also target the World Championships and Olympic Games, and so he has planned a much leaner Classics campaign. He also announced that he will only ride Strade Bianche and Milan-Sanremo in the spring, and neglect to defend his titles at the Tour of Flanders , Amstel Gold and Flèche Wallonne . 

Even with these sacrifices though, it’s going to be very hard for Pogačar to pull it off, if only because of how formidable an opponent Jonas Vingegaard has been at the last two Tours. Even if Pogačar were only targeting the Tour, he’d still have to be considered a joint favourite at best for the yellow jersey, given the way the Dane so thoroughly defeated him last year. Perhaps this contributed to his decision to ride the Giro — rather than put all his eggs in the Tour basket, a victory at the Giro would at least mean he has one Grand Tour victory in 2024 regardless of what happens in France.

Pogačar is such a special rider you sense that if anyone can buck the trend and win the Giro-Tour double, it’s him. He’s currently operating at a level few have in the whole history of the sport, and, given the unpredictability and temporary nature of the sport, cannot know how long he’ll be this good. Aware that, having recently turned 25-years-old, his body may now be in as good a condition as it will ever be, Pogačar stated that "I am now not so young anymore, and I think I can do two Grand Tours”. If ever there was a time to chase history by aiming for a Giro-Tour double, it’s now, and if ever there was a rider to do so, it’s him.

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The Tour/Giro double could mean more conservative racing from Tadej Pogačar - does anyone want to see that?

The Slovenian is set to tackle both Grand Tours in 2024. Will he be able to emulate Marco Pantani?

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Senior news and feature writer at Cycling Weekly, Adam brings his weekly opinion on the goings on at the upper echelons of our sport. 

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This off-season just refuses to be quiet, which is probably a good thing for all of us. Last week it was the whole Cian Uijtdebroeks farrago , and this week we have Tadej Pogačar announcing that he will ride the Giro d’Italia .

First off, I should say that Pogačar riding the Giro will be fantastic, for the race, for the sport of cycling, and fans. The more outstanding riders that the event attracts the better, as the level of the whole thing will be raised, and while it might seem likely that the Slovenian will dominate in May, seeing him with a new challenge will be a great watch for all of us.

Pogačar is not just down to ride the Giro, either, with UAE Team Emirates revealing that he is also set to contest the Tour de France , the Olympic Games road race, and the World Championships.

If we assume that the 25-year-old will start these races with the aim of winning them - as he always does - then this will be quite the task. No rider in the 21st century has won the Giro and the Tour in the same season; only two riders ever have won the Giro, Tour and World Championships road race in the same year; no one has ever done that and won at the Olympics too.

If anyone could do it, it would be Pogačar. The serial champion, the man who can win on basically any terrain, who took victory at Paris-Nice , the Tour of Flanders and Il Lombardia in 2023, the two-time Tour de France winner. 

In favour of him performing, making history, is the fact that he has won or finished on the podium at the Tour, the Worlds, and the Olympics in his short career to date. In fact, he has finished on the podium at every Grand Tour he has ever taken part in (one Vuelta a España , four Tours).

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However, he has never ridden the Giro, let alone in a year in which he will also be targeting the Tour. He has never tackled two Grand Tours in the same season, let alone two five weeks apart, almost immediately followed by the Olympics.

There have already been casualties in the UAE rider’s calendar, with no defence of Flanders on the cards, or the Amstel Gold Race. Pogačar will not target 2024 half-heartedly, though, with Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-Sanremo scheduled.

He is not a rider who keeps his powder dry, he is a born attacker, one with the talent and legs to make this count. To succeed at the Giro and then Tour will require a different approach, though, one where he rides more conservatively in Italy, something he might find difficult. A slightly easier Giro - one with a less hard final week - might allow Pogačar to build up a lead early and then defend it, but this would require him to change his style. Is that the Pogačar we want to see at the Giro? Is that the Pogačar the race organisers and his sponsors want, too?

On the other hand, perhaps he will go all guns blazing at the Giro, and then tackle the Tour with an open mind, pressure off. There is an argument that for a two-time winner, another yellow jersey is worth less than a first pink one, and this situation creates the opportunity for history, too.

The Giro-Tour double has not only seemed impossible because no one has achieved it since Marco Pantani in 1998, but impossible because no one has really tried it. The Tour has such a gravitational pull that everything revolves around the French race, and a tilt at the Giro is seen as frippery, an add-on. It might be different for Pogačar, whose UAE team is the successor to the Italian Lampre; there are also close ties between the countries of the UAE and Italy. 

A stab at history is an exciting thing, and a brave thing too. We can almost guarantee that with Pogačar embarking on it, there will be fun along the way too. Onto 2024.

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Adam is Cycling Weekly ’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling on tarmac, he's happy. Before joining Cycling Weekly he spent two years writing for Procycling, where he interviewed riders and wrote about racing. He's usually out and about on the roads of Bristol and its surrounds. Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don't ask how that is related to cycling.

