TheTriple Crown of Cycling inroad bicycle racing denotes the achievement of winning three major titles in the same season: theUCI Road World Championships Road Race, theTour de France general classification, and theGiro d'Italia general classification.[1][2] It is considered one of the most difficult and prestigious achievements in the sport, with journalists calling it "cycling’s most elite club" and "all but impossible in the modern age."[3][4]
The men's triple crown has been achieved by three riders:Eddy Merckx in 1974,Stephen Roche in 1987 andTadej Pogačar in 2024.
In women's cycling, where there are no three-week grand tours, the definition can vary between sources.Annemiek van Vleuten is widely credited as achieving a comparable triple crown in 2022, when she won theTour de France Femmes,Giro d'Italia Women and theWorld Championship Road Race.[2][5] The term "triple crown" is occasionally used more broadly; van Vleuten also won the2022 Challenge by La Vuelta (the predecessor to theLa Vuelta Femenina), sweeping the three major women's tours in a single year, an achievement sometimes referred to as a triple crown.[6]
The phrase "triple crown" is occasionally used for other feats as well, such as winning all three Grand Tours over a rider's career, winning consecutive Grand Tours, or winning world championships across different disciplines of cycling.
Despite the prestige and recognition associated with these achievements, the Triple Crown of Cycling is not an official title awarded by cycling's governing bodies, and there is no physical award for its accomplishment.
Only seven riders have won all three races that make up the triple crown (UCI Road World Championships road race, theTour de France, and theGiro d'Italia): Merckx, Roche, Pogačar and Van Vleuten, who each won the triple crown in a single season, and alsoFausto Coppi,Felice Gimondi andBernard Hinault; these last three are said to have completed a career triple crown.
| Bold | Bold indicates the win that achieved a career triple crown. |
|---|
| Cyclist | Tour de France wins | Giro d'Italia wins | World Championship wins |
|---|---|---|---|
 Fausto Coppi (ITA) | 1949,1952 | 1940,1947,1949,1952,1953 | 1953 |
| Felice Gimondi (ITA) | 1965 | 1967,1969,1976 | 1973 |
 Eddy Merckx (BEL) | 1969,1970,1971,1972,1974 | 1968,1970,1972,1973,1974 | 1967,1971,1974 |
 Bernard Hinault (FRA) | 1978,1979,1981,1982,1985 | 1980,1982,1985 | 1980 |
 Stephen Roche (IRL) | 1987 | 1987 | 1987 |
 Tadej Pogačar (SLO) | 2020,2021,2024,2025 | 2024 | 2024,2025 |
| Cyclist | Tour de France Femmes wins | Giro d'Italia Women wins | World Championship wins |
|---|---|---|---|
 Annemiek van Vleuten (NED) | 2022 | 2018,2019,2022,2023 | 2019,2022 |
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TheGrand Tours are a set of stage races: theTour de France, theGiro d'Italia, and theVuelta a España. These races have special status inUnion 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".[7][8] Cycling journalistMatthew 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.[9] No rider has ever achieved this hypothetical single-season sweep, but three men—Eddy Merckx,Bernard Hinault andChris Froome—have won all three Grand Tours in a row, split over calendar years.[10] 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".[11][12]
In women's cycling, the Grand Tour label is debated, as the major stage races have a less consistent history and are considerably shorter. TheGiro d'Italia Women is the most established, first held in 1988 and running consistently since 1993, while theTour de France Femmes was only launched in 2022 (succeeding theGrande Boucle Féminine Internationale, a female equivalent of the Tour from 1984–2009), andLa Vuelta Femenina started in its current form in 2023.[13][14] The Vuelta replaced the shorter and less demandingChallenge by La Vuelta stage race, whose status as a Grand Tour is particularly contested.[15]
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.[16][17] 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).[16]
Seven riders have won all three Grand Tours over their career.
| Bold | Bold indicates the win that completed the career set of all three Grand Tours. |
|---|
| 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 |
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:
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 differentcycling disciplines: a "rainbow triple crown" (named for therainbow jersey worn by the reigning world champion).[18][19] In 2014,Pauline Ferrand-Prévot won theWorld Championship road race and followed this in 2015 with the world championships incyclocross andcross-country mountain biking, which meant she held world titles in three cycling disciplines simultaneously.[20] In 2022, she won theUCI Gravel World Championships, adding to a total of eight world championships across four disciplines.
Dutch ridersMarianne Vos andMathieu 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.[21][22]
The Team Sky leader is bidding for a unique triple crown of Grand Tour wins: Tour, Vuelta a España, Giro, all in a row.
Froome took the Tour de France and Vuelta de Espana last season, and he announced his intention to go for cycling's triple crown last November
[I]f you look at the course you can conclude that the Vuelta is not yet ready to call itself a grand tour ... These were the unusually public, scathing words of the world champion, Annemiek van Vleuten, ahead of this year's edition of the Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta.
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