Vincenzo Nibali has backed Tadej Pogačar’s decision to race the Giro d’Italia in 2024, maintaining that the relatively gentler route of next May’s Corsa Rosa offers him the chance to target a historic Giro-Tour de France double.
The late Marco Pantani was the last rider to win the Giro and Tour in the same season, a feat he achieved in 1998. Few riders have made realistic attempts at the double in the intervening period, though Tom Dumoulin and Chris Froome finished on the podium at both the Giro and Tour in 2018.
The 2024 Giro sees a significant reduction in climbing, with the overall altitude gain across the three weeks dropping to 42,900m from this season’s total of 51,300m. The climbing is also spread more evenly across the race rather than backloaded in the final week.
Nibali, who won all three Grand Tours during his career, told La Gazzetta dello Sport that the demanding start to the Giro could prove to Pogačar’s advantage as he looks to dose his effort to take on two Grand Tours in quick succession.
“The start of the Giro isn’t so easy, and he could build up a good advantage straight away with the stage to Oropa, the dirt roads at Rapolano Terme and the summit finish at Prati di Tivo,” Nibali told La Gazzetta. “Time trials aren’t a problem for him and with a strong team, he could manage the final week.”
The revamped 2024 Giro d'Italia route was widely viewed as an attempt by RCS Sport to entice Pogačar to make his debut in the race, but it wasn’t clear if the two-time Tour winner would be tempted by the idea of trying the double in an Olympic year, particularly after placing second behind Jonas Vingegaard in Paris for the past two seasons.
“I’m not surprised,” Nibali said. “After four years spent racing on the Tour, winning two editions, it’s a correct and logical decision. Mentally, it does you good to change objectives. Adding the Giro would be a step closer to winning all three Grand Tours. He’d only be missing the Vuelta. A rider like him has to try it.”
Pogačar made the surprise announcement of his Giro participation on Sunday, and the Slovenian is set to outline his full 2024 racing programme on Monday at the UAE Team Emirates training camp in Alicante.
In 2023, Pogačar raced a full Spring programme, winning Paris-Nice, the Tour of Flanders, Amstel Gold Race and Flèche Wallonne, as well as taking fourth at Milan-San Remo and third at E3 Harelbeke. A lighter early-season schedule seems inevitable this time around.
“Pogačar could easily delay his season debut by participating in Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo, but I think he will have to sacrifice races like Paris-Nice and Tirreno,” Nibali said. “Maybe he could include Liège in the build-up to the start of the Giro, but not much more.”
Nibali never targeted a Giro-Tour double during his successful Grand Tour career.
“I never managed to cope with two big stage races so close together: first the stress of the Giro and then the pressure of the Tour,” Nibali said, though he insisted that Pogačar would enter the Tour on a high if he carried the maglia rosa to Rome.
“He would arrive at the Tour with a great result in hand and he wouldn’t carry the weight of being obliged to win the Tour.”
