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Giro d’Italia director urges Chris Froome to ride next year's race and try and make history

Mauro Vegni believes Team Sky rider could become first man to win all three Grand Tours in one season

Giro d’Italia race director Mauro Vegni has challenged Chris Froome to ride next year’s 101st edition of the race to launch an attempt to make history by becoming the first rider to win all three of cycling’s Grand Tours in the same season.

After adding the Vuelta title last month to his four Tour de France wins, victory at the Giro d’Italia would see Froome become just the seventh man in history to have won all three races.

While Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault won all three races in succession, that was when the Vuelta was raced in the spring , before it was moved to its current August/September slot in 1995.

Vegni is appealing for Froome try and become the first man win the three Grand Tours in the same season by lining up at the start line of next year’s 101st edition of the Giro in Jerusalem next May, reports Sport24.co.za.

> Details of Israeli Big Start for 2018 Giro d'Italia unveiled

"He has to have the desire to try and become the first rider to achieve this feat," Vegni said. "It would be historical."

He continued: "I think he should have the right motivation to come. If he wins the Giro, who's stopping him?

"He's one of the few riders who can really attempt to follow a Giro victory by also taking the Tour.”

“But first he should grab this milestone,” said Vegni, referring to the opportunity Froome has to become the first man to win the three races in a row in the modern calendar.

“There's plenty of motivation but it needs to be him that judges it worthy of attempting."

While no rider has managed to win the Giro and Tour in the same season since Marco Pantani managed it in 1998, the timing of next year’s FIFA World Cup means the French race will start a week later, giving extra recovery time.

Vegni said that Froome’s participation in the race would be a big draw for the Giro, but ruled out paying him to participate as the race did in 2009, when owners RCS Sport paid Lance Armstrong $1 million to take part during his comeback year.

“Riders like them don't need any extra money,” he explained. “They need more of a plan, a goal, and motivation that gives them the desire to participate."

There’s little doubt, however, that organisers want him on board, however, with Vegni adding: "He creates the most interest."

Froome has ridden the Giro d’Italia twice before. His debut there came with Barloworld in 2009, when he finished 36th overall.

The following year, he rode it with Team Sky during its first year in the peloton but was disqualified after he was spotted holding onto a police motorbike on the climb of the Mortirolo.

He had already been dropped from the gruppetto, the group of riders at the rear of the race that typically includes sprinters.

Afterwards, he said that he had been struggling with a knee injury and was simply trying to make it to the finish line to abandon the race.

The other four riders to have won all three Grand Tours during their careers are Jacques Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, Alberto Contador and Vincenzo Nibali.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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15 comments

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Leviathan | 6 years ago
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Only if it is on iTV4 please. [David Mitchell mode] Well it isn't one season is it if it is over two years... Although if Serena and Novak can do it. I guess the winter lay off allows him to give it a try but I doubt it is worth compromising Le Tour.

 

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Must be Mad | 6 years ago
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If Landa was still a part of Team Sky, than I suggest Froome would be on his way to the Giro (and Landa to the Tour)... but Sky needs to justify their budget, and the Tour is where they get their exposure and return on investment. Would the prospect of a '12 month Grand Slam' out weigh a tilt at another Tour.

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fustuarium | 6 years ago
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When Tinkoff suggested the big three GC do them in the same year it was widely derided. Given the contenders now, it would be even more ridiculous.

Maybe he should just go Yorkshire, Giro, TdF, ToB, Vuelta to keep everyone happy*

* It's a joke.

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Yorkshire wallet | 6 years ago
2 likes

Dear Sir,

Please compete in my race as it will bring in more viewers and money

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RobD | 6 years ago
1 like

As a few others have said, I don't think this is feasible with the likes of Dumoulin, the Yates twins + Chavez, Ritchie Porte (if he can get one lucky year) Quintana, Lopez, Aru, Bardet, a potentially resurgent Uran, Mikel Landa now a rival, Pinot, Nibali and probably another 3 or 4 riders who have come on hugely the past two seasons, yes some of them are unproven when it comes to the form needed for a whole tour, but the problem now is it'd only take a couple of them to target one of the three specifically and Froome would be fighting fires all race and I don't think Sky would be able to look after him to the extent they're usually able to for three grand tours.

