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If it was ever in any doubt, Tadej Pogačar’s third Tour de France victory has now unquestionably cemented his position as one of professional cycling’s all time greats, after he became the latest rider to win both the Giro d’Italia and Tour in the same season.
Prior to Pogačar’s incredible result, the feat had only been achieved seven times before by male riders. It had also not been done for 26 years in men’s cycling, with Marco Pantani being the last rider to do the double in 1998.
The Giro-Tour double has long been one of cycling’s most coveted prizes amongst the sports general classification stars. But few racers in the modern age have managed to pull it off. By wrapping up his third overall Tour win in Nice, Pogačar now sits alongside the likes of Pantani, Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault as a winner of both races in the same season.
Alberto Contador, Chris Froome and more have all tried, but have ultimately come up short where Pogačar flourished. The key has always been to maintain winning form for a longer period of time than normal, something that few have managed to sustain.
Pogačar has taken that to new levels this campaign, taking seemingly endless victories on the way to standing on the top step of the podium in Nice. He kickstarted his season with a rip-roaring victory at Strade Bianche, before going on to win races including the Volta a Catalunya and Liège–Bastogne–Liège among others.
With the Tour secured, Pogačar has now made clear that he will target cycling’s triple crown – the Giro, Tour and road world title, all in the same season – a feat only achieved twice before.
As well as the Slovenian phenomenon, we take a closer look at all seven male members of the exclusive Giro-Tour double winning club, and an eighth female rider.
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Fausto Coppi
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‘Il Campionissimo’ needs no introduction. Fausto Coppi is one of the most iconic and legendary cyclists of all time and, long after his untimely death, his name still carries a mythical status in the sport given his extensive list of achievements during his career.
Coppi was the first rider to ever win the Giro-Tour double, and ended up winning both races in the same year on two different occasions.
The first occasion was in 1949 while riding for the Italian national team. Coppi initially sustained a huge time deficit in the Tour after crashing heavily in the earlier stages, but he would go on to claw the time back in the high mountains as the race progressed.
He went on to win the race’s penultimate day time trial in Nancy which ensured that he would triumph at the Tour, on debut, and become the first rider to achieve the Giro-Tour double in the same season in the process, a feat he would go on to match three years later.
Jacques Anquetil
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Five Tour victories and two Giro triumphs make up just part of the great Jacques Anquetil’s list of achievements, but 1964 was arguably the Normandy-born rider’s crowning moment of his career.
Anquetil had already won the Giro previously in 1960, but going into the Italian Grand Tour that year he was among a select group of foreign hopefuls for the maglia rosa who all had the potential to upset the home support looking to witness an Italian triumph in their own backyard.
Riding for the Saint-Raphaël team that eventually inspired the well known kit brand Rapha, Anquetil took a stage win early on which saw him pull on pink before holding it all the way through to the finish.
A few weeks later at the Tour, Anquetil was very nearly denied his fifth Tour victory by Raymond Poulidor, who pushed him all the way to the end, cutting Anquetil’s lead to almost nothing. But Anquetil would eventually prevail, beating Poulidor in the race’s final time trial to ensure that he would win his fifth and final Tour de France by 55 seconds and achieve the double.
Eddy Merckx
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Eddy Merckx holds the record for the most Giro-Tour doubles achieved during his career, an achievement truly befitting of a man nicknamed the Cannibal.
The Belgian great first pulled off the double in 1970, before going on to add a second and third in 1972 and 1974. His first Giro d’Italia was arguably unexpected after he had suffered with a knee injury for much of the race and illness beforehand.
However, after winning stage two, Merckx then went on to win three more stages as his fitness developed during the race. He then won a second successive Tour de France later that summer. Merckx then held off several challenges in 1972 at the Tour from France’s Raymond Poulidor and Felice Gimondi of Italy in order to ensure that he landed yet another double. Merckx’s eventual winning margin stood at more than ten minutes.
Merckx’s 1974 Giro win was a closely run affair. The Belgian won the Corsa Rosa by just 12 seconds that year and was made to wait until stage 12 for his first victory of the race, a 25 mile individual time trial on stage 12. He then won the Tour by 8:04 ahead of Poulidor.
Bernard Hinault
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‘The Badger’ is the next man to have completed the double on more than one occasion, winning both the Giro and Tour in 1982 and 1985. Remarkably, the French legend won nearly all of the Grand Tours he ever participated in.
During his career, he competed in three editions of the Giro and two editions of the Vuelta a España, winning all five races. Hinault also won on five out of eight appearances at the Tour de France, making him part of a select club of riders to have won the Tour on five occasions.
The 1982 Tour saw Hinault take four stages on his way to victory in Paris. Three of those were individual time trials, one being the race’s prologue in Basel, before he then went on to win the race’s final stage in Paris on the Champs-Élysées.
Three years later, the Tour was a much more closely run affair. Hinault only managed two stage wins – both coming in time trials once again, before going on to win the race overall by 1:42 ahead of his La Vie Claire teammate, Greg LeMond.
