No one can do the double!

[Gigs_98]

Re:

It seems that most of the TDF contenders. maybe including Froome, are riding the Vuelta this year? It makes more sense to me to attempt the Tour-Vuelta double, because the Tour is the more important race. You go in there fresh, and if you win, your season is made, it doesn’t matter what happens after that.

If I were a major GC contender, I would try the Vuelta double after winning my first or second TDF. If I pulled it off, I would try the Giro-Tour double, though maybe not the next year, as that would be four GTs in a row. If I won the Giro but came up short in the Tour, I would focus mainly on the Tour after that. But at some point, particularly if I had failed in the Tour-Vuelta double, I would go for the Giro-Vuelta double.

That is the way to maximize TDF wins, obviously the most important, while still having a good chance not only to win each of the other two, but to pull off a double of some kind.

It sounds clever but I am not sure if it really is. For example I doubt that AC had beaten froome in the tour anyway so it is good that he already has the giro, which is more important than the vuelta. Moreover there are probably more strong riders in the Vuelta so its a win win situation with the only problem that you loose your unlikely chance to win the tdf.

 

[movingtarget]

I don't think motivation is the problem regarding the double. Contador hates losing more than anyone but in today's racing, doing the double against fresh riders of similar ability is not possible. Fatigue is the problem. In previous years, most of the GC riders would ride both races but now that rarely happens. Even getting a podium in the second GT would be hard enough. The first three in the the Tour did not ride the Giro and never have done in recent times.