When Chris Froome announced his intention to ride the Giro d'Italia via a short video at the route presentation in November, it was with the objective of emulating Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault by winning cycling's three Grand Tours in succession.
The initial hype surrounding the proposed 'Froome Slam' was rather dulled two weeks later when it emerged that the Team Sky rider had returned a positive test for salbutamol en route to Vuelta a España victory in September.
The case has yet to be resolved and Froome will lose his Vuelta title if he is found guilty of an anti-doping rule violation, and so his place in history is very much a provisional one at this juncture, despite Merckx telling La Gazzetta dello Sport, "I welcome him to the club."
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And so, while the salbutamol case proceeds at a glacial pace, Froome sits – at least for the time being – alongside Merckx and Hinault as the only riders to hold the Tour de France, Vuelta and Giro titles at the same time. He also joins – provisionally, of course – Merckx, Hinault, Jacques Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, Alberto Contador and Vincenzo Nibali as the only riders to win all three Grand Tours during their careers.
Merckx notched up his triple by completing the Giro-Tour double in 1972, and then adding the Vuelta (then held in spring) the following year. The Belgian proceeded to win his fourth Giro immediately afterwards, but the Grand-Tour-winning sequence ended when he opted against competing in the 1973 Tour de France.
A decade on from Merckx, Bernard Hinault completed the Giro-Tour double in 1982, and then added the 1983 Vuelta. The Frenchman's run of successive Grand Tour wins stopped at three after a knee injury prevented him from defending both his Giro and Tour crowns that summer.
Modern era
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