Possible to do 3 Grands W/O DRUGS?

[NashbarShorts]

Anybody see Riis' pronouncement today, that his goal is for AC to win all 3 Grand Tours in one year?? To me this just screams doping.

Riis: "I am convinced that we have not seen his full potential yet...I think I can contribute to polishing this diamond even further."

That's right, Saiz, Fuentes, and Bruyneel have all done a fine job w/ young Berto, but I guess we aint seen nothin' yet...they don't call him Mr. 60% for nothing.

Anybody else think this can possibly be achieved W/O medical assistance? Or is even healthy??

 

[Maxiton]

Anybody see Riis' pronouncement today, that his goal is for AC to win all 3 Grand Tours in one year?? To me this just screams doping.

Riis: "I am convinced that we have not seen his full potential yet...I think I can contribute to polishing this diamond even further."

That's right, Saiz, Fuentes, and Bruyneel have all done a fine job w/ young Berto, but I guess we aint seen nothin' yet...they don't call him Mr. 60% for nothing.

Anybody else think this can possibly be achieved W/O medical assistance? Or is even healthy??

To ride, yes. To win, no. But, then, there is zero chance these races will be ridden without medical preparation, and certainly not by the leading contenders.

I think Contador under Riis will ride the so called Grand Slam and will very possibly win all three. It could be exciting to watch.

 

[hrotha]

I doubt it can be achieved with a good doping program.

 

[luckyboy]

Can't see a rider are winning/contending for the GC in one GT without doping.

I'm saying this will never happen, with or without drugs.

 

[Martin318is]

To do it without doping, you would need EVERYBODY to be clean too and even then it would be a bit of a miracle...

There have been a number of riders that have completed all 3 in a season as domestiques, etc but can't remember the last GC contender that actually started all 3 with even a remote intention of winning them.

 

[Ferminal]

The problem is even if no one is doping, someone who targets the Vuelta exclusively will still be in better condition than someone who has just won the two GTs previously.

So unless this one person is a super abnormal talent...

 

[Escarabajo]

Are you kidding me?

I don't even think is possible to win the Tour by itself clean.

 

[tockit]

Anybody see Riis' pronouncement today, that his goal is for AC to win all 3 Grand Tours in one year?? To me this just screams doping.

Riis: "I am convinced that we have not seen his full potential yet...I think I can contribute to polishing this diamond even further."

That's right, Saiz, Fuentes, and Bruyneel have all done a fine job w/ young Berto, but I guess we aint seen nothin' yet...they don't call him Mr. 60% for nothing.

Anybody else think this can possibly be achieved W/O medical assistance? Or is even healthy??

Merckz did it back in his day.

I'm sure he probably wasn't totally clean, but back in his day the peloton didn't have anything close to what they've got now!

I think it's do-able if every other rider is clean, with a little luck and a huge engine.

 

[Escarabajo]

Merckz did it back in his day.

...

What year did he do it?

I don't think there has been a human that has been able to do this in the same year.

 

[sliceofpy]

To do it without doping, you would need EVERYBODY to be clean too and even then it would be a bit of a miracle...

There have been a number of riders that have completed all 3 in a season as domestiques, etc but can't remember the last GC contender that actually started all 3 with even a remote intention of winning them.

+1.

Certainly it will happen... just wait a few years. <cough>gene doping</cough>

 

[QuickStepper]

What year did he do it?

I don't think there has been a human that has been able to do this in the same year.

No cyclist has ever won all three Grand Tour events in the same year. Merckx probably came the closest

Nine riders have hit a double by winning two grand tours in the same year:

Seven have won the Tour/Giro in the same year:

Fausto Coppi (ITA): 1949, 1952
Jacques Anquetil (FRA): 1964
Eddy Merckx (BEL): 1970, 1972, 1974
Bernard Hinault (FRA): 1982, 1985
Stephen Roche (IRL): 1987
Miguel Indurain (ESP): 1992, 1993
Marco Pantani (ITA): 1998

Two have won the Tour/Vuelta double:

Jacques Anquetil (FRA): 1963
Bernard Hinault (FRA): 1978


The Giro/Vuelta double has been done three times:

Eddy Merckx (BEL): 1973
Giovanni Battaglin (ITA): 1981
Alberto Contador (ESP): 2008

Yes, I'm a good "googler".

Interesting stats:

5 riders have won 5 or more TdF: LA, Indurain, Hinault, Merckx, and Anquetil.

3 riders have won 5 Giros: Merckx, Coppi and Binda.

And the most ever Vuelta wins by the same rider is 3, and only 2 people have ever done that: Tony Rominger in 92, 93 and 94, and Roberto Heras in 2000, 03 and 04. Does anyone think either of them rode clean?

Merckx clearly came the closet to the Triple Crown and would have likely done it in 1973. He was specifically asked by the TdF organizers not to ride in 73 because he'd already won 4 times, and was approaching Anquetil's then-record 5 wins. So he instead rode the Giro and Vuelta and won them both in 1973. We'll never know what might have happened had he ridden all three.

Merckx probably could have achieved more than 5 wins in the Tour had it not been for the "punch" in 1975, and his non-participation in the 73 Tour. He also could likely have won at least 6 Giros had it not been for his doping suspension in the 1969 Giro which he led for 16 stages before testing positive for a stimulant which was later removed from the list of banned substances. He was allowed to ride the Tour that same year after testing positive in the Giro, and won it.

I personally don't think anyone can come close and no one will ever approach Merckx' level of dominatoin. It may be possible for someone to eventually do all three but it's pretty unlikely.

 

[NashbarShorts]

Tony Rominger in 92, 93 and 94, and Roberto Heras in 2000, 03 and 04. Does anyone think either of them rode clean?

