La Vuelta 2025 ***SPOILERS***

[mjr]

Will Vin' now go to the Giro to collect a pink before Pog can win a red?

If so, does Pog go to the Giro to prevent that or even just to mess with Jonas's head and get TVL to send better riders and weaken their Tour line-up, helping Pog get a record-equalling fifth?

Ah, the season tactic game!

 

[Dogtrousers]

In case this talk of the Giro/Tour/Vuelta treble has got anyone wondering "how close has anyone got to that?" ...

Only two riders have ever finished all three and won at least one of them:
Gastone Nencini (Ita) 1957. Tour 6th, Giro 1st, Vuelta 9th
Sepp Kuss (USA) 2023. Tour 14th, Giro 12th, Vuelta 1st

Only two riders have managed top 10 in all three. Nencini (above) and:
Raphaël Géminiani (Fra) 1955 Tour 6th, Giro 4th, Vuelta 3rd.

More analysis here: https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/de-tour-giro-vuelta-treble.296736/#post-7171387

 

[Pblakeney]

In case this talk of the Giro/Tour/Vuelta treble has got anyone wondering "how close has anyone got to that?" ...

Only two riders have ever finished all three and won at least one of them:
Gastone Nencini (Ita) 1957. Tour 6th, Giro 1st, Vuelta 9th
Sepp Kuss (USA) 2023. Tour 14th, Giro 12th, Vuelta 1st

Only two riders have managed top 10 in all three. Nencini (above) and:
Raphaël Géminiani (Fra) 1955 Tour 6th, Giro 4th, Vuelta 3rd.

More analysis here: https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/de-tour-giro-vuelta-treble.296736/#post-7171387

Yeahbut, we have not been discussing "anyone".
Add on it is acknowledged that in that year he finished the Tour relatively fresh and the Vuelta had a weak roster and...

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Will Vin' now go to the Giro to collect a pink before Pog can win a red?

If so, does Pog go to the Giro to prevent that or even just to mess with Jonas's head and get TVL to send better riders and weaken their Tour line-up, helping Pog get a record-equalling fifth?

Ah, the season tactic game!

I doubt there's much on being the first (out of the two) to complete the set given that seven riders have already done so (and one is technically current)
Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Froome have won all three in succession
Jacques Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali have won all three at some point

So he needs:

• Two TdFs to beat the record of five (5 riders)
• A single Vuelta to join the 7 riders above
• Seven more GTs to beat Merckx's 11
• Three WCs to beat the record of three (5 riders)
• Paris - Roubaix and MSR to join Merckx, De Vlaeminck and Van Looy in winning all five monuments
• Eleven more monuments to beat Merckx's 19
• Two Lombardias to beat Coppi's five
• Two Flanders to beat the record of three (7 riders)
• Four monuments in a year to beat Merckx's record of three

Some of these will definitely be achieved, barring serious misfortune - Lombardia has been the Pogacar International Invitational for four years now and I doubt you'd get good odds on him not making six. Likewise, two Flanders, two TdF's and a single Vuelta look well within his grasp. Paris-Roubaix can be a bit of a luck thing and it's not his prime terrain (MvdP is supreme there currently) and MSR is a puzzle with no solution as yet.

 

[M.R.M]

Yeah, it's all well and good for eejits like us on the interwebs to say that we think all 3 GTs in a calendar year is more important than the Triple Crown of Giro/Tour/WC. 3xGT does have a pleasing symmetry after all. I was all for him having a shot at the Vuelta last year.

But what's far more important is what the riders (past and present) think. What's the greater honour, the WC or the Vuelta? Pog's choice last year gives us an answer to that.

In a way it can't be a wrong decision simply because it was the decision that the best rider in the world took.

As to whether Pog will go to Spain in future, I dunno.

Winning all 3 GT's in a year is historically more significant, because it's never been done before and might "never" be done again. He'd be trailblazing (which in itself is an indicator of greatness), instead of "catching up".

 

[Pblakeney]

Winning all 3 GT's in a year is historically more significant, because it's never been done before and might "never" be done again. He would have been trailblazing (which in itself is an indicator of greatness), instead of "catching up".

Altered only to give my interpretation that last year was a golden opportunity which is unlikely to be repeated.

 

[M.R.M]

I agree 100%. Don't think an opportunity like that will present itself anytime soon or ever again. I/we argued as much at the time on BR.