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Pogacar, vying for rare Giro/Tour double, is man to beat

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Breaking Down the Odds, Risks & Rewards of Pogačar’s Giro/Tour Double

Transfer time # 6: israel-premier tech & intermarché-wanty.

Transfer Analysis: Spencer Martin breaks down the odds, risks and rewards of Tadej Pogačar’s bold Giro/Tour double attempt in 2024. Plus Transfer Time # 6 : Israel – Premier Tech and Intermarché-Wanty.

– This article is an excerpt from the Beyond the Peloton newsletter. Sign up here for full access. –

At the end of the 2023 Tour de France, the consensus view was that to defeat Jonas Vingegaard and win his third Tour de France title, Tadej Pogačar needed to significantly narrow his race schedule and ambitions in 2024 relative to his sprawling 2023 campaign.

However, just a few months after learning that lesson, the transcendent superstar appears to have thrown caution to the wind by announcing that instead of focusing on the Tour de France in 2024, he would be significantly widening his scope this coming season by attempting the near-impossible Giro d’Italia/Tour de France double, while also targeting Olympic gold in early August, World Championships in late September before finishing off the season with an attempt at winning his fourth-consecutive Il Lombardia in early October.

Pogačar’s 2024 Schedule 3/4: Strade Bianche 3/16: Milan-San Remo 3/18-3/24: Volta a Catalunya 4/21: Liège-Bastogne-Liège 5/4-5/26: Giro d’Italia 6/29-7/21: Tour de France 7/27-8/3: Olympic Games TT & RR 9/13-9/15: GP Québec & Montreal 9/29: World Championships RR 10/12: Il Lombardia

Why this is shocking, and what it means for Pogačar and the other Tour contenders in 2024: While this race schedule certainly mixes things up for Pogačar sets up a great Giro d’Italia, where we will see two of the sport’s biggest stars, Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogačar, duke it out for stages, and potentially even the overall title, I can’t express just how shocking this news was to me and just how much it helps Jonas Vingegaard at the Tour de France.

• Even though Pogačar is attempting to leverage an easier-than-normal Giro route to get an ‘easy’ grand tour win on the board before heading to the Tour (he hasn’t won a grand tour since 2021) and potentially complete a historic Giro-Tour sweep, racing any three-week race, even one with a relatively mild course, is still incredibly difficult, especially due to the trend of line-to-line racing in modern cycling.
• This means Pogačar’s decision to race drastically shifts the odds in favor of Vingegaard to win the Tour and also means Primož Roglič has a much better chance than he would have had otherwise.
• After the Pogačar announcement, betting markets have Vingegaard at -155 (61% chance of winning) to win the Tour, while Pogačar has dropped to +300 (25% chance) and Roglič is up to +500 (16.7%).
• To highlight just how difficult the feat of contesting both the Giro and Tour, in the 100+ years of cycling history, only seven riders have won both races in the same season, with Marco Pantani double a quarter of a century ago being the last time it occurred (tests would later reveal Pantani used EPO to complete the feat).
• Since Pantani accomplished this, only three extremely talented riders have come close to the double, only to fall short due to fatigue at the Tour.
• 2015: Alberto Contador- Giro 1st & Tour 5th
• 2018: Chris Froome-Giro 1st & Tour 3rd
• 2018: Tom Dumoulin-Giro 2nd & Tour 2nd

The Risks Pogačar is certainly more talented than any of these three riders, has already redefined what a rider is capable of in modern cycling, and would ascend into the upper echelon of the sport’s greats if he could win both races, but this attempt seems like a bridge too far and carries a significant amount of risk.

• In the last two Tours, Pogačar has been outclassed by Vingegaard in the race’s toughest mountain stages.
• Since the only way to remedy this weakness is to lessen his racing load and focus more on specific high-altitude training camps prior to the Tour, this decision to double up at the Giro and Tour seems ill-advised.
• Also, it is incredibly unusual, if not unprecedented, for a rider who finishes second to the same rider at the Tour multiple times to shift their focus the following season while still in their prime. In fact, when big champions start targeting the Giro after winning the Tour, it is incredibly rare for them to come back and win the Tour again.
• After winning the Giro in 2015 and 2018, Contador and Froome never again won the Tour de France.
• Additionally, if Pogačar shows up to the Tour and looks subpar after the Giro, it will be hard for him to avoid the narrative that he was running from a fair fight with Vingegaard at the Tour and hedged against being left with yet another runner-up place at the Tour by getting a Giro win in beforehand.

The Rewards & Logic On the flip side, one has to imagine Pogačar signed a highly lucrative seven-figure contract with RCS to make their marque races the centerpieces of his season (Lance Armstrong and Chris Froome each received between €2-€3 million to start the Giro).