I think it's been proven that both were not clean. Anyways, Heras would have been Kelme (2000), then Postal (03), then Saiz/Liberty (04). So I think it must be a rhetorical question on your part

 

[Sisyphe]

Carlos Sastre is the most consistent GT rider of our time.
And he does usually complete at least 2 GTs with good results.
In 2006, his result was great.
Giro 46th (he rode to support Basso to win)
Tour 3rd (Landis disqualified.)
Vuelta 4th (Vino, Valverde, Kashechkin as 1-2-3)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Sastre#Grand_Tour_General_Classification_results_timeline


But after his 2008 tour win, he moved to Cervélo TestTeam, and he seems oversued by team's demand.

Having recall these years, just Giro-Tour is too much for general contenders.
In 2009 Menchov and Sastre, in 2010 Basso and Evans.

Even with doping, and with very strong team, podium for all 3 GTs in the same year seems almost impossible thing. Then winning them all ?

 

[python]

the question that concerns me is related but different-

why

in the era

of rampant blood and recovery doping (90's, 00's)

no one, no one........

has won 3 gts in a row ??

WHY oh WHY

dope does not work ?

 

[Oldman]

Not healthy and never been done.

 

[theswordsman]

Eurosport caught up with Fran Contador a few hours after the Riis announcement and he said that must have been a translation problem. That doesn't mean that Alberto didn't tell Riis that it was a dream of his or something, but Fran says Alberto isn't going for the triple. It sounded like a reach to me since he's done racing again this year already, while Schleck and others move on to the Vuelta, which forces them to stay very fit for a couple of months, get three plus weeks of hard racing in their legs, and start next year with a higher fitness level.

It will be interesting to see how Sastre and maybe Dean do in a third grand tour.

Eurosport TV has picked up the first statements of the environment Contador after the signing of the Madrid confirmed by Saxo Bank. The brother and agent of the broker Pinto said they are very happy but has denied that Alberto will run the big three in one season.
Just hours after Bjarne Riis confirm the arrival of the latest winner of the Tour de France to his squad for next season, attended Contador Francisco Eduardo Huts and Fernando Gomez, Eurosport commentators to explain that his brother was very happy to the new venture to be undertaken from next January 1, 2011.

Very surprised, the agent of the current leader of the UCI ranking soon disprove the words of Saxo Bank's sports director, who said Alberto Contador had said he wanted to win all three Grand Tours in one season: "I imagine that there will been a translation error. Conquer Giro, Tour and Vuelta in the same year is impossible. We have very clear that the priority is the Tour and then, seeing as it will work is planned in each of the two campaigns that we have signed. "

http://es.eurosport.yahoo.com/03082010/47/contador-ira-tres-grandes.html

It was a fun few hours. But Contador had seven or eight months off before starting the 2010 season. He extended the early part to include the Ardennes Classics, which delayed his vacation, and knocked a couple of weeks off of his pre-Tour preparation. I figure he's probably more fit right now than he was at the Tour, so it's a shame he's not out there racing UCI events, or supporting races in other countries.

 

[galaxy1]

giro, vuelta, and tour were in successive months until quite recently, no?
so it really was "impossible" for Merckx et al. it might be possible now for a dominant rider, like Contador'09.

 

[QuickStepper]

giro, vuelta, and tour were in successive months until quite recently, no?
so it really was "impossible" for Merckx et al. it might be possible now for a dominant rider, like Contador'09.

The Vuelta was originally held in April beginning in 1934. It also competed directly with the Giro for a few years in the 1940's (when it was a shorter version with fewer stages than today). But the Vuelta has been run in September since 1955, so there is always a clear break between the Giro in May, the TdF in July and the Vuelta in September.

I don't think it would have been "impossible" for Merckx to win all three in the same year, but you need to recall that when Merckx was a younger rider, the Vuelta was still mostly a Spanish-national type of race and at least during the 1960's (up until close to the time Merckx turned pro) it was rarely ridden by anyone other than Spanish teams and riders. As Merckx became more dominant, riding all the classic one day races, the Giro and the TdF, he also focused on the hour record and the Worlds.

Merckx only rode the Vuelta once. When he did, he absolutely dominated it. I have no doubt that if he had decided to skip the one-day classics and focus more just on the Grand Tours, he would have been the most successful of anyone in history. He would have kicked everyone's *sses.

 

[Hugh Januss]

I think the Lanterne Rouge trifecta is a posibility. Not that I'm saying Contador should go for that, but someone should.

 

[Ninety5rpm]

the question that concerns me is related but different-

why

in the era

of rampant blood and recovery doping (90's, 00's)

no one, no one........

has won 3 gts in a row ??

WHY oh WHY

dope does not work ?

If only one person doped and all the rest did not, then your question might begin to make sense.

One problem though is that if you're relying on your own blood, the supply is limited.

 

[Ninety5rpm]

Anybody see Riis' pronouncement today, that his goal is for AC to win all 3 Grand Tours in one year?? To me this just screams doping.

Riis: "I am convinced that we have not seen his full potential yet...I think I can contribute to polishing this diamond even further."

That's right, Saiz, Fuentes, and Bruyneel have all done a fine job w/ young Berto, but I guess we aint seen nothin' yet...they don't call him Mr. 60% for nothing.

Anybody else think this can possibly be achieved W/O medical assistance? Or is even healthy??

To finish in the top 20 of just one Grand Tour screams doping. Maybe even top 100.

Don't forget they live in two worlds. In the world of omerta everyone does it. In the public world nobody does it, except those "few" who are caught.

 

[Parrot23]

I see there's been a correction. A translation error. Thank goodness!

Was beginning to think the chutzpah of these goals implied a mega medical "program" (and how that's possible these days, I don't know).

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/5...y-to-win-three-Grand-Tours-in-one-season.aspx