Triple Crown of Cycling

Coppi was the first rider in the history of the sport to win the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France in the same year which he did twice in 1949 and 1952. At the World road race championships in 1949 Coppi came third behind Rik Van Steenbergen of Belgium and Ferdi Kübler of Switzerland. Merckx was the first rider to win the triple crown but he had already come close to winning it in 1972 when he won both the Tour and the Giro, coming fourth in the World road race. After his disappointment, Merckx broke the world hour record several weeks later.

Ireland's Stephen Roche won the Giro and Tour in 1987. Later that year, with victory at the World road race championship in Villach in Austria, Roche became only the second to win the Triple Crown of Cycling.

Indurain won the Giro-Tour double in both 1992 and 1993 and in both years he was very active in the World Road Race. In 1992 he finished sixth but in 1993 Indurain was very close to winning the Triple crown when he finished second behind Lance Armstrong.

Cyclist	Year	Grand Tours won	Result in World Championship
Fausto Coppi (ITA)	1949	Tour + Giro	3rd place
Fausto Coppi (ITA)	1952	Tour + Giro	DNE
Jacques Anquetil (FRA)	1963	Tour + Vuelta	14th place[4]
Jacques Anquetil (FRA)	1964	Tour + Giro	7th place[5]
Eddy Merckx (BEL)	1970	Tour + Giro	29th place[6]
Eddy Merckx (BEL)	1972	Tour + Giro	4th place[7]
Eddy Merckx (BEL)	1973	Giro + Vuelta	4th place[8]
Bernard Hinault (FRA)	1978	Tour + Vuelta	5th place[9]
Giovanni Battaglin (ITA)	1981	Giro + Vuelta	26th place[10]
Bernard Hinault (FRA)	1982	Tour + Giro	DNF
Bernard Hinault (FRA)	1985	Tour + Giro	DNF
Miguel Indurain (ESP)	1992	Tour + Giro	6th place
Miguel Indurain (ESP)	1993	Tour + Giro	2nd place
Marco Pantani (ITA)	1998	Tour + Giro	DNE[11]
Alberto Contador (ESP)	2008	Giro + Vuelta	DNF[12]
Chris Froome (GBR)	2017	Tour + Vuelta	DNE

Hinault was aiming for winning the triple crown during the 1980 season. That year he won the 1980 Giro d'Italia before going on to the 1980 Tour de France. However, during the Tour, Hinault suffered from knee injury and despite winning three stages, he left the race while leading the general classification. Several weeks later he became world champion in Salanches. In the table below are the results in other grand tours of cyclists who won the world championship and a grand tour in one year. DNF (did not finish) indicates that the cyclist started the race, but did not finish; DNE (did not enter) indicates that the cyclist did not enter the race.

Cyclist	Year	Grand tour won	Result in other grand tours
Alfredo Binda (ITA)	1927	Giro	Tour: DNE	Vuelta: NA[13]
Georges Speicher (FRA)	1933	Tour	Giro: DNE	Vuelta: NA[13]
Fausto Coppi (ITA)	1953	Giro	Tour: DNE	Vuelta: NA[13]
Louison Bobet (FRA)	1954	Tour	Giro: DNE	Vuelta: NA[13]
Ercole Baldini (ITA)	1958	Giro	Tour: DNE	Vuelta: DNE
Eddy Merckx (BEL)	1971	Tour	Giro: DNE	Vuelta: DNE
Bernard Hinault (FRA)	1980	Giro	Tour: DNF	Vuelta: DNE
Greg LeMond (USA)	1989	Tour	Giro: 39th place	Vuelta: DNE

No rider has ever won all three grand tours in a single calendar year although Chris Froome and Jacques Anquetil won all three grand tours in just over nine months spanning two calendar years. Winning all three grand tours (Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España ) in a career is sometimes called a grand tour career triple crown, although more usually it would be described as a career grand slam.[14]

Only seven riders have achieved this feat, and only one, Eddy Merckx has achieved both a classic Triple Crown and a career clean sweep of Grand Tour titles (He also achieved a career clean sweep of Monument classics, the 5 most prestigious one day classic races).

Only Bernard Hinault and Alberto Contador have achieved multiple career grand tour triple crowns, both having won each race at least twice.

In bold the win that achieved a grand tour career triple crown.

designates a World Championship winner.

Cyclist	Tour de France wins	Giro d'Italia wins	Vuelta a España wins
Jacques Anquetil (FRA)	1957, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964	1960, 1964	1963
Felice Gimondi (ITA)	1965	1967, 1969, 1976	1968
Eddy Merckx (BEL)	1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974	1968, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974	1973
Bernard Hinault (FRA)	1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1985	1980, 1982, 1985	1978, 1983
Alberto Contador (ESP)	2007, 2009	2008, 2015	2008, 2012, 2014
Vincenzo Nibali (ITA)	2014	2013, 2016	2010
Chris Froome (GBR)	2013, 2015, 2016, 2017	2018	2011, 2017

The definition of Triple Crown of Cycling can also mean winning all three Grand Tours in the same year.[15] As of 2020, this has not been achieved. Only 39 times has a cyclist finished all three grand tours in one year, and of these 39 only Raphaël Géminiani (in 1955) and Gastone Nencini (in 1957) managed to finish in the top ten in each tour.[16] In 2016, Alejandro Valverde was close to accomplishing the same feat – he finished 3rd in the Giro d'Italia, 6th in the Tour de France, and was in the top three after the first half of the Vuelta of Spain, but lost 11 minutes in the 14th stage before recovering to finish in 12th place in overall standings, less than 2 minutes behind 10th place.

In 2010, Alberto Contador's new team manager Bjarne Riis claimed that Contador could win all three grand tours in the same year, but his main rival Andy Schleck said it would be impossible.[17]

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.

As of 2016, 39 riders completed all three grand tours in the same year:

• 6 times – Adam Hansen (AUS) – 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
• 4 times – Marino Lejarreta (ESP) – 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991
• 3 times – Bernardo Ruiz (ESP) – 1955, 1956, 1957
• 2 times – Eduardo Chozas (ESP) – 1990, 1991
• 2 times – Carlos Sastre (ESP) – 2006, 2010

After Marianne Vos had won world titles in road race (2006), cyclo-cross (2006) and track points race (2008), she was said to have won the triple crown of cycling.[18] In 2014, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot won the World Championship road race and followed this in 2015 with the world championships in cross-country mountain biking and cyclocross, which meant she held world titles in three cycling disciplines simultaneously.[19]