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Triple Crown of Cycling

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Belgium Eddy Merckx
Republic of Ireland Stephen Roche
Slovenia Tadej Pogačar

The Triple Crown of Cycling in road bicycle racing denotes the achievement of winning three major titles in the same season: the UCI Road World Championships Road Race, the Tour de France general classification, and the Giro d'Italia general classification.[1][2] It is considered one of the most difficult and prestigious achievements in the sport, with journalists calling it "cycling’s most elite club" and "all but impossible in the modern age."[3][4]

The men's triple crown has been achieved by three riders: Eddy Merckx in 1974, Stephen Roche in 1987 and Tadej Pogačar in 2024. In women's cycling, where there are no three-week grand tours, the definition can vary between sources. Annemiek van Vleuten is widely credited as achieving the triple crown in 2022, when she won the Tour de France Femmes, Giro d'Italia Women and the World Championship Road Race.[2][5] Van Vleuten also won the 2022 Challenge by La Vuelta (the predecessor to the La Vuelta Femenina), sweeping the three major women's tours in a single year, an achievement sometimes referred to as a triple crown.[6]

Despite the prestige and recognition of the achievement, the Triple Crown of cycling is not an official title, and there is no physical award given for its accomplishment.

Other definitions

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Career Triple Crown

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Only seven riders have won all three races that make up the triple crown (UCI Road World Championships road race, the Tour de France, and the Giro d'Italia): Merckx, Roche, Pogačar and Van Vleuten, who each won the triple crown in a single season, and also Fausto Coppi, Felice Gimondi and Bernard Hinault; these last three are said to have completed a career triple crown.

Grand Tours

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Main article: Grand Tour (cycling) § Winners of all three Grand Tours

No rider has ever won all three grand tours in a single calendar year, but three riders – Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Chris Froome – have won all three in a row, split over calendar years.[7] Seven men have won all three grand tours in their career; Gimondi and Hinault have achieved that alongside a career Triple Crown, and Merckx alongside a classic Triple Crown.

In women's cycling, the status of the Grand Tours is less established, and the races are considerably shorter. While the Giro d'Italia Women was first held in 1988 and consistently since 1993, a full Tour de France Femmes was only launched in 2022 (though the Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale offered a female equivalent of the Tour from 1984–2009) and La Vuelta Femenina was only established in 2023.[8][9] Nonetheless, taking these races as 'Grand Tours', Annemiek van Vleuten is the only rider to have won all three in her career, having won them in a row – in addition to the 2022 World Championships – split across 2021, 2022 and 2023. She is the only cyclist win all three Grand Tours, and the World Championship in one year, she wins nine Grand Tours, and six in a row/consecutive in 2021-2022-2023.[10]

"All the jerseys"

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While no male rider has ever won all three grand tours in a single calendar year/season, three riders have won the three Grand tours consecutively across two seasons, thus holding ''all the jerseys'' at one time:

  • Eddy Merckx won four consecutive grand tours in 1972–1973: Giro 1972, Tour 1972, Vuelta 1973, and Giro 1973;
  • Bernard Hinault won three consecutive grand tours in 1982–1983: Giro 1982, Tour 1982, and Vuelta 1983;
  • Chris Froome won three consecutive grand tours in 2017–2018: Tour 2017, Vuelta 2017 and Giro 2018.

Career winners of all three Grand Tours

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In bold the win that achieved a career winners of all three Grand Tours.

designates a World Championship winner.

Cyclist Tour de France wins Giro d'Italia wins Vuelta a España wins
 Jacques Anquetil (FRA) 1957, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964 1960, 1964 1963
 Felice Gimondi (ITA) 1965 1967, 1969, 1976 1968
 Eddy Merckx (BEL) 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974 1968, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974 1973
 Bernard Hinault (FRA) 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1985 1980, 1982, 1985 1978, 1983
 Alberto Contador (ESP) 2007, 2009 2008, 2015 2008, 2012, 2014
 Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) 2014 2013, 2016 2010
 Chris Froome (GBR) 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 2018 2011, 2017

Winning world titles in three disciplines

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In 2014, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot won the World Championship road race and followed this in 2015 with the world championships in cyclocross and cross-country mountain biking, which meant she held world titles in three cycling disciplines simultaneously.[11] She subsequently won the gravel world championship as well.

Winning world championships in at least three disciplines across a career has also been achieved by Marianne Vos (road race three times, cyclo-cross on eight occasions, track twice (in a different discipline each time) and gravel racing once) and Mathieu van der Poel (cyclo cross seven times, road and gravel once each).

References

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  1. ^ "Stephen Roche wins Triple crown". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 5 March 2014. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
  2. ^ a b Nelson, Craig (29 September 2024). "Pogacar completes 'Triple Crown' with first world title". BBC. Archived from the original on 13 December 2024. Retrieved 23 April 2025.
  3. ^ Hood, Andrew (11 January 2023). "Stephen Roche and the chase for cycling's elusive 'triple crown'". Velo. Archived from the original on 23 April 2025. Retrieved 23 April 2025.
  4. ^ Marshall-Bell, Chris (29 September 2024). "How Tadej Pogačar created history and claimed cycling's Triple Crown of the Giro-Tour-Worlds". CyclingWeekly. Archived from the original on 4 December 2024. Retrieved 23 April 2025.
  5. ^ Zaccardi, Nick (29 September 2024). "Tadej Pogacar wins world championships road race, completes cycling's rare triple crown". NBC Sports. Archived from the original on 7 December 2024. Retrieved 23 April 2025.
  6. ^ "Dutch cyclist Van Vleuten, 39, claims greatest win at worlds". seattletimes.com. Associated Press. 24 September 2022. Archived from the original on 7 October 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2025.
  7. ^ "Chris Froome wins Giro d'Italia, is 3rd cyclist to hold all three Grand Tours". NBC Sports. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
  8. ^ Frattini, Kirsten; Price, Matilda (2022-08-02). "9 conclusions from historic 2022 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  9. ^ Frattini, Kirsten (16 October 2021). "A closer look reveals the inequity at Tour de France Femmes". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  10. ^ "Annemiek van Vleuten: Doing second grand tour triple 'doesn't give me any extra goosebumps'". Velo.
  11. ^ Reynolds, Tom (24 September 2015). "Pauline Ferrand-Prevot: Why French star may be greatest cyclist". BBC Sport. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
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