• Making large amounts of money is nice, and I’d imagine Pogačar will enjoy having a few extra million burning a hole in his pocket for doing exactly what he would be doing anyway to prepare for the Tour (riding his bike a lot, oftentimes up mountains very fast).

Also, we can’t underestimate the morale boost Pogačar could receive from getting a grand tour win before the start of the Tour.

• Heading into yet another Tour duel with Vingegaard with a Giro win under his belt could potentially take pressure off Pogačar.

Sepp Kuss won the 2023 Vuelta a España after racing a very strong Tour de France, after completing all three grand tours in a single season.

• Perhaps modern training science has potentially shown that with proper training, nutrition, and recovery, a top rider can actually prepare for a three-week race by racing one just a few weeks prior.

If he is somehow able to pull off the double, Pogačar would immediately enter the upper echelons of the sport’s all-time greats before he even heads into the back half of the season where he could win Olympic gold, a World title, and yet another one-day Monument.

• We don’t yet know if this is a great or terrible idea, but we do know that RCS’ aggressive recruitment of Van Aert and Pogačar for its grand tour has certainly added much-needed publicity around the Giro and made it match-watch TV for any dedicated cycling fan.

Weekly Transfer Analysis Part 6:

To continue our in-depth transfer analysis of every top team going into the 2024 season, I’ve continued to select two teams that have had polar opposite experiences as teams over the last few years, as well as in the transfer market so far this off-season, but have broken from form slightly by selecting one WorldTour and one second-division (ProTeam) team: Intermarché-Wanty and Israel-Premier Tech.

• You can see Transfer Time #1 HERE, #2 HERE #3 HERE , #4 HERE , #5 HERE and an Updated Transfer Time HERE .

Israel-Premier Tech

• Notable new signings: Pascal Ackerman (UAE), George Bennett (UAE), Hugo Hofstetter (Arkéa), Jake Stewart (FDJ), Ethan Vernon (Soudal-QuickStep), Riley Sheehan (Denver Disruptors)
• Notable departing riders: Sebastian Berwick (Caja-Rural), Giacomo Nizzolo (Q36.5), Ben Hermans (Cofidis), Sep Vanmarcke (retired), Daryl Impey (retired)
• Notable unsigned riders: Domenico Pozzovivo
• Total Riders In: 10
• Total Riders Out: 10
• 2024 Roster Spots Remaining: 0
• 2023 UCI Team Ranking Position: 16th
• Pro Cycling Stats Points In/Out: +406

After falling victim to relegation from the sport’s top flight at the end of the 2022 season, the now second-division squad had a slightly improved 2023, but, relative to teams competing to get back into the sport’s top tier, had a thoroughly mediocre campaign. While they had a few standout performances from previously unknown riders, like Derek Gee coming out of nowhere to become their 3rd highest points-scoring rider, and they saw young riders like Corbin Strong and Matthew Riccitello continue to develop, and veteran stalwart Michael Woods deliver with a Tour de France stage win, the team was ultimately dragged down in the aggregate by underperformances across the board by their highly-paid veteran riders. But, likely as a response to this, management was extremely aggressive this off-season by going out and signing 10 new riders, including a strong batch of quality young, while sending 10 riders out.

• The addition of 29-year-old sprinter Pascal Ackerman is the team’s headline addition of the off-season.
• While the German fastman is still capable of bagging Grand Tour stages (he won a stage at the 2023 Giro), he is a shadow of the rider who won the Points Jersey at the 2019 Giro and finished 7th in the 2019 PCS Rider Rankings (he finished 179th in 2023).
• But, as long as Israel’s expectations, and financial investment, take this dropoff into account, he could act as a solid bunch sprint specialist for the team in 2024, which is something they’ve lacked in recent years (they’ve never won a Grand Tour stage from a bunch sprint).
• Additionally, even if Ackerman struggles to return to his winning ways, 2nd-10th place finishes at WorldTour races will be incredibly valuable for the team as they aim to rack up UCI points to get back into the WorldTour when the promotion/relegation cycle ends in 2025.
• While it won’t get the headlines of the Ackerman signing, bringing on Riley Sheehan (23), Jake Stewart (24), and Ethan Vernon (23) sees them pick up three incredibly strong young riders who could all step in and contest wins at lesser-WorldTour races for the team in 2024.
• The 33-year-old George Bennett, who comes over after a few forgettable years at UAE, is a slightly odd pickup since, at least at this point in his career, he is operating as a grand tour domestique.
• But he did finish an impressive top ten at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in 2023, and if IPT thinks they can rehab him back into the stage-hunting form he had in 2020 and 2021, then this is a decent pickup for them.
• The outgoing crop of riders might feature some big names like Giacomo Nizzolo, Ben Hermans, Sep Vanmarcke, and Daryl Impey, but due to their age and/or declining performances, none will be sorely missed.
• Instead, the departure of the 24-year-old climbing specialist Sebastian Berwick, who broke out by finishing on a stage podium at the 2023 Giro, is a bit of a head-scratcher.
• Berwick might not have been progressing as quickly as the team would have liked after three years, but he was coming off a career season and seemed to have plenty of potential upside.

