Director of the Giro d’Italia, Mauro Vegni, manufactured a bit of interest when discussing the 2022 route of the Giro, challenging Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) to race ‘the double’ of the Giro and Tour.
The 23-year-old Slovenian has pushed back his advances, though he talked about attempting the Giro in the future. “I'm still very young,” he told ESPN Brazil, “and I've never done two Grand Tours in the same season. Maybe next year I can do the Tour and Vuelta. Then maybe in the next two or three years I try to do the Giro and the Tour."
When the follow-up question asked if the Tour-Vuelta double was the plan for 2022, Pogačar said: "It’s possible."
Chris Froome and Tom Dumoulin were the last riders to make a serious attempt at winning the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the same season. Froome won the 2018 Giro, with Dumoulin in second but the Briton was third in the Tour de France, with Dumoulin again finishing second overall behind winner Geraint Thomas.
Winning the two events following is considered one of the most difficult challenges in cycling, last achieved by the Italian Marco Pantani, in 1998, at a time when doping was plaguing the sport, the Italian himself heavily implicated in doping, though those races are still recognised as his victories.
Only six other riders achieved the double: Fausto Coppi (1949 and 1952), Bernard Hinault (1982 and 1985), Miguel Indurain (1992-93), Jacques Anquetil (1964), Stephen Roche (1987). The Belgian Eddy Merckx is the only one to have succeeded on three occasions, in 1970, 1972 and 1974.
Pogačar has targeted the Tour and the Vuelta a España in past years, his current record in Grand Tours reads third (2019 Vuelta), first (2020 Tour) and first (2021 Tour). His imposing record in the Grand Tours is being complemented by a growing palmares in the classics, having taken two monuments wins in Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Giro Lombardia during the 2021 season.
