Is the Giro/Tour double impossible?

[craig1985]

Ivan Basso wins the Giro this year (an incredibly hard Giro, mind you), and said before the Tour that he wanted to challenge, but stage 15 he lost 3 minutes to Contador, and is more then 9 minutes down overall. Denis Menchov won last year's Giro and he flopped badly. I know he crashed a lot, and speculation of him going clean because of HumanPlasma, but I still maintain that he wouldn't have won the Tour, or even finished on the podium.

So the question, even with the best doping programs, is the Giro/double impossible to achieve nowadays?

 

[saganftw]

to ride both is ok
to ride well is very hard
to win or make podium impossible

 

[JPbianchi]

I hope it is not impossible, I am not too in favor of racing just one event a year. I look at Vinokourov which is doing better in the Tour than in the Giro. Basso got sick unfortunately but he is definitely one who will study how to win them both next year.

 

[sportzchick]

If there was a larger gap between the races I would say no its not.

 

[Darryl Webster]

It`s not imposible cus its been done! Doh!

That it`s very dificult/ very rarely achieved etc is beyond doupt though.

 

[Moondance]

Well, Bertie will attempt it next year....

Given how close Andy is behind him, and his non-dominance in the mountains I imagine Contador will quietly abandon his Giro/Tour plans next year, system or no system.

 

[David Suro]

Moondance is right on.

If Contador maintains and wins this Tour, then he has won the last 5 grand tours he has enetered. Add to that another 8 voctories in lesser races and a good showing in some of tha classics.

He is an awesome racer, but is not likely to beat Lance's record of 7 TdF's.

In my opinion, the best way for himself to distance his legacy from that of previous champions would be to pull off the Giro / Tour double.

Even better would be to pull off the Giro / Tour / Vuelta triple. Not even Merckx can make that claim.

It would be the stuff of legend. Even if he came up short, the media attention he would achieve by stating that as his goal would make his sponsors happy.

 

[powerste]

So the question, even with the best doping programs, is the Giro/double impossible to achieve nowadays?

It`s not imposible cus its been done! Doh!

Yes, done in 1998, presumably with the best of doping programs...

Seriously though, probably not anymore, even though 98 wasn't that long ago. Seems to me we see more and more specialization each year. Sad IMHO.