Intermarché-Wanty

• Notable new signings: Francesco Busatto (Circus – ReUz – Technord), Alexy Faure Prost (Circus – ReUz – Technord)
• Notable departing riders: Rui Costa (EF), Sven Erik Bystrøm (FDJ), Niccolò Bonifazio (Corratec)
• Notable unsigned riders:
• Total Riders In: 5
• Total Riders Out: 7
• 2024 Roster Spots Remaining: 3
• 2023 UCI Team Ranking Position: 15th
• Pro Cycling Stats Points In/Out: -1419

Coming off a disappointing 2023 season, which saw them revert to the mean after a fantastic 2022, Intermarché has had a surprisingly muted off-season that saw them depart with a key veteran, Rui Costa, while bringing on a series of talented but incredibly unproven, young riders. While this might be the best move for the long term, it is difficult to imagine the loss of Circus, a casino, as a sponsor due to a new Belgian gambling law (funnily enough, the state lottery, Lotto, is exempt from this rule) didn’t cause a crash-crunch that has dented the team’s ability to procure talent at a critical time.

• Amidst one of the blandest transfer performances in the World Tour, Intermarché’s biggest highlight is parting with a good chunk of its veteran riders (Rui Costa, Sven Erik Bystrøm, and Niccolò Bonifazio).
• With Bonifazio and Erik Bystrøm (U23 World Champion) never panning out as expected, their departures won’t move the needle for the team.
• However, losing Rui Costa is notable.
• Even at 37 years old, Costa was the team’s biggest points scorer in 2023 and was able to take a grand tour stage win at the Vuelta.
• While I love the idea of bringing in a collection of young talent and shedding older riders and believe the team will benefit long-term from doing so, the fact that they are at a net loss of PCS points for the second straight season means the team is increasingly revolving around the 23-year-old Biniam Girmay and that a significant amount of pressure will be on his young shoulders in 2024 to ensure the team avoids a relegation battle in 2025.
• But, going in their favor is that their track record of discovering and developing young talent into race winners is incredibly solid (Girmay, Gerben Thijssen, Georg Zimmermann), which means the young riders they are bringing up from their development squad, like 21-year-old Francesco Busatto (winner of 2023 U23 Liege-Bastogne-Liege) and 19-year-old Alexy Faure Prost (winner of 2023 U23 French road race championships), have a very good chance of quickly turning into more productive veterans they are departing with at a fraction of the cost.
• Despite having a very milquetoast transfer season on the surface, I think one of the more quietly interesting subplots of 2024 is Intermarché being forced to lean into younger, cheaper riders and if they can get back to the overproduction that marked their 2023 instead of the frustrating underperformance that marked 2024.

Spencer Martin authors the cycling-analysis newsletter Beyond the Peloton that breaks down the nuances of each race and attempts to bring a logic-based approach to cycling coverage. He is also a partner in cycling business publication The Outer Line, and in the past, has written for cycling outlets such as Velonews and CyclingTips. He has raced at a high-level in the past and still enjoys participating in a wide variety of races as well as riding in the mountains surrounding his residence in Boulder, Colorado. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @spencersoward.

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Giro-Tour double: Pog vs other recent attempts

F irst Tour rest day and we need to take stock. There were a ton of unknowns among the pre-race GC favorites, including the recovery statuses of Vingegaard, Roglic, and Evenepoel, plus a major heat check on the recent Giro winner Pogacar. The latter is what I am focusing on here, specifically how is he faring when compared with other recent Giro winners? How are we to know if what he has done so far is better, worse, or business as usual for a Giro winner attempting to win the Tour?

To that end, I looked at all the riders who podiumed at the Giro and then raced the Tour since 2010. I didn’t want to get into the Lance mess of the oughts. I did include not just the Giro winners but the entire podium from that race to increase the sample size. That’s 14 seasons and potentially 42 Giro podium riders. The actual number of riders was just 11. Far more Giro podiumists skipped the Tour and did the Vuelta.

Four of the 14 seasons had no Giro podium finishers riding the Tour: 2023, 2022, 2019, and 2014, Oh, include 2020 since the Giro happened after the Tour that year. 2018 and 2016 each had two Giro podium boys riding the Tour.

So did I learn anything, besides the obvious, that none of these 11 riders won both the Giro and the Tour? Sure, maybe, probably: I mean just 11 riders is a small sample size so I would not bet your house on Pogacar winning or losing the Tour. However, to balance the small sample size, the quality of the riders is a who’s who of the elite GC guys. Froome. Contador. Doom. Nibali. Evans: almost all the major GC guys before the Roglic-Pog-Vinge-Remco generation reared their heads. And as I will say later on, that’s important. I take a closer look at each of the 11 riders at the bottom of this post, but first some thoughts on. what I see, which you can disagree with:

None of these 11 riders who podiumed in the Giro and then raced the Tour were leading the Tour after stage 9. Pogacar has already done something that they other GC heavies didn’t.

