Can Pogacar win Giro and TdF in 2024?
A few days ago RCS Sport, the organizers of Giro d'Italia, have announced that Tadej Pogacar will debut in the Italian Grand Tour in 2024. Pogi himself confirmed that his main goals for the next season include the TdF, Paris Olympic Games and the UCI Worlds in Zurich. This means that his calendar is quite busy this year!
The inclusion of Giro in this plan is somewhat surprising, all things considered. Now don't get me wrong, I think Pogacar is more than capable of winning it. But the big question is – can he do it and 5 weeks later also win Tour de France?
The last person to do that was Marco Pantani back in 1998. Should he manage it, he'd join an elite group of riders that includes the likes of Fausto Coppi, Eddy Mercks, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.
But can he do it? I don't think so, to be honest. Don't get me wrong, I think Pogacar is one of the greatest riders of this generation. But while he can probably overcome Geraint Thomas at Giro, at TdF he'll have to compete with Jonas Vingegaard (2-time TdF winner), Remco Evenpoel (winner of Vuelta, World Champion 2022, ITT World Champion 2023) and Primoz Roglic (winner of Giro 2023, 3-time Vuelta winner).
Last year Pogacar was second, with a loss of 7:30 to Vingegaard, and to be honest, he didn't really stand a chance.
But what if actually "winning" the TdF is not the point? What if this is more of a publicity stunt to garner more attention to the media, which I'm sure his team and sponsors would love? It's a possibility, but not very likely. Elite athletes are wired to compete and win (if they're domestiques, a "win" means doing their job for their leader), so I don't think Pogacar would try something like this without actually planning on achieving his goals.
Still, I have serious doubts whether he can pull it off. For the past 2 years he hasn't been able to win TdF on its own, let alone with another Grand Tour just 5 weeks earlier.
❓❓What do you think? Can he do a double feature with Giro and TdF?❓❓
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