Ostuni

No rider has won all three in the same year, right?

Just for fun, trying to find out who came closest....

According to Wikipedia:

Only four cyclists have won all three of the Grand Tours during their career:
* Jacques Anquetil; France; 5 Tours (1957, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964), 2 Giros (1960, 1964), 1 Vuelta (1963).
* Felice Gimondi; Italy; 1 Tour (1965), 3 Giros (1967, 1969, 1976), 1 Vuelta (1968)
* Eddy Merckx; Belgium; 5 Tours (1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974), 5 Giros (1968, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974), 1 Vuelta (1973)
* Bernard Hinault; France; 5 Tours (1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1985), 3 Giros (1980, 1982, 1985), 2 Vueltas (1978, 1983)

Only three cyclists have won stages in all three of the Grand Tours in the same year:
* Miguel Poblet; Spain; (1956)
* Pierino Baffi; Italy; (1958)
* Alessandro Petacchi; Italy; (2003)


Guess the next step is to cross-check results of Anquetil, Eddy and Hinault to see which of the three finished highest in the one grand tour they did NOT win the year they won the other two?

Or maybe someone knows?

Vinokurtov

The forgotten man of 2006: Carlos Sastre. Rode all three and took two 4ths.

Snicklefritz

It is interesting to note that all the people in the OP's list are all from quite a while ago. Nothing that recent. The lanscape has certainly changed hasn't it. Do you think the difference is just because people are becomming more of specialists? Or that the teams are much stronger and so it is just plain *harder* to win all three let alone one?

El Diablo Rojo

I think that it's become more of a "specialists" game. Lance really changed the landscape when he targeted just he TdF. Because of his approach it became even more important to focus just on the Tour.

patentcad

A) Few people outside of cycling have ever heard of the Vuelta or the Giro, fewer care about them. The sponsors all know this.

B) Cycling is the hardest/most grueling pro sport on the planet. It's hardly surprising that nobody has ever come close to winning all three Grand Tours.

Follow the money. It's all @ the Tour de France for better or worse.

Let's Go Mets. Now there's a sport with some TV ratings!

El Diablo Rojo

Few people in the U.S. have heard of these events, there's a great big world out there, you should investigate it some time.

Baseball sucks.

Ostuni

so far have checked the vuelta results for the years that anquetil, eddy and hinault won the 'double' (giro & tdf) and can't find a top 8 finish for any of them (for some reason the vuelta site only seems to list the top 7-9 finishers)...

Snicklefritz

I enjoy baseball, but not the prima-donna attitude that comes with it...well maybe cycling has those too..but not as bad as pro sports in the US..I am tired of this on again off again strikes and complaints about salaries not being big enough and all that crap we've dealt with over the years in the baseball community...

daytonian

Word

Snuffleupagus

Motion is carried...

asgelle

Or maybe it's the change in schedule?

classic1

If I remember right Marino Lejaretta had a two top fives and a top twenty in the grand tours one year. May have been a top 20 in the Vuelta, top 5 in the Giro and top 5 in the Tour. Someone here will know or know where to check.

patentcad

I spent two weeks last year in Germany and England, two weeks this summer in Greece. Cycled in all those places by the way. I would guess I've had more exposure to Europe than 90% of the Americans here (my family is from Greece and Germany, I've been to several places on the Continent many times).

If you think that there's a lot of popularity for pro cycling as a spectator sport you might ask yourself why the minimum salary in MLB is TEN times that in the UCI? Pro football is similar, and I'd wager the similar levels of pro soccer in Europe would also be exponentially more renumerative. Those sports generate actual REVENUE (that's the fancy pants word for cashish). Again, follow the money you hopeless cycling tunnel vision weenies. I ride my bicycle 1000 miles each month. I watch baseball and football on TV. The biggest reason? Finding cycling events on TV isn't easy (even thought my Tivo snags EVERY 'Versus' pro cycling broadcast). Even then half those events are friggin snoozathons and I'm a big cycling fan. I've watched the Giro (not the Vuelta). The Tour de France is more exciting for a slew of reasons. Comparing the other Grand Tours to the TDF is like comparing the Divisional Playoffs in baseball to the World Series. Not quite the same.

If baseball 'sucks' I'll be sure to convey your sentiments to one of the SEVENTY SIX MILLION Americans who paid their hard earned money to go to MLB games @ America's ballparks this season (a new MLB attendance record). Like they'll care. It will only make the idiots (and there are more idiot baseball fans than cycling fans through sheer weight of numbers) aim for us roadies more when they're driving.