• All of these 11 riders were also behind the eventual Tour winner. (Usually, but not always there was a different Tour leader than the one who eventually won the race due to the opening stages were either mostly flat stages and the real GC contest hadn't begun or a breakaway winner still had a cushion (hel-lo Thomas Voeckler in 2011).
• All 11 had lost significant time by stage 9. In other words, most of them were out of the GC race by stage 9 even though thelarge majority all of the first nine Tour stages were pretty flat or maybe just had a short wall on one of them. (This year has been unusual with the stage 4 Galibier climb.)
• So if I am not clear above, the Giro winners and other podium finishers never started the Tour hot, and all quickly lost time in the first week. Again, what Pogacar is doing is something we haven’t seen in a long time.
• Some of the 11 Giro guys actually got stronger or at least held their own in the last half of the Tour. 2018 with Froome and Doom meet that standard as did 2011 Contador and 2016 Valverde.
• Only four of the 11 Giro riders lost mega time by the time the Tour ended- 2010 Basso, 2012 Hesjedal, 2013 Evans, and 2016 Nibali all saw an hour+ deficit. Yates in 2021 lost 37 minutes. Two DNFed- Yates in 2021 DNFed on stage 13; 2012 Hesjedal DNSed on stage 6.
• Five finished the Tour within 10 minutes of the race winner: Froome and Doom in 2018 who were the only Giro-Tour double podium winners, 2016 and Valverde, and both 2015 and 2011 Contador. Quintana in 2017 finished 15 minutes back. Look at that list and you see most of the major GC guys of the teens, with Nibali the obvious exception followed by Evans: Froome, Doom, Valverde, Contador and Quintana. Quality wins out.
• So now we have Pogacar attempting the double and so far outperforming by a fair margin these previous 11. He’s in first. he hasn’t lost time except in the TT where Remco was favored to beat him-much like Ganna was favored to beat him in both TTs at the Giro. There isn’t much evidence that he will start naturally fading and thus losing time going forward. To beat him someone is gonna have to rise to his level and beyond.
• I do wonder if the biggest issue of doing the double is the start of the Tour, and not the finish. That’s what the data suggests, limited as it is. Hypothesis: unlike their competitors, after not having ridden a race since the Giro ended, they have a longer time of no race days since their competition would inevitably race the Dauphine, Suisse, Sud, or Slovenia. It seems like it takes a few stages for the Giro podium boys to get their legs under them, and by the time they do they have lost a couple to a few minutes, and from then on they are looking up at their competition. By stage 9 of the Tour we normally see not only who the real contenders are but the eventual race winner is very often in first .
• I am not guaranteeing a Pog win. But I seriously doubt that he will just fade away. The evidence just doesn’t support that. He should stay at this peak that we are seeing. This peak of his does not make it likely that say remco wil beat him in the very hilly TT on stage 20 since Pogs has shown several times he’s aces on hilly TTs. If someone is to beat him, they will have to up their game, and not by just a little. They will have to beat Pogacar at his best, possibly by out-maneuvering him in some tactical sleight of hand.

Below is a look at each of the 11 riders I found for my little study. Their moms love each of them very much.

The 11 riders were:

