In road bicycle racing, a Grand Tour is one of the three major European professional cycling stage races: Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España. Collectively they are termed the Grand Tours, and all three races are similar in format being three week races with daily stages. They have a special status in the UCI regulations: more points for the UCI World Tour are distributed in Grand Tours than in other races, [1] and they are the only stage races allowed to last longer than 14 days. [2]
The Giro d'Italia is generally run in May, the Tour de France in July, and the Vuelta a España in late August and September. The Vuelta was originally held in the spring, usually late April, with a few editions held in June in the 1940s. In 1995, however, the race moved to September to avoid direct competition with the Giro d'Italia.
The Tour de France is the oldest and most prestigious in terms of points accrued to racers of all three, [1] and is the most widely attended annual sporting event in the world. [3] The Tour, the Giro and the Road World Cycling Championship make up the Triple Crown of Cycling.
The three Grand Tours are men's events, and no three week races exist on the women's road cycling circuit. The Giro Rosa, the ten stage Italian road race for women is the only race on the current women's circuit treated as broadly equivalent to a Grand Tour, although the Tour de France Femmes will be held from 2022.
In their current form, the Grand Tours are held over three consecutive weeks and typically include two rest days near the beginning of the second and third weeks. If the opening stages are in a country not neighboring the home nation of the race, there is sometimes an additional rest day after the opening weekend to allow for transfers. The stages are a mix of long massed start races (sometimes including mountain and hill climbs and descents; others are flat stages favoring those with a sprint finish) and individual and team time trials. Stages in the Grand Tours are generally under 200 kilometers in length.
Controversy often surrounds which teams are invited to the event. Typically, the Union Cycliste Internationale (International Cycling Union) prefers top-rated professional teams to enter, while operators of the Grand Tours often want teams based in their country or those unlikely to cause controversy. From 2005 to 2007, organisers had to accept all ProTour teams, leaving only two wildcard teams per Tour. However, the Unibet team, a ProTour team normally guaranteed entry, was banned from the three Grand Tours for violating gambling advertising laws. In 2008, following numerous doping scandals, some teams were refused entry to the Grand Tours: Astana did not compete at the 2008 Tour de France and Team Columbia did not compete at the 2008 Vuelta a España. Since 2011, under the UCI World Tour rules, all UCI WorldTeams are guaranteed a place in all three events, and obliged to participate, and the organisers are free to invite wild card teams of UCI ProContinental status to make up the 22 teams that usually compete.[ citation needed ]
The main competition is the individual general classification, decided on aggregate time (sometimes after allowance of time bonuses). There are also classifications for teams and young riders, and based on climbing and sprinting points, and other minor competitions. Five riders have won three individual classifications open to all riders (general, mountains, young and points classifications) in the same race: Eddy Merckx in the 1968 Giro d'Italia and 1969 Tour de France and 1973 Vuelta a España, Tony Rominger in the 1993 Vuelta a España, Laurent Jalabert in the 1995 Vuelta a España, Marco Pantani in the 1998 Giro d'Italia, and Tadej Pogačar in the 2020 Tour de France and 2021 Tour de France.
It is rare for cyclists to ride all grand tours in the same year; in 2004, 474 cyclists started in at least one of the grand tours, 68 of them rode two Grand Tours and only two cyclists started in all three grand tours. [4] It is not unusual for sprinters to start each of the Grand Tours and aim for stage wins before the most difficult stages occur. Alessandro Petacchi and Mark Cavendish started all three Grand Tours in 2010 and 2011, respectively, as did some of their preferred support riders. For both riders in both years, only the Tour de France was ridden to its conclusion.
Over the years, 34 riders have completed all three Grand Tours in one year: Adam Hansen did so six years in a row.
The only riders to have finished in the top 10 in each of the three tours during the same year are Raphaël Géminiani in 1955 and Gastone Nencini in 1957.
In cycling history riders from the same country having won all three Grand Tours in a single year has happened only on three occasions. In 1964 with French riders Jacques Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor and in 2008 with Spanish riders Alberto Contador and Carlos Sastre. 2018 marked the only time three different riders from the same country won all three Tours, these being British riders Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Simon Yates.
