ANALYSIS: Should Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel take on the Giro-Tour double in 2025?

With the cycling season now over, focus has already begun to shift to the schedule and plans for the sport’s star riders in 2025. The announcement of the Tour de France route two weeks ago got the anticipation building, with the defending champion Tadej Pogacar set to face off with the likes of Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic, in France once again next July.

But, there’s a lot of talk about whether any of the riders will decide to tackle another grand tour as well. Of course, Tadej Pogaar won the Giro-Tour double this year, the first rider since the great Marco Pantani to accomplish this feat all the way back in 1998. Both Evenepoel and Vingegaard have been rumoured to be interested in emulating this feat, which would undoubtedly be the stuff of cycling fans dreams. Who wouldn’t want to see the world’s best riders face off for six weeks instead of three?

But, there’s fine line between ambition and greed. Should a rider bite off more than they can chew, they could truly pay the price. So, let’s a look at whether more riders should try and attempt the Giro-Tour double, or whether that’s best left to a superhuman force such as Tadej Pogacar.

Prior to 2024, the Giro-Tour double was seen as something of a forgotten art. The Giro, which takes place throughout May, finishes less than 6 weeks before the start of the Tour de France in July. What’s more, some editions of the Giro are seen as ‘harder’ than the Tour, in terms of metres climbed, leaving riders who want to attempt the double at risk of being depleted by the Time the tour roles round.

Strict training regimes mean that most riders opt to compete in either the Giro or the Tour, not both. The intense demands of preparing for one Grand Tour often leave little room for optimal recovery and preparation for a second, especially if it’s so soon after. The Giro's challenging course, known for its high-altitude climbs and unpredictable weather, can exhaust even the most prepared athletes. Entering the Tour de France after such a tough event could result in fatigued riders, insufficient recovery time, and the inability to peak in time for the race in July.

But this year, Tadej Pogacar showed a new way to grand tour racing. Whilst most GC contenders spent the month of May in training camps for the Tour in July, Pogacar did a 3 week training camp live on our screens racing in the Giro. And he didn’t just win the Giro, he decimated all his rivals, on his way to winning an incredible 6 stages, and was first in the GC by nearly 10 minutes. No, he didn’t have the rivals of the level in the Tour, but his Giro performance was a sign of things to come.

But would the Giro have taken too much out of him?

Before Mr Pogacar came along, several riders have attempted the Giro-Tour double in recent years but come up short. Notably, Chris Froome in 2018 aimed to become the first man in the 21st century to pull off the double. After an extraordinary victory at the Giro d'Italia, Froome entered the Tour de France as a top contender. However, the toll of winning the Giro was evident, Froome struggled to maintain his usual dominance and finished third overall, while his teammate, Geraint Thomas, secured the victory. The physical and mental exhaustion of competing in back-to-back Grand Tours, particularly against fresh rivals, proved insurmountable for even Froome, which makes Pogacar’s win even more impressive.

6 stage wins and a third yellow jersey later, Tadej Pogacar became the first man in a quarter of a century to complete the Giro-Tour double. At no stage did he look drained from the Giro, he actually looked sharper, and in the best shape of his career. Whilst his rivals Vingegaard and Evenepoel were coming off of injuries in the spring, most fans would agree they wouldn’t have beaten Pogacar that month in July regardless of their injury.

So Pogacar won 12 stages across his Giro-Tour double win, more grand tour wins than most great riders amass throughout their entire career. But now we’re hearing the likes of Vingegaard and Evenepoel may want to replicate this feat and try their own Giro-Tour double. But is this really the new way to racing, or was Pogacar simply on another level this year?

The physiological toll of multiple grand tours includes cumulative fatigue, reduced glycogen stores, and increased risk of injury or illness. The recovery process between such brutal events is often insufficient, leading to potential overtraining syndrome, which can severely impact performance and overall health.

For riders like Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel, the decision to attempt the Giro-Tour double carries big risks. While they’re 2 of the 3 best riders on the planet, the sheer physical and mental depletion from racing back-to-back is daunting even for them. The Giro is known for its intense climbing stages and harsh conditions, and transitioning from this into the Tour can compromise a rider's strength and resilience. There’s an added element to competing in the Tour, which typically draws in the highest level of riders, making it that bit tougher than the Giro a couple of weeks before.

On the other hand, modern advancements in sports science, nutrition, and recovery methods could aid riders in managing these impacts better. However, even with cutting-edge support, the Giro-Tour double is by no means and easy feat, and only the very best, with the very best teams, and even a bit of luck, can pull it off.

Whilst the Giro-Tour double is seen by most mere mortals as impossible, the Giro-Vuelta combination is seen as far more doable. There’s at least a 3 month gap in between, giving riders optimum time to rest, regroup, and peak again. Just this year, Ben O’Connor attempted this double and came out of it with his maiden Grand Tour podium at the Vuelta.

Alberto Contador is a rider who successfully completed this double back in 2008. Contador won both the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España, and was on another level to his rivals and mastered the ability to peak twice in a year. Unlike the Giro-Tour double, the Giro-Vuelta schedule allows riders to rest, recover, and undergo another focused training block. The Vuelta is often seen as the least challenging of the three Grand Tours, due in part to its less grueling route, more varied stage profiles, and often smaller field of high-profile competitors. This isn’t to say the Vuelta is an easy feat, it certainly isn’t, but it is perhaps a better race to have as a rider’s second grand tour of the season.

So Pogacar may have won the Giro-Tour double this year, but if it wasn’t for some very unique circumstances, Jonas Vingegaard may have won multiple grand tours in a year before him. In 2023, Vingegaard destroyed Pogacar at the Tour de France, and a month later was on the start line of the Vuelta a Espana. Without taking anything away from Sepp Kuss, Vingegaard was under strict team orders to ride for his teammate, as Jumbo Visma won all 3 grand tours last year with 3 different riders. Judging by Vingegaard’s performance on the Tourmalet, the Dane could well have won the Vuelta if it weren’t for the history making possibility for the team.

The Tour-Vuelta double has been achieved successfully by some of the best riders of the 21st centru, such as Chris Froome in 2017. After winning the Tour de France, Froome went on to conquer the Vuelta a España, and put yet another statement performance in to confirm he was the best GC rider of his era. Froome won the Giro the following May, to hold all three grand tours simultaneously, something Tadej Pogacar is yet to have done.

Whether the likes of Evenepoel and Vingegaard look to take on the Giro-Tour double next year remains to be seen, and Pogacar himself has not mentioned whether he will try to pull off the double-double. For fans, the more action we get to watch of these great rivals the better, and we’d love to see them face off at the Giro and Tour back-to-back. But the riders who wish to take on this legendary combination must do so with great caution, and make sure they’re not biting off more than they can chew.