Mixing up his schedule, Tadej Pogacar will attempt a bold Giro d'Italia/Tour de France double in 2024. Not since Marco Pantani has a rider won both races in the same year.
Legendary Spaniard, Alberto Contador knows what it takes to win cycling's Grand Tours and in conversation with Gazzetta dello Sport, the now 41-year-old has gone big with his prediction for Pogacar's season.
“You know what? If Tadej Pogačar wins the Giro and the Tour, he’ll also go for the Vuelta and try for an unheard-of triple victory! I’m sure of it,” Contador says with glee, predicting the key to such a quest will be “having a really strong team around him in the Giro and a really strong team in the Tour. Do UAE have the capability to do that? Yes.”
How likely is it though? Contador himself tried a Giro/Tour double but was ultimately unsuccessful as have all who've tried since Pantani in 1998. "It ended up with me riding solo with 50 kilometres to go, I finished the Giro feeling really tired, and then in the Tour that year I paid a high price for it, finishing fifth,” he recalls. “Then there’s another factor. I was 32 when I tried for the double, Tadej is just 25. That changes things."
"But the main challenge for the Slovenian rider will not be the race itself. It’ll be Jonas Vingegaard and Team Visma-Lease A Bike, who’s so amazingly consistent. He plans everything down to the last detail.”
“The Giro is always tiring, even if he has everything going for him to win. Apart from his strength, he’s got race instinct," Contador concludes. “In modern-day cycling, doing the double is possible. And there are two riders who could do it: Tadej and Vingegaard.”
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