Have they?hfer07 said:So UK has become the new hub for creating GT/Week long/Classics/stage winners........
If Yates wins La Vuelta, the new precedent set for UK riders is to win all 3 GT in one year...... :eek the new normal?
... and YES, Spaniards, Italians, Belgians have done it in the past, but because UK not having that historic tradition in the sport this new achievement keeps adding up to the distrust in the UK riders, given the fact that all the grand wins started happening once SKY in combination with the UK bicycling program under Brailsford was created.....
UKAD must be happy knowing all its riders are "clean" and smashing it across the globe
I can only trace two occasions in history where one nation swept all 3 GTs, although there are a few occasions of one nation sweeping the Giro and Tour before the Vuelta existed, and indeed the Vuelta was very much a poor relation until the early 80s, or the mid 90s depending on your stance (it's still the runt of the GT litter to this day but has clearly increased its standing, if not to parity then at least somewhere in the same ballpark, whereas back in the 60s and 70s it was essentially the 'other' three week race and actively biased itself against Spanish riders in an attempt to make the race more internationally recognised).
Those are 1964, when Poulidor won the Vuelta and then Anquetil won the Giro and Tour, and 2008, when Contador won the Giro, then Sastre won the Tour, then Contador won the Vuelta. There are other examples of three in a row for a country but never in the same year (e.g. Merckx 1970 Giro and Tour, Bracke 1971 Vuelta; and when the Vuelta was cancelled in 1949 that allowed the Italians to win four GTs on the bounce - two Giri and two Tours. There's also Merckx and Hinault winning everything within a 12 month period, of course, and with Froome being allowed to keep his 2017 Vuelta he joins that roster.
But if Yates were to hold on to win the Vuelta, this would mark the first time in the history of cycling that one nation would win all three Grand Tours in the same year, with three different riders and the first time in history that the same nation won five back to back Grand Tours (Spain has managed 5/6 before, over 2008 and 2009, but Menchov interrupted that run in the Giro). However, before we get ahead of ourselves, let's let him actually achieve that first.