For the UCI World Tour, more points are given in grand tours than in other races; the winner of the Tour de France receives 1000 points, and the winners of the Giro and Vuelta receive 850 points. Depending on the nature of other races, points vary for the winner of the overall classification [1] The grand tours have a special status for the length: they are allowed to last between 15 and 23 days. [2]
Legend | |
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Rider won 3 Grand Tours in the same year | |
Rider won 2 Grand Tours in the same year | |
Flag icon key: List of National Flags |
A. a b c d e f g Lance Armstrong was declared the winner of seven consecutive tours from 1999 to 2005. However, on 22 October 2012, he was stripped of all his titles by the UCI for his use of performance-enhancing drugs. The organizers of the Tour de France announced that the winner's slot would remain empty in the record books, rather than transfer the win to the second-place finishers each year. [7]
Rank | Rider | Total | Tour | Giro | Vuelta |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | 11 | 5 (1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974) | 5 (1968, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974) | 1 (1973) |
2 | ![]() | 10 | 5 (1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1985) | 3 (1980, 1982, 1985) | 2 (1978, 1983) |
3 | ![]() | 8 | 5 (1957, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964) | 2 (1960, 1964) | 1 (1963) |
4 | ![]() | 7 | 2 (1949, 1952) | 5 (1940, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953) | – |
![]() | 7 | 5 (1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995) | 2 (1992, 1993) | – | |
![]() | 7 | 2 (2007, 2009) | 2 (2008, 2015) | 3 (2008, 2012, 2014) | |
![]() | 7 | 4 (2013, 2015, 2016, 2017) | 1 (2018) | 2 (2011, 2017) | |
8 | ![]() | 5 | – | 5 (1925, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1933) | – |
![]() | 5 | 2 (1938, 1948) | 3 (1936, 1937, 1946) | – | |
![]() | 5 | 1 (1965) | 3 (1967, 1969, 1976) | 1 (1968) | |
11 | ![]() | 4 | – | 1 (1995) | 3 (1992, 1993, 1994) |
![]() | 4 | – | – | 4 (2000, 2003, 2004, 2005) | |
![]() | 4 | 1 (2014) | 2 (2013, 2016) | 1 (2010) | |
Country | Giro | Tour | Vuelta | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 69 | 10 | 6 | 85 |
![]() | 6 | 36 | 9 | 51 |
![]() | 4 | 12 | 32 | 48 |
![]() | 7 | 18 | 7 | 32 |
![]() | 2 | 6 | 3 | 11 |
![]() | 3 | 2 | 5 | 10 |
![]() | 2 | 5 | 0 | 7 |
![]() | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
![]() | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
![]() | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
![]() | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
![]() | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
![]() | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
![]() | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
![]() | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
![]() | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
![]() | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
![]() | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
![]() | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
![]() | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Seven cyclists have won all three of the Grand Tours during their career: [8]
Hinault and Contador are the only cyclists to have won each Grand Tour at least twice.
During Fausto Coppi achievement, the Vuelta a Espana didn't run (1951-1954).
During Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault achievements, the Vuelta a Espana was the first Grand Tour of the season.
No rider has won all three Grand Tours in a single year.
Ten riders have achieved a double by winning two grand tours in the same calendar year.
Seven cyclists have won the Tour and the Giro in the same calendar year: [8]
The Tour/Vuelta double has been achieved by three cyclists: [8]
The Giro/Vuelta double has been achieved by three cyclists: [8]
Of the above ten, Pantani, Roche and Battaglin's doubles were their only Grand Tour victories in their careers.
Few riders have finished all three in a single year, of whom two finished in the top ten in each: Raphaël Géminiani (4th, 6th and 3rd in the Giro, Tour and Vuelta in 1955) and Gastone Nencini (1st, 6th and 9th in 1957).
The margins between the winner of a Grand Tour and the runner-up are often narrow, and rarely larger than a few minutes.
