"Giro, Tour and Vuelta in the same year? It can be done" - Tadej Pogacar confesses Grand Tour hat-trick is in his thoughts

Given his form across 2024, seemingly nothing is out of reach for Tadej Pogacar. Some speculated that following his historic Grand Tour double at the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France this year, he may even attempt the Vuelta a Espana. Whilst that didn't happen this year, the Slovenian isn't adverse to the idea in future.

“I thought about doing La Vuelta too," he admits in conversation with La Gazzetta dello Sport. "But the Olympic Games were on and I did not participate because I had to recover. Giro d'Italia, Tour and Vuelta in the same year? It can be done, but you have to plan the season and organize it to arrive in good condition. Racing to win a Grand Tour is very different from racing just to finish it. I am not thinking about that now, but one year I might do it.”

The closest anyone has come to such a feat is probably Chris Froome, who at one point held all three leaders jerseys having won the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana in 2017, following that up with a Maglia Rosa victory at the Giro d'Italia in 2018. Winning all of the three-week stage races in the same calendar year remains a feat untouched in the annals of cycling history though.

“I don’t like to compare myself to cyclists of the past, also because I know little about their history. I wasn’t even born. I just follow my own path, creating my own history and living in the present moment without worrying about the past and history," Pogacar adds. "I never had an idol, when I was young I wasn’t interested in cycling. I started and it was the time of Alberto Contador and the Schlecks. I like to watch the races, but more from afar than when they reach the finish line.”