De Tour , Giro , Vuelta treble

[Dogtrousers]

Just aimlessly noodling around and found another stats page showing how rare it is to attempt all three (unless your name is Adam Hansen, in which case it's run of the mill)

https://www.procyclingstats.com/statistics/grandtours/riders-2-or-3-gts-per-season

What was happening in 2011 that made three sprinters (Cav, Farrar, Petacchi) start all three ?

 

[Mike_P]

Just aimlessly noodling around and found another stats page showing how rare it is to attempt all three (unless your name is Adam Hansen, in which case it's run of the mill)

https://www.procyclingstats.com/statistics/grandtours/riders-2-or-3-gts-per-season

And he finished all of them each time.

 

[Aravis]

Just aimlessly noodling around and found another stats page showing how rare it is to attempt all three (unless your name is Adam Hansen, in which case it's run of the mill)

https://www.procyclingstats.com/statistics/grandtours/riders-2-or-3-gts-per-season

What was happening in 2011 that made three sprinters (Cav, Farrar, Petacchi) start all three ?

I don't know the answer to this, but I imagine there was probably a reason.

It's possible to see trends in those graphs, but they're not easy to interpret. It looks as though fewer riders have been starting multiple GTs over the last decade or so, but that could be because teams are finding it beneficial to spread the burden across a larger group of support riders. The trend amongst GC contenders might look different. This is pure speculation.

There's definitely more chance of someone winning all three this year than there was in 1986.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I don't know the answer to this, but I imagine there was probably a reason.

Come to think of it I don't think there is a reason (for 3 sprinters - Cav, Farrar & Petacchi - to start all three in 2011.)

Probably they each independently had their own reasons, and it was just happenstance that all three started all three in 2011.

Farrar was a serial enterer of all three ( 2009,10, 11)
Pettacchi, with 32 starts, is second on the all-time GT starter list so it's not surprising that he started all three in one year.
I don't know what Cav's reason was. It might have been something to do with HTC's team strategy for the year? He didn't take the Giro all that seriously, quitting after stage 12 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/13459221) saying "I'm going home tonight to recuperate for the Tour de France." as soon as it got a bit steep.

 

[andrew_s]

Nobody has ever done the treble of the three grand tours but has any cyclist ever come close to doing the treble ?

You could say that Annemiek did in 2022, though the Vuelta Femenina was still in its getting going stage.
Got the Worlds to go with it too, with a broken elbow