As of 2019, there have been 51 Grand Tours with a winning margin less than one minute. The smallest margins are as follows:
Rank | Winner | Time | Runner-up | Margin | Race |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | 90h 08' 03"" | ![]() | +00h 00' 06" | Vuelta a España (1984) |
2 | ![]() | 87h 38' 35"" | ![]() | +00h 00' 08" | Tour de France (1989) |
3 | ![]() | 86h 48' 18 | ![]() | +00h 00' 11" | Vuelta a España (1974) |
![]() | 124h 51' 52" | ![]() | Giro d'Italia (1948) | ||
5 | ![]() | 113h 08' 13" | ![]() | +00h 00' 12" | Giro d'Italia (1974) |
6 | ![]() | 105h 37' 52" | ![]() | +00h 00' 13" | Vuelta a España (1956) |
![]() | 108h 56' 12" | ![]() | Giro d'Italia (1955) | ||
8 | ![]() | 88h 00" 56' | ![]() | +00h 00' 14" | Vuelta a España (1975) |
9 | ![]() | 91h 39' 02" | ![]() | +00h 00' 16" | Giro d'Italia (2012) |
The biggest winning margin in a Grand Tour was 2h 59' 21" in Maurice Garin's win at the first Tour de France in 1903. The biggest margin in the history of Giro d'Italia was in 1914 when Alfonso Calzolari won by 1h 57' 26", and the biggest margin in the history of Vuelta a España was in 1945 when Delio Rodríguez finished 30' 08" clear.
The Tour/Giro/Vuelta triple has been achieved by five riders – Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Mark Cavendish, Laurent Jalabert, Eddy Merckx and Alessandro Petacchi.
Rank | Rider | Total | Tour | Giro | Vuelta |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | 9 | 6 (1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001) | 0 | 3 (2002, 2003, 2004) |
2 | ![]() | 8 | 4 (1982, 1983, 1985, 1989) | 0 | 4 (1980, 1985, 1986, 1988) |
![]() | 8 | 7 (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019) | 1 (2021) | 0 | |
4 | ![]() | 7 | 2 (1992, 1995) | 1 (1999) | 4 (1994, 1995, 1996, 1997) |
5 | ![]() | 6 | 3 (1969, 1971, 1972) | 2 (1968, 1973) | 1 (1973) |
The Tour/Giro/Vuelta triple has been achieved by two riders – Federico Bahamontes and Luis Herrera.
Rank | Rider | Total | Tour | Giro | Vuelta |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | 9 | 2 (1938, 1948) | 7 (1935, 1936, 1937, 1939, 1940, 1946, 1947) | 0 |
![]() | 9 | 6 (1954, 1958, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1964) | 1 (1956) | 2 (1957, 1958) | |
3 | ![]() | 8 | 6 (1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1981, 1983) | 2 (1982, 1983) | 0 |
4 | ![]() | 7 | 7 (1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2004) | 0 | 0 |
5 | ![]() | 6 | 3 (1965, 1966, 1967) | 0 | 3 (1963, 1964, 1965) |
The Tour/Giro double has been achieved by three riders – Egan Bernal, Nairo Quintana and Andy Schleck. The Giro/Vuelta double has been achieved by one rider – Miguel Ángel López. The Tour/Vuelta double has been achieved by one rider – Tadej Pogačar.
Rank | Rider | Total | Tour | Giro | Vuelta |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | 4 | 3 (2008, 2009, 2010) | 1 (2007) | 0 |
2 | ![]() | 3 | 3 (1996, 1997, 1998) | 0 | 0 |
![]() | 3 | 2 (2013, 2015) | 1 (2014) | 0 | |
![]() | 3 | 0 | 2 (2018, 2019) | 1 (2017) | |
![]() | 3 | 2 (2020, 2021) | 0 | 1 (2019) |
Three cyclists have won stages in all three of the Grand Tours in the same season: Miguel Poblet in 1956, Pierino Baffi in 1958 and Alessandro Petacchi in 2003. [9]
Cyclists whose names are in bold are still active. [10] This list is complete up to and including the 2021 Tour de France.
