After becoming just the third rider to win the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana in the same season, Chris Froome (Team Sky) has set his sights on another major goal: winning the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France double in 2018.
Of the Grand Tour combinations, the Giro-Tour double is the one that has been achieved the most. Seven riders have completed it 12 times compared to three apiece for the Tour-Vuelta and the Giro-Vuelta. However, it has proved elusive in recent years, with Marco Pantani the last rider to achieve the double in 1998. Previously, Fausto Coppi, Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Stephen Roche and Miguel Indurain have all won the two events in the same season.
There are a number of factors in this, with luck also playing a role, and Lance Armstrong's dominance of the Tour de France also having an impact. The decision by a larger proportion of riders to target a single event and changes in the calendar are also contributory factors.
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Pantani is the only rider to have done the double since the gap between the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France stretched out to five weeks. It has previously been as little as three. When Chris Froome makes his attempt, there will be six weeks between the two. How this will impact his effort, nobody yet knows.
Some Giro winners have gone on to ride the Tour the same year but have done so as support riders, such as Paolo Savoldelli in 2005 and Vincenzo Nibali in 2016. Just six riders have attempted to win both back-to-back since Pantani in 1998, with varying degrees of success, but none have managed to win both.
Cyclingnews takes a look back at those attempts and why they went wrong.
Gilberto Simoni (2003)
Denis Menchov (2009)
Ivan Basso (2010)
Alberto Contador (2011)
Ryder Hesjedal (2012)
Alberto Contador (2015)
Nairo Quintana (2017)
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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