After being the closest since Marco Pantani in 1998 to completing the elusive Giro-Tour double six years ago, four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome believes Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) has a “strong shot” at achieving the feat and that “If anyone can do it, it will be him”.
Froome’s near miss came after winning the Giro d’Italia in 2018 with one of the most stunning comebacks cycling has ever seen, overhauling a 4:52 deficit in the third week mainly thanks to an 80km solo win on stage 19.
However, backing that up with a fifth Tour GC victory was simply too much, still managing third behind, teammate at the time, Geraint Thomas and Dutchman Tom Dumoulin, who was second in both the Giro and Tour in the same season. This was also his fourth Grand Tour in a row after taking wins at the 2017 Tour and Vuelta a España before claiming the first GT in 2018 at the Giro.
“Just talking from my experience, obviously, that was my fourth Grand Tour in a row having won the Tour, the Vuelta, the Giro,” said Froome into ITV’s microphone before stage 2 of the Critérium du Dauphiné.
“I had come into the Tour de France and I could feel at the start that I was just missing that freshness, that edge that I would need. From being able to control the workload through the May preparation period.”
With a lack of freshness coming out of the Giro, Froome played second fiddle to Thomas as the Welshman excelled in the mountains, notably with a win up to Alpe d'Huez, to take his first Grand Tour victory and Wales’ first yellow jersey.
But he saw Pogačar’s dominant Giro as vastly different from his comeback, believing that the Slovenian superstar didn’t empty too much of his energy supplies, despite managing the biggest winning margin at the Giro since 1965.
While he won’t be on the start line to witness it first-hand after missing out on Israel-Premier Tech’s selection, Froome thinks Pogačar can carry his best legs into the Tour which starts on Saturday, coincidentally, in Italy.
“Now Tadej, it seems that he had a very different Giro compared to the Giro that I had back in 2018 where he seemed as if was riding very much within himself. Even though he took a whole bunch of time from everyone else there,” Froome said.
“It seemed as if he took that very much in his stride and I really believe that he’s got a strong shot at the double this year. If anyone can do it, it will be him.”
There are other differences in that Froome had just over 40 days between the Giro and Tour to prepare, while Pogačar has had just 33 days due to the Tour being pushed back a week earlier due to the Paris Olympics.
However, other variables have been on his side, notably his main rival and two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) only just making Tour selection start after a long return from injury, set to ride his first race day since April at the Florence Grand Départ.
Despite his already-cemented legacy, Frome couldn’t join the seven men who captured the Giro-Tour double, Fausto Coppi, Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Stephen Roche, Miguel Indurain and Pantani in 1998. Pogačar is a more than worthy successor but is six weeks of Grand Tour racing simply too much to dominate in the modern era?
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