Rank | Rider | Tour | Giro | Vuelta | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | 34 | 24 | 6 | 64 |
2 | ![]() | 12 | 42 | 3 | 57 |
3 | ![]() | 34 | 16 | 3 | 53 |
4 | ![]() | 6 | 22 | 20 | 48 |
5 | ![]() | 2 | 41 | 0 | 43 |
6 | ![]() | 28 | 6 | 7 | 41 |
7 | ![]() | 8 | 31 | 0 | 39 |
8 | ![]() | 0 | 0 | 39 | 39 |
9 | ![]() | 7 | 12 | 18 | 37 |
10 | ![]() | 15 | 7 | 13 | 35 |
11 | ![]() | 9 | 22 | 0 | 31 |
12 | ![]() | 0 | 30 | 0 | 30 |
13 | ![]() | 12 | 17 | 0 | 29 |
14 | ![]() | 6 | 15 | 6 | 27 |
![]() | 2 | 23 | 2 | 27 | |
16 | ![]() | 6 | 16 | 4 | 26 |
![]() | 11 | 15 | 0 | 26 | |
![]() | 3 | 20 | 3 | 26 | |
![]() | 0 | 24 | 2 | 26 | |
20 | ![]() | 4 | 21 | 0 | 25 |
![]() | 4 | 3 | 18 | 25 | |
![]() | 25 | 0 | 0 | 25 | |
![]() | 4 | 15 | 6 | 25 | |
24 | ![]() | 1 | 22 | 1 | 24 |
![]() | 12 | 12 | 0 | 24 | |
26 | ![]() | 22 | 1 | 0 | 23 |
27 | ![]() | 16 | 5 | 1 | 22 |
![]() | 9 | 4 | 9 | 22 | |
![]() | 11 | 7 | 4 | 22 | |
30 | ![]() | 10 | 11 | 0 | 21 |
![]() | 5 | 0 | 16 | 21 |
The rider with the most Grand Tour wins in one season is Freddy Maertens who won 20 Grand Tour stages in 1977: 13 stages in the Vuelta a España and 7 in the Giro d'Italia.
Only 35 riders have finished all three Grand Tours in one season. Adam Hansen has done this six times, Marino Lejarreta four times and Bernardo Ruiz achieved it in three different years, while Eduardo Chozas and Carlos Sastre have completed the accomplishment twice. [11] [12]
The rider with most participations on Grand Tours is Matteo Tosatto with 34 (12 Tours, 13 Giros and 9 Vueltas). The rider who has finished most Grand Tours is also Matteo Tosatto, with 28 (12 Tours, 11 Giros and 5 Vueltas). Adam Hansen has finished the most consecutive Grand Tours: 20 tours from 2011 Vuelta a España till 2018 Giro d'Italia. The best average finish was the first time three Grand Tours were finished in one season, when Raphaël Géminiani finished 4th, 6th and 3rd in the Giro, Tour and Vuelta, respectively. Bernardo Ruiz was the first rider to ride every tour of a season on three occasions which he completed in 1957. Marino Lejarreta completed every grand tour of the season for the 4th time in 1991 and of these 12 tours he finished in the top 10 of eight of them. His record of 4 was not passed until Adam Hansen completed the Vuelta in 2016.
The Giro d'Italia is an annual multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in Italy, while also starting in, or passing through, other countries. The first race was organized in 1909 to increase sales of the newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport; and is still run by a subsidiary of that paper's owner. The race has been held annually since its first edition in 1909, except during the two world wars. As the Giro gained prominence and popularity the race was lengthened, and the peloton expanded from primarily Italian participation to riders from all over the world. The Giro is a UCI World Tour event, which means that the teams that compete in the race are mostly UCI WorldTeams, with some additional teams invited as 'wild cards'.
The Triple Crown of Cycling is a term used in road bicycle racing to denote the achievement of winning three major titles in the same season, usually but not always the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France and the UCI World Road Race Championship.
The Vuelta a España is an annual multi-stage bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, the race was first organised in 1935. The race was prevented from being run by the Spanish Civil War and World War II in the early years of its existence; however, the race has been held annually since 1955. As the Vuelta gained prestige and popularity the race was lengthened and its reach began to extend all around the globe. Since 1979, the event has been staged and managed by Unipublic, until in 2014, when Amaury Sport Organisation acquired control, with both working together. The peloton expanded from a primarily Spanish participation to include riders from all over the world. The Vuelta is a UCI World Tour event, which means that the teams that compete in the race are mostly UCI WorldTeams, with the exception of the wild card teams that the organizers can invite.