• 2021 and Sean Right Yates who finished 3rd in the Giro, 4:15 behind Egan Bernal. Did Yates finish the Tour? Nope! DNF stage 13. But where was he after stage 9? 87th on GC, 37:48 behind eventual winner Tadej Pogacar. When did he start to lose time? Stage 1 where he finished 3:17 behind Alaphillippe on a hilly stage. Yates was just never in contention even with a bunch of flat sprinter stages.
• 2018 had two Giro podium boys compete in the Tour and both almost did the double. First up is Chris Froome who won the Giro on that stage 20 mountain stage when he crushed Simon Yates. Froome won the Giro by 46 seconds over Tom Dumoulin who is the next participant in this study. So how did Froome do in the Tour? 3rd place, 2:24 behind teammate Geraint Thomas and Doom. Where was he on stage 9? 8th on GC, 59 seconds behind G a and 1:41 behind race leader Greg Van Avermaet. When did he start to lose time? Stage 1 where he finished 91st, 51 seconds behind the winning bunch. His other decisive time loss was on stage 17 in the mountains- 46 seconds. It's just hard to make up time in a Grand Tour. It can be done but those are the memorable Tours that are much rarer than the usual.
• 2018’s other rider is Doom , who finished 2nd in both the Giro and Tour so...a kind of double-double? (This makes me want to see if this double-double has ever been done before.) Anyway, Doom finished 2nd in the Giro, 46 seconds behind Froome, and then finished 2nd in the Tour, 1:51 behind G. On stage 9 he was 15th on GC, 1:20 behind Thomas and 2:03 behind race leader GVA. His decisive time loss came on stage 6, a Mur de Bretagne stage, where he finished 1:20 behind G.
• 2017 is next and Nairo Quintana who was second in the Giro, 31 seconds behind Doom. The Tour saw him finish 12th on GC, 15:28 behind winner Froome. After stage 9 he was 2:13 behind Froome. Nairoman lost time on several stages, starting with stage 1 which was a TT stage where he lost 36 seconds to Froome, and stage 5, a mountain stage where he lost a further 14 seconds. He started behind and drip drip dripped time throughout the race.
• 2016 saw Vincenzo Nibali win the Giro by 52 seconds over Esteban Chaves with a nice assist from a snowbank. He then entered the Tour where there was no snow and so finished 37th in GC behind Froome by 1 hour and 20 minutes. It is safe to say that he lost buckets of time all over the place and by stage 9 was 37th on GC, 34:14 behind Froome with the biggest loss occurring on stage 5 where he lost 9:28, and stage 8 where he bled another 25:54. Oof.
• 2016 also saw Alejandro Valverde place 3rd at the Giro, 1:17 behind the Shark of Messina. He hung on better at the Tour than Nibbles, finishing 6th on GC, 6:16 behind Froome. On stage 9 he was still 10th on GC, 1:01 behind Froome so after stage 9 he moved up in the GC standings though he kept losing time. Stage 9 saw him lose 42 seconds to Froome.
• 2015 calls with Alberto Contador who had won the Giro by 1:53 over Fabio Aru. The Accountant finished the Tour 5th on GC, 9:48 behind Froome. Stage 9 saw him also 5th on GC, 1:03 behind Froome. Contador lost little bits of time over the first four stages, 46 seconds in total. Stage 10 saw him drop to 4:04 behind Froome and out of any kind of serious contention. He didn't have a real comeback like he did in 2011. Still he had a top five finish.
• Skip to 2013 and 3rd place Giro finisher Cadel Evans who finished that race 5:52 behind Nibali. Come the Tour Cadel finished 39th on GC, 1 hour and 30 minutes behind Froome. Through stage 9 Cadel was 16th on GC, 4:36 behind Froome. Where did he lose his time? So many places but let us start on stage 8 where he finished 4:36 in arrears. He kept losing time pretty consistently after that.
• 2012 saw Roger Hesjedal win the Giro , 16 seconds ahead of J-Rod. Remember that? The Tour wasn’t so kind to him as he DNS on stage 7. Stage 6 is where he hit the wall as he started the stage 9th on GC, 18 seconds behind race leader Cancellara and finished 181st on the fairly flat stage, 13:24 behind stage winner Peter Sagan.
• 2011 sees Contador back on this list in his weird appeal year. remember? He was busted after the 2010 Tour but won a reversal in Spain on appeal. Then as he was waiting for the CAS decision he raced a very active 2011 including a very difficult Giro by 6:10 ahead of Scarponi who would later be declared champion after Contador lost his appeal. But at the time we didn’t know that and so we saw not only a big Contador win but we saw him enter the Tour where he finished 5th on GC 3:57 behind Cadel Evans. By stage 9 he was 1:18 behind Evans and all of that was lost on stage 1. If you look at the race stage by stage you see Contador getting stronger as the race went on, with his ultimate stage being stage 19 with a long-range attack ending with a 3rd place on Alpe d’huez where Pierre Roland won.
• 2010 and Ivan Basso joins this list as he won the Giro by 1:51 over David Arroyo (remember that amazing descent by Arroyo off the Mortirolo in the rain?). Anyway, Basso entered the Tour where he finished 30th on GC, 59:33 behind Contador who was later DQed. Stage 9 saw Basso 5:09 behind Andy Schleck who was later awarded the overall win. His big loss on time was on stage 18 but being down 5 minutes by stage 9 says to the world that you are out of contention.

Wade among ET13 Tour Card Holder Qualifiers

James Wade was one of ten players to book places in the Czech Darts Open in Milton Keynes on Friday.

The Tour Card Holder Qualifier for European Tour Event 13 took place on Friday afternoon at the Marshall Arena, with ten players securing spots in the Czech Darts Open (ET13) which will take place in Prague from October 18-20.

Two-time European Tour event winner Wade overcame Dutch trio Jeffrey de Zwaan, Geert Nentjes and Martijn Dragt to earn a first European Tour appearance since May.

Three-time ProTour event winner Callan Rydz and German number two Gabriel Clemens were also among the ten players to join the field for the year's last European Tour event.

The top 16 players from the PDC Order of Merit qualify by right for each event, along with the top 16 non-qualified players from the ProTour Order of Merit.

Each event sees the top 16 players from the ProTour Order of Merit seeded for the draw, entering in the second round, with the remaining 32 players drawn at random in the first round.

