Bernhard Hinault has gone public to give Oleg Tinkov’s triple Grand Tour challenge the thumbs up.
The 5-time Tour de France winner told the French newspaper, L’Equipe, yesterday, that he hopes Tinkov’s offer of 1 million euros will spark the interest of such big name riders as Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali, Nairo Quintana and Chris Froome to compete in all three Grand Tours – the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana in 2015.
"If I was still a rider, I’d be up for it!"
Additionally, he also indicated that it was physically possible for riders to do so.
“For sure if I was them, I’d do it. It doesn’t seem that difficult to me: we just have assume that there’d be three week or a month to recover between each one. I’ll go even further and suggest that if you ride all three Grand Tours, you can also go on to win the world title, because you’re in the best place to do it.”
“String three Grand Tours together is just like doing the double, it’s not harder. And if you are a champion, you impose the conditions: ‘Ok. I’ll ride but I want a less challenging route.’
In addition to winning the Tour de France 5 times in his career, Hinault also won the Giro d’Italia three times and the Vuelta a Espana twice. He twice completed a Giro-Tour double, in 1982 and 1985, and won a Tour-Vuelta double in 1978.
However, Hinault did go on to say, that he felt organizers would have to make both the Giro and Vuelta easier, if they hoped to make the triple Grand Tour possible.
“We can’t allow the Giro and the Vuelta be as difficult as they are today. The organizers always want to do more and that ends up with riders avoiding their Tours.”
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