Men's Road Cycling UCI World Tour 2024 (Tour de France)

[Faramir 367]

I have a feeling that not calling Zigart was the political choice, by someone who holds a grudge with Pogacar.

[mpjmcevoy 362]

10 hours ago, De_Gambassi said:

Heum... please stop ? There is nos such a thing and never was, mostly because for the longest time people didn't care enough about the Vuelta and the Vuelta and the Giro were rode within a week of difference.

 

Lol...

I never mentioned the Vuelta - the gold is Olympic, not the former vuelta jersey

[De_Gambassi 1,225]

6 hours ago, mpjmcevoy said:

I never mentioned the Vuelta - the gold is Olympic, not the former vuelta jersey

Ah sorry, that's the nerves before the olympics talking 

[heywoodu 15,174]

On 7/24/2024 at 2:00 AM, mpjmcevoy said:

I never mentioned the Vuelta - the gold is Olympic, not the former vuelta jersey

I think that was my mistake for mixing the Vuelta in, that's what I thought of when I saw 'gold'  Sorry.

 

Although I do still firmly believe things like crowns and slams aren't really much of a thing in cycling. Winning all three Grand Tours in a year would be, but winning two out of three plus a championship (or two) just kind of seems like an "almost complete thing"  (much as it would be immensely impressive, obviously!)

[mpjmcevoy 362]

5 hours ago, heywoodu said:

I think that was my mistake for mixing the Vuelta in, that's what I thought of when I saw 'gold'  Sorry.

 

Although I do still firmly believe things like crowns and slams aren't really much of a thing in cycling. Winning all three Grand Tours in a year would be, but winning two out of three plus a championship (or two) just kind of seems like an "almost complete thing"  (much as it would be immensely impressive, obviously!)

I think the 'triple crown' probably goes back to the Giro-Tour-WC season of Merckx, and perhaps a fanciful hat tip to horse racing v riding the 'iron horse' - the WC is a funny race in that it's not really any more prestigious than say Paris-Roubaix or L-B-L, indeed I think Pogacars achievement in Giro-Tour-LBL is arguably better, but because Mercks did it and others did not, it became a thing, and then Roche managed it by various larcenies. For a long while even the era of Giro-Tour doubles seemed to be over. Personally I thinking holding all three Grand Tours at the same time, even though not in one season, has a better claim to such a title - there is something interesting of the visual of the one rider with the three big jerseys, but I honestly prefer the recent tendancy to highlight 'range', as in multiple terrains. I'm a huge fan of Strade Bianche and the idea of it as a kind of alternative to both tarmac and pave as a test. And I like how many of the current batch of superstars are multi-discipline. Variety is the spice of life...