Stephen Roche
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Stephen Roche is one of only two former pro cyclists to achieve the unthinkable, winning cycling’s triple crown – the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and road World Championships – all in the same season.
The Irishman only won the Tour on one occasion, but coming in the middle of his triple crown, it shouldn’t be underestimated. Interestingly Roche has previously said that it was never the plan to win all three events in the same year, everything just seemed to fall into place at the right time to enable him to do so.
Roche took the pink jersey during part b of the race’s first stage, a short individual time trial from the Poggio near San Remo into the middle of the town. The second part of the stage was a mere five kilometres in length, but that didn’t prevent Roche from laying down the law and claiming pink. Roche then won the final day longer time trial into Turin to wrap up the overall victory by more than three minutes.
Later that year, Roche was pushed all the way to the penultimate day time trial by Pedro Delgado during the Tour. Roche won an 87km time trial on stage ten before he then lost the yellow jersey with the end in sight. The Irishman clawed back enough time during the penultimate stage to pull on yellow once more ahead of the race wrapping up in Paris.
Miguel Induráin
Indurain (middle) on the final Tour de France podium in 1993
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Induráin is the only man to have ever completed the double in two consecutive seasons, winning both the Tour and Giro in 1992 and 1993. The Spaniard also won the Tour five years in a row with his time trialling prowess setting him well on the way to victory in each.
During his first Giro triumph, it was two time trial wins that got him over the line, including a 41 mile effort into Milan on the race’s final day.
Induráin then won all three of the Tour’s time trials later that year before eventually claiming yellow in Paris. He then replicated that accomplishment the following year, winning all four of the time trials on offer across both Grand Tours on his way to overall victory in each.
On retirement, Induráin’s stage win total stood at 16 in both the Giro and Tour with most of those being on aero bars. As well as his wins in both Italy and France, his time trial mastery also saw him claim the world title in 1995, before going on to land an Olympic gold medal in the discipline a year later.
Marco Pantani
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Marco Pantani is possibly one of the most written about cyclists of all time, mainly due to his troubled private life which culminated in his tragic and untimely death in 2004 aged just 34.
In his prime, Pantani was regarded as being one of the sport’s very best climbers, with the sight of him dancing up the slopes of some of cycling’s most iconic peaks on his celeste blue Bianchi being a joy to behold. He was also well known for his pirate bandana and earring which he sported throughout his career, earning him the nickname ‘Il Pirata’.
Prior to Pogačar’s victory, Pantani was the last man to complete the Giro-Tour double in 1998. In May that year, the boy from Cesenatico got his Giro off to a slow start as he shipped time in the early stages. But once his favoured terrain arrived, Pantani put the hammer down and soon had his rivals begging for mercy. Two mountain top stage wins at Piancavallo and Montecampione helped the Pirate eventually land the pink jersey in Milan.
Two months later the Tour began in Ireland with Chris Boardman winning the prologue and pulling on yellow. Pantani had to wait until stage 11 to Plateau de Beille to make his mark. The Italian obliterated his rivals to win the stage and set a record time for the ascent in the process. He was made to wait before he could pull on the yellow jersey, but victory on stage 15 at Les Deux Alpes was enough to grab the leader’s jersey and eventually win the Tour.
Controversy dogged the Tour that year, with the Festina team doping scandal threatening to discredit the entire race. A handful of riders left the race early as a result, but Pantani held on for the victory.
Annemiek van Vleuten
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When looking at the Giro-Tour double winners club, it would only feel right to include Annemiek van Vleuten, winner of both the Giro d’Italia Women and the Tour de France Femmes in the same year in the list.
Van Vleuten has won the Giro Donne on four occasions, but it was in 2022 that she won both the Giro and women’s Tour de France in the same year. She may not have won two three-week Grand Tours with just a month off in between, but she beat some formidable opposition on the way to her two victories. It is as good as you can get in women’s cycling.
Looking at her Tour win in particular, she put the likes of Demi Vollering and Elisa Longo Borghini to the sword on the way to victory in the race’s inaugural edition, a landmark achievement for women’s cycling.
It was on stage three of the Giro that the Dutchwoman took her the first step towards her third overall victory. Van Vleuten won a hilly stage on a circuit around Cesena before going on to win in the mountains around Aldeno on stage seven which was enough to get the job done and secure the overall title.
During the Tour she had to leave it late to snatch the yellow jersey. Marianne Vos held the overall lead going into the final two mountain stages, but Van Vleuten wrestled it from her shoulders by taking wins at Le Markstein and Planche des Belles Filles.
Van Vleuten’s palmarès also matches any male rider on this list, particularly due to her four world titles and Olympic gold medal. She was simply a force to be reckoned with during her career and as a result, she thoroughly deserves her place alongside Pogačar, Merckx and company as a true winner of the Giro-Tour double.
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