UCI cycling could sink into a Black Hole and I'd still be riding. My cycling has NOTHING to do with the Tour de France, Floyd friggin Landis, Ivan Basso or any of that. Do I have interest in it? Sure. But my cycling obsession doesn't blind me to the fact that for a major sport it's increasingly marginal, unsaleable as a pro sport (you can't sell tickets), suffering from a badly damaged image due to doping and unless an American (like Lance or Lemond) is winning of virtually zero interest in the largest media market on the planet (North America).

I personally know one pro cyclist here in NY. He's a domestic pro, 25 years old, AND LIVES WITH HIS PARENTS. Boy, what a goldmine this pro cycling stuff is, eh? By the way, I'd wager most of you reading this who are out of college and are gainfully employed probably earn more than the UCI's laughable minimum salary of about $35-$40K annually (this local pro is pals with plenty of UCI pros, this straight from his lips).

And PLEASE don't tell me cycling isn't about the money. If you're a 'PRO' athlete, that's EXACTLY what it's SUPPOSED to be about. We sucky amateurs ride for the reasons that transcend money. And that's where the soul of cycling lies. Not in the EPO syringes of the Euro pro cycling teams.

botto 

yep, that sounds about right.

botto 

how many miles did you say you ride your bike every month?

Snuffleupagus

I take "hopeless cycling tunnel vision weenie" as a compliment

I'm not trying to pick at you here...but 'cmon using the fact that millions of Americans like something to say that that thing is superior to another is flawed logic. I don't think we need any examples

NomadVW 

76 million tickets sold, and 76 million Americans going to a baseball game are different numbers. I'd like to see the source that say 1 out of 4 people in America were at a pro baseball game this year.

patentcad

I never said any sport was SUPERIOR to pro cycling - just more popular and viable as a business model. Very different angles. Hell, the fact that Americans think cycling is a wierdo pursuit/sport makes me like it much more than if it was more mainstream : ).

That's one thousand miles each month, just to clarify. And it's MR. patentcad to you. I'm sure you're all faster than I am by the way.

This was more fun when my tirade would incite a recipricol tirade from Euro and we'd all be off to the races.

patentcad

Semantics.

Besides, of those 76 million tickets, 7.5 million (about 10%) were sold to Mets and Yankees fans. I'm loving that. Think MLB needs the NY Metro Area market? Just a little eh?

Go Mets. Let's hope the Card's incredible lucky streak of balls bouncing just beyond Mets fielder's gloves is over after last night's 12-5 Mets stompfest.

Ostuni

found out who came closest to winning a triple crown of cycling's grand tour events: ty cobb.

El Diablo Rojo

Yet MLB pales in comparison to the NFL. If the NFL played the same amount of games as they do in baseball, their attendance would be closer to 147 million.

NASCAR attendance is greater than the NFL, MLB and the NBA combined, which just goes to show how easily Americans can be entertained.

Here is what I hate about Baseball:

First, the NBA and NHL, the first half of the season is meaningless. A team that is under 500 at the All Star break can still make the playoff. If you are 500 half way through the NFL season your done. At least in the NFL every game counts.

Stats. The reason there are so many stats in MLB is to give the announcers something to talk about durring all the downtime in a game. "Bill hits 285 against red headed left handed pitchers on the third Tuesday of July in all even numbered years".

patentcad

>>NASCAR attendance is greater than the NFL, MLB and the NBA combined, which just goes to show how easily Americans can be entertained.<<

Ay carramba El Diablo. Post of the Year.

We can always say 'Let's Go Mets!'. The question is with all the doping issues in cycling, who can we root for?

botto 

Perhaps, but... American Football really sucks.

patentcad

Well, OK, the Super Bowl may not be quite as thrilling as Paris-Tours, but it's all we have here in the sorry USA. Besides the World Series, NBA Championships, the Stanley Cup, Pro Golf, etc. It keeps the sports fans occupied. In Belgium they watch a few bike races in between quaffing massive amounts of Euro beer. Those hangovers have to suck.

botto 

i grew up a football fan. hell, my old man got seasons tickets for the jets, so my brother and i could freeze out asses off and watch joe klecko and mark gastineau perform their NY Sack Exchange.

that said, TV has killed any interest i once had with all of their commercial breaks. the games go on almost as long as a 6 day cricket test.

oh, btw, because the beer doesn't have as many chemicals in them the hangovers aren't that bad.