Click here for Event Draws & Results.

Click here for Match Stats & Results.

ET13 Tour Card Holder Qualifiers: James Wade, Martin Lukeman, Callan Rydz, Kevin Doets, Gabriel Clemens, Robert Owen, Jermaine Wattimena, Alan Soutar, Brett Claydon, Niels Zonneveld

European Tour

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Five reasons the Giro-Tour double is cycling’s hardest mountain

Nairo quintana will attempt the elusive giro-tour double in 2017. here's why it is so difficult to win two grand tours in a row..

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ALGHERO, Italy (VN) — Nairo Quintana (Movistar) is teeing up for cycling’s hardest challenge, the Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double.

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The much-vaunted Giro-Tour double is one of the sport’s most elusive achievements. Only seven riders have pulled it off, all of them among the legends of the sport. The Colombian is audacious enough to believe he can do it.

The last to do it was Marco Pantani in 1998, and a lot has changed since then. The Giro is more prestigious and more demanding, the peloton is cleaner than it used to be, and teams are betting more on the Giro than ever before. And the narrow window between the two races remains like a chopping block. Winning the Giro and the Tour back-to-back should remain one of cycling’s most elusive feats for a long time.

Can Quintana do it? It’s a big ask by any measure. Recent double attempts have stalled. Alberto Contador put down the most recent attempt, winning the 2015 Giro, but the Pistolero ran out of bullets during the Tour, finishing fifth. Contador is also the most recent double winner, completing the Giro-Vuelta double in 2008. Despite other recent attempts, the Tour-Vuelta double remains unattainable since the Spanish tour moved to late summer in 1995.

So why is the Giro-Tour double so elusive? Here are five reasons:

1. Giro harder than it used to be

The Giro ain’t what it used to be. One of the top reasons the double is more difficult is that the Giro d’Italia is now a much harder race, both physically and mentally. Back in the day, the first hour or so of the Giro was raced, as the Italians call it, “ tutto piano ,” at a much slower pace compared to the Tour. Two decades ago, the depth of the field typically was a step below the Tour, when all the teams saved their aces to race in July. That’s changed. The speed and quality of field across the Giro has increased at the same time as the Giro’s prestige has grown. More riders are targeting the Giro ( this year’s GC field is more varied than the Tour’s), and sponsorship pressure is greater for big results. What hasn’t changed is that the Giro is always hard in the mountains (some say harder than the Tour), but it’s the rest of the Giro that leaves most GC riders spent after an intense, full-on effort in May. To win the Giro requires a full mental and physical effort, on par with what it takes to win the Tour.

2. Not enough recovery time

Another major obstacle is the limited recovery period. At best, there are four weeks between the Giro’s stage 21 and the Tour’s first day (not counting victory laps for the winner). Most recent riders who rode well in the Giro have found they were spent coming into the Tour. The Giro’s intense effort, doubled with the quick turnaround for the Tour, means that riders simply are not at 100 percent in July. Add a warm-up race, like Slovenia or the Route du Sud, and there isn’t much time between going full-gas at the end of the Giro, and cranking the motor back up for the Tour. In today’s highly calibrated peloton, when riders spend months prepping for the Tour, there is no room for error.

3. Tour de France peak

The highest hurdle for riders taking on the double is facing off against rivals who didn’t race the Giro. Even if a rider comes out of May with relative ease, the physical and mental toll of racing the Giro will be costly in July. That puts any rider who raced three weeks up and down Italy’s boot on the back foot against riders fresh for the Tour de France. The Giro’s demands have only intensified over the past decade or so as race speeds have increased and more teams prioritize the Giro. Most top riders finish the Giro wiped out and only return to racing later in the summer, long after the Tour is underway or over. In today’s peloton built on tapered training peaks, holding fitness from early May to late July is a big ask.

4. Peloton is cleaner

Perhaps there’s no coincidence that the last Giro-Tour winner came in the go-go 1990s. Things have changed since then. Some riders have been busted, others confessed (and in some cases, both), and some riders got away with it, so it’s a slippery slope to start guessing who was doing what. But there’s no question that the peloton is cleaner as a new tests have come online over the past decade. From EPO tests to out-of-competition controls to the ADAMs program, and even a culture shift inside the peloton as a new generation takes the helm, racing today is more transparent than it used to be. Can a rider do a grand tour double today? A few have come close, including Chris Froome (second in the Vuelta a España after winning last year’s Tour). However, the hard effort of the Giro, followed quickly by the Tour is like climbing Mount Everest without oxygen.