I'm hoping he targets the Tour specifically along with Dumoulin, the two of them fighting it out could be great (or could be a really dull stalemate) depending on how Dumouling progresses I think Froome may still have the edge, especially if he's going for jst the Tour as he's probably closer to Dumoulin in timetrialling than Dumoulin is to Froome's climbing, but it'd be close and only needs a little bit of a bad day to change it all around.

If they want to keep doping out of the sport, trying to encourage riders to do more and more impossible feats should be discouraged, the temptation to get a little extra help (maybe not the star rider but having more and more super domestiques) would become greater.

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macrophotofly | 6 years ago
2 likes

Given how tight performance levels are  at the top of cycling these days, and its unrealistic for an undoped rider to stay at peak form for 5 months, so for Sky to contemplate Chris winning all three races they would have to secure, dominate and control all three races even more so than they did this year (to make the "non-critical" race days as easy as possible for Chris). I'm a big fan of Sky but I'm not sure I would want them turning 3 x three weeks of racing into only 3 x two interesting days...

Also hoping the Yates brothers can deliver some more competition on the GT front this year - they seem agonisingly close

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BarryBianchi | 6 years ago
0 likes

Sod off fat boy, my turn next.

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alansmurphy | 6 years ago
1 like

Possibly, I just think 3 in a row is massive, 3 in the calendar year even better and don't really care on the configuration. I got last year how they suggested the double was trickier since the move, but surely any hat-trick is worthy regardless...

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alansmurphy | 6 years ago
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Why do people keep referring to the modern calendar? It was important when he was going for the Vuelta, I get that, but does it really matter if we're talking about the treble?

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beezus fufoon replied to alansmurphy | 6 years ago
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alansmurphy wrote:

Why do people keep referring to the modern calendar? It was important when he was going for the Vuelta, I get that, but does it really matter if we're talking about the treble?

I think he means Froome could be the first to win 3 consecutive grand tours (not in the same year) with this config - because both Merckx and Hinault both did it before the calendar changed

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handlebarcam | 6 years ago
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Maybe if all three grand tours had chosen to include long time trials, this might have been possible for Froome. I use the past tense because that only would've worked before Tom Dumoulin became the rider he is today. Now, while Froome can certainly beat him at one race (and hopefully it'll make for a fascinating Tour de France next year) I reckon there's no chance he could try for all three and expect to beat Dumoulin targeting just one. Froome could target the Giro, and be the holder of all three for a brief period, but even the Giro-Tour double would be a doubtful prospect given that, in reality, Vegni and Prudhomme aren't going to conspire to design a perfect pair of courses for him.

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check12 | 6 years ago
0 likes

2 x 45km tts, 50km ttt, nothing above 15%, 10 man teams, come on giro, don't talk tempt! 

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HalfWheeler | 6 years ago
2 likes

Talk of winning all three in ones season is silly but there's nothing stopping him from winning a consecutive grand slam; 2017 Tour and Vuelta, 2018 Giro. 

But he's got his sights on a 5th Tour, his preparation each year for the Tour is meticulous, reckon it will be even more so next year. Pity, I'd love to see him win a Giro.

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Grahamd replied to HalfWheeler | 6 years ago
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HalfWheeler wrote:

Talk of winning all three in ones season is silly but there's nothing stopping him from winning a consecutive grand slam; 2017 Tour and Vuelta, 2018 Giro. 

But he's got his sights on a 5th Tour, his preparation each year for the Tour is meticulous, reckon it will be even more so next year. Pity, I'd love to see him win a Giro.

That is a good call, which I would like to see; trouble is it would make the TDF much more challenging and as that is the cash cow of cycling there is no way Sky would allow.

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Kadinkski | 6 years ago
0 likes

Now, that would be amazing!

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