Triple Crown of Cycling

Other definitions

Career triple crown

Only seven riders have won all three races that make up the triple crown (UCI Road World Championships road race, the Tour de France, and the Giro d'Italia): Merckx, Roche, Pogačar and Van Vleuten, who each won the triple crown in a single season, and also Fausto Coppi, Felice Gimondi and Bernard Hinault; these last three are said to have completed a career triple crown.

Grand Tours

The Grand Tours are a set of stage races: the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia, and the Vuelta a España. These races have special status in Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) regulations, as they award the most UCI points and are the only races longer than 14 days. Seven riders have won all three races across their careers—an achievement some sources have called a "triple crown". Cycling journalist Matthew Hansen has argued that a single-season sweep of the Grand Tours should replace the traditional Tour-Giro-World Championship definition, noting that historical scheduling conflicts that once made combining the Giro and Vuelta difficult no longer apply. No rider has ever achieved this hypothetical single-season sweep, but three men—Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Chris Froome—have won all three Grand Tours in a row, split over calendar years. Some sources have called this feat, holding the titles of all three races at the same time, a "triple crown of wins" or "cycling's triple crown".

In women's cycling, the Grand Tour label is debated, as the major stage races have a less consistent history and are considerably shorter. The Giro d'Italia Women is the most established, first held in 1988 and running consistently since 1993, while the Tour de France Femmes was only launched in 2022 (succeeding the Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale, a female equivalent of the Tour from 1984–2009), and La Vuelta Femenina started in its current form in 2023. The Vuelta replaced the shorter and less demanding Challenge by La Vuelta stage race, whose status as a Grand Tour is particularly contested.

Despite the evolving status of women's races, Annemiek van Vleuten is often credited with winning a "grand tour triple" or "all three Grand Tours" for her achievements in 2022. Van Vleuten won the Tour, the Giro, and the Challenge by La Vuelta, in addition to winning the 2022 World Championship. This came as part of a run of six consecutive victories in major stage races: Challenge by La Vuelta (2021 and 2022), Giro Donne (2022 and 2023), Tour de France Femmes (2022), and La Vuelta Femenina (2023).

Career winners of all three Grand Tours

Seven riders have won all three Grand Tours over their career.

"All the jerseys"

While no male rider has ever won all three grand tours in a single calendar year/season, three riders have won the three Grand tours consecutively across two seasons, thus holding all the jerseys at one time:

• Eddy Merckx won four consecutive grand tours in 1972–1973: Giro 1972, Tour 1972, Vuelta 1973, and Giro 1973;
• Bernard Hinault won three consecutive grand tours in 1982–1983: Giro 1982, Tour 1982, and Vuelta 1983;
• Chris Froome won three consecutive grand tours in 2017–2018: Tour 2017, Vuelta 2017 and Giro 2018.

Winning world titles in three disciplines

While the triple crown is typically mentioned in the context of road racing, some commentators have used the phrase to refer to winning across three different cycling disciplines: a "rainbow triple crown" (named for the rainbow jersey worn by the reigning world champion). In 2014, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot won the World Championship road race and followed this in 2015 with the world championships in cyclocross and cross-country mountain biking, which meant she held world titles in three cycling disciplines simultaneously. In 2022, she won the UCI Gravel World Championships, adding to a total of eight world championships across four disciplines.

Dutch riders Marianne Vos and Mathieu van der Poel have also won world championships in at least three disciplines across their career: Vos won the road race three times, cyclo-cross eight times, track twice (in two different events), and gravel once; van der Poel won the road race once, cyclo-cross seven times, and gravel once.

References

References

1. "Stephen Roche wins Triple crown". The Irish Times.
2. (29 September 2024). "Pogacar completes 'Triple Crown' with first world title". BBC.
3. (11 January 2023). "Stephen Roche and the chase for cycling’s elusive ‘triple crown’". Velo.
4. (29 September 2024). "How Tadej Pogačar created history and claimed cycling's Triple Crown of the Giro-Tour-Worlds". CyclingWeekly.
5. (29 September 2024). "Tadej Pogacar wins world championships road race, completes cycling’s rare triple crown". NBC Sports.
6. (24 September 2022). "Dutch cyclist Van Vleuten, 39, claims greatest win at worlds". Associated Press.
7. (22 August 2019). "Felice Gimondi, Cyclist With a Career Triple Crown and a Rival, Dies at 76". New York Times.
8. (2 December 2017). "Grand Tour great Felice Gimondi backs Chris Froome to achieve Giro-Tour double". Cycling Weekly.
9. (20 September 2024). "Is it time to rethink cycling’s Triple Crown?". Canadian Cycling Magazine.
10. "Chris Froome wins Giro d’Italia, is 3rd cyclist to hold all three Grand Tours". NBC Sports.
11. (29 April 2018). "Chris Froome’s struggle to clear his name hangs over Giro d’Italia start". The Guardian.
12. (27 May 2018). "Chris Froome wins 2018 Giro d'Italia, becomes first British cyclist to win all three Grand Tours". CBS Sports.
13. (2022-08-02). "9 conclusions from historic 2022 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift".
14. Frattini, Kirsten. (16 October 2021). "A closer look reveals the inequity at Tour de France Femmes".
15. "Is the Vuelta a España Femenina in 2023 the right thing for the women’s peloton?".
16. (30 June 2023). "Annemiek van Vleuten: Doing second grand tour triple ‘doesn’t give me any extra goosebumps’". Velo.
17. (13 September 2022). "An incredible 2022: Annemiek van Vleuten won all three Grand Tours this year". Canadian Cycling Magazine.
18. (12 September 2024). "Puck Pieterse is going for the ultimate rainbow triple crown". Canadian Cycling Magazine.
19. (31 March 2008). "Vos wins unique cycling triple crown".
20. (24 September 2015). "Pauline Ferrand-Prevot: Why French star may be greatest cyclist". BBC Sport.
21. (18 December 2012). "All Marianne Vos, all the time". ESPN.
22. (6 October 2024). "UCI Gravel World Championships: Mathieu van der Poel dominates with solo victory".