5. Giro is equal to Tour

For a long time, the Giro was an “Italian race,” while the Tour was the absolute zenith of the sport. That’s not to say that international riders never targeted the Giro; in fact, most of the double winners were among the peloton’s elite, but the Giro was long considered a race to cherry-pick at least once for the top stars before refocusing on the Tour. That’s slowly changed over the past 10 years. The Giro has invested heavily in making the race a much more international event. As the race’s prestige has grown, the teams have responded. The Giro no longer plays second fiddle to the Tour. Most teams build specific programs for their Giro-bound riders, meaning that their season peak will come in May. It’s rare to see even the top domestiques to do both. These days, riders have their seasons mapped out by late winter, targeting either the Giro or the Tour.

So can Quintana do it? Some say he’s the right type of rider. He might have an easier time on the climbs, but the flats and time trials will take their toll. Even if he cannot do it, it’s hard to argue against trying .

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Le double champion du monde Julian Alaphilippe quitte Soudal-Quick Step pour rejoindre Tudor Pro Cycling

Le double champion du monde français, Julian Alaphilippe, en fin de contrat chez Soudal-Quick Step, s'est engagé pour trois ans avec l'équipe suisse Tudor Pro Cycling dirigée par Fabian Cancellara.

Julian Alaphilippe évoluera sous le maillot de Tudor la saison prochaine. Le double champion du monde français (2020, 2021) s'est engagé pour trois ans avec la formation suisse dirigée par Fabian Cancellara.

Julian Alaphilippe (32 ans) quittera donc Soudal-Quick Step en fin de saison, équipe où il arrivait en fin de contrat et avec laquelle il a effectué jusque-là toute sa carrière depuis son arrivée chez les pros (2013, dans la réserve Etixx-iHNed). Avec la formation belge, il a notamment remporté Milan-San Remo, la Clasica San Sebastian, les Strade Bianche, la Flèche wallonne par trois fois, six étapes du Tour de France (ainsi qu'une étape sur chacun des autres grands Tours), et passé au total 18 jours avec le Maillot jaune.

Ses deux dernières saisons au sein de la formation avaient été émaillées de déclarations critiques de Patrick Lefevere à son encontre, rafraîchissant considérablement la relation entre les deux hommes.

‘If anyone can do it, it will be him’ - Chris Froome on Pogačar doing the Giro-Tour double

Four-time Tour winner believes Slovenian has ‘strong shot’ to be the first since Pantani in 1998 to complete elusive feat

After being the closest since Marco Pantani in 1998 to completing the elusive Giro-Tour double six years ago, four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome believes Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) has a “strong shot” at achieving the feat and that “If anyone can do it, it will be him”.

Froome’s near miss came after winning the Giro d’Italia in 2018 with one of the most stunning comebacks cycling has ever seen, overhauling a 4:52 deficit in the third week mainly thanks to an 80km solo win on stage 19.

However, backing that up with a fifth Tour GC victory was simply too much, still managing third behind, teammate at the time, Geraint Thomas and Dutchman Tom Dumoulin, who was second in both the Giro and Tour in the same season. This was also his fourth Grand Tour in a row after taking wins at the 2017 Tour and Vuelta a España before claiming the first GT in 2018 at the Giro.

“Just talking from my experience, obviously, that was my fourth Grand Tour in a row having won the Tour, the Vuelta, the Giro,” said Froome into ITV’s microphone before stage 2 of the Critérium du Dauphiné. 

“I had come into the Tour de France and I could feel at the start that I was just missing that freshness, that edge that I would need. From being able to control the workload through the May preparation period.”

With a lack of freshness coming out of the Giro, Froome played second fiddle to Thomas as the Welshman excelled in the mountains, notably with a win up to Alpe d'Huez, to take his first Grand Tour victory and Wales’ first yellow jersey.

But he saw Pogačar’s dominant Giro as vastly different from his comeback, believing that the Slovenian superstar didn’t empty too much of his energy supplies, despite managing the biggest winning margin at the Giro since 1965. 

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While he won’t be on the start line to witness it first-hand after missing out on Israel-Premier Tech’s selection , Froome thinks Pogačar can carry his best legs into the Tour which starts on Saturday, coincidentally, in Italy.

“Now Tadej, it seems that he had a very different Giro compared to the Giro that I had back in 2018 where he seemed as if was riding very much within himself. Even though he took a whole bunch of time from everyone else there,” Froome said.

“It seemed as if he took that very much in his stride and I really believe that he’s got a strong shot at the double this year. If anyone can do it, it will be him.”

There are other differences in that Froome had just over 40 days between the Giro and Tour to prepare, while Pogačar has had just 33 days due to the Tour being pushed back a week earlier due to the Paris Olympics. 

However, other variables have been on his side, notably his main rival and two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) only just making Tour selection start after a long return from injury, set to ride his first race day since April at the Florence Grand Départ.

Despite his already-cemented legacy, Frome couldn’t join the seven men who captured the Giro-Tour double, Fausto Coppi, Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Stephen Roche, Miguel Indurain and Pantani in 1998. Pogačar is a more than worthy successor but is six weeks of Grand Tour racing simply too much to dominate in the modern era?

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James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.

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