An individual time trial (ITT) is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock. There are also track-based time trials where riders compete in velodromes, and team time trials (TTT). ITTs are also referred to as "the race of truth", as winning depends only on each rider's strength and endurance, and not on help provided by teammates and others riding ahead and creating a slipstream. Individual time trial are usually held on flat or rolling terrain, although sometimes they are held up a mountain road. Sometimes the opening stage of a stage race is a very short individual time trial called a prologue.
A sprinter is a road bicycle racer or track racer who can finish a race very explosively by accelerating quickly to a high speed, often using the slipstream of another cyclist or group of cyclists tactically to conserve energy.
Alessandro Petacchi is an Italian former professional road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 1996 and 2015. A specialist sprinter, Petacchi has won 48 grand tour stages with wins of the points jersey in the Giro d'Italia in 2004, the Vuelta a España in 2005 and the Tour de France in 2010. He also won the classics Milan – San Remo in 2005 and Paris-Tours in 2007. His career spanned over 18 years during which he earned 183 victories.
Abraham Olano Manzano is a Spanish retired professional road racing cyclist, who raced between 1992 and 2002. He won the World Road Championship in 1995, and the World Time Trial Championship in 1998, becoming the first and so far only male cyclist to win both.
Alberto Contador Velasco is a Spanish former professional cyclist. He is one of the most successful riders of his era, winning the Tour de France twice, the Giro d'Italia twice, and the Vuelta a España three times. He is one of only seven riders to have won all three Grand Tours of cycling, and one of only two riders to have won all three more than once. He has also won the Vélo d'Or a record 4 times.
The points classification is a secondary award category in road bicycle racing. Points are given for high finishes and, in some cases, for winning sprints at certain places along the route, most often called intermediate sprints. The points classification is the top prize for many cycling sprinters and is often known as the sprint classification; however, in some stage races these classifications are based on different criteria.
The 28th Edition Vuelta a España, a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the 3 grand tours, was held from April 26 to May 13, 1973. It consisted of 17 stages covering a total of 3,061 km, and was won by Eddy Merckx of the Molteni cycling team. As Merckx had already won several editions of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia with his win in the Vuelta, he became the third cyclist after Jacques Anquetil and Felice Gimondi to win all three grand tours in his career. Merckx went on to win the 1973 Giro d'Italia and became the first cyclist to win the Vuelta-Giro double. Merckx also won the points classification and José Luis Abilleira won the mountains classification. With Merckx finishing first, Ocaña second and Thévenet third the podium of the 1973 Vuelta contained one previous winner and two future winners of the Tour de France making it one of the best podiums in the history of the race, according to the official race website. Merckx won six stages in this edition and Gerben Karstens won four.
Christopher Clive Froome [kɹɪs fɹuːm], is a British road racing cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Israel–Premier Tech. He has won seven Grand Tours: four editions of the Tour de France, one Giro d'Italia (2018) and the Vuelta a España twice. He has also won several other stage races, and the Velo d'Or three times. Froome has also won two Olympic bronze medals in road time trials, in 2012 and 2016, and took bronze in the 2017 World Championships.
Mikel Landa Meana is a Spanish professional road cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam Team Bahrain Victorious. His career breakthrough came at the 2015 Giro d'Italia where he won two stages and finished third overall.
The Giro d'Italia is an annual stage race bicycle race primarily held in Italy, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. The race was first organized in 1909 to increase sales of the newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport; however it is currently run by RCS Sport. The race has been held annually since its first edition in 1909, except when it was stopped for the two world wars. As the Giro gained prominence and popularity the race was lengthened, and the peloton expanded from primarily Italian participation to riders from all over the world.
The 2017 Vuelta a España was a three-week Grand Tour cycling stage race that took place in Spain between 19 August and 10 September 2017. The race was the 72nd edition of the Vuelta a España and the final Grand Tour of the 2017 cycling season. The race started in Nîmes, France, and finished in Madrid. It was the first time the race has started in France and only the third time it has started outside Spain, after 1997 (Portugal) and 2009 (Netherlands).