2024 Triple Crown: First in 37 Years, the Year Pogačar Wrote Himself into Cycling History

In September 2024, when Tadej Pogačar pulled on the rainbow jersey at the World Championships, he accomplished something only two people in cycling history had done before: winning the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France, and the World Championship road race in the same year.

This is called the “Triple Crown of Cycling,” and Pogačar is only the 3rd person in history to achieve it.

What Makes the Triple Crown So Hard?

Let’s start with the timeline. These three races aren’t separated by a few weeks—they span nearly half a year:

To win all three in a single year, you need at least three separate physical peaks, and nothing can go wrong in between. It’s an extraordinarily demanding task both physiologically and in terms of luck.

Difficulty One: Only About Six Weeks Between the Giro and the Tour

A three-week Grand Tour takes an enormous toll on the body. After finishing the Giro in May, you have to face rivals in July who are at their absolute best and who have spent the entire season with the Tour as their sole goal. This means you must race with a body that has just fought through a three-week stage race, against opponents who have been “freshened up” for six months.

Many riders in the past have failed in attempts at the Giro–Tour double (winning both the Giro and the Tour in the same year), precisely because of this point.

Difficulty Two: The World Championships Are a Completely Different Game

The Giro and the Tour are team races—you have eight teammates, full radio tactics, and a year of built-up cohesion. The World Championships are a national team race—strong nations can field a full squad, while riders from smaller countries often fight alone.

Pogačar comes from Slovenia, a country of about two million people. Under the national team system at the World Championships, this means the teammate resources he can call upon are far inferior to traditional powerhouses like Italy, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. The rainbow jersey he took in 2024 was won despite this structural disadvantage.

Difficulty Three: No Second Chance at Form Management

A Grand Tour gives you three weeks to make corrections—if you blow the first week, you can still chase back in weeks two and three. The World Championships last only one day. You can be in perfect form all year, get stuck in the wrong position on that single day, and everything resets to zero.

Three in History: Triple Crown Winners from Three Different Eras

From 1974 to 1987, 13 years passed; from 1987 to 2024, 37 years passed.

That gap alone says everything. In those 37 years, cycling underwent complete professionalization and specialization: riders became increasingly specialized. Some only ride Grand Tours, some only ride classics, some only train for time trials, some are pure sprinters. In this era of extreme specialization, one person simultaneously possessing three-week climbing endurance, Tour-level racing intensity, and the explosiveness and tactical instinct for one-day races was already an anomaly.

Why 2024 Was Especially Crucial for Pogačar

Placing 2024 back into the context of his career makes the weight of that year even clearer.

In 2022 and 2023, he lost the Tour de France two years in a row to Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard, finishing runner-up both times. During that period, there was plenty of discussion about whether “Pogačar had been figured out.”

In 2024, he swept the Giro, the Tour, and the World Championships—not only returning to the top but pushing his achievements directly to the level of 3rd in history.

And it wasn’t the end. In 2025, he defended his Tour de France title and his World Championship title, becoming the first rider in history to defend both the Tour and the World Championship in the same year. That same year, he also won his first European Championship title and took three Monuments in a single season (only the 2nd rider ever to do so). In 2026, he won the Tour de France for the fifth time, tying Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, and Indurain for the most wins in history.

The Weight of the Triple Crown in Cycling History

To measure the historical significance of an achievement, you can ask three questions.

Question One: How Many Have Done It?

Three people, in over a century of road cycling history. By comparison, five riders have won the Tour five times, and more than one rider has surpassed ten Monument victories. The Triple Crown’s threshold is the most extreme in terms of sheer numbers.

Question Two: Do the Required Abilities Conflict with Each Other?

Yes. A three-week race demands recovery and consistency, while a one-day World Championship demands extreme explosiveness and tactical judgment within a single day. These two skill sets often pull against each other in training. Being able to do both doesn’t just mean being strong—it means breadth across the entire spectrum of ability.

Question Three: Can It Be Bought with Resources?

No. A Grand Tour can perhaps be made more winnable with a powerful team to protect you, but the national team system at the World Championships evens out resource advantages. Pogačar took the rainbow jersey with a squad from a country of two million people—that alone shows how much of this comes down to individual ability.

What Taiwanese Riders Can Take from This

The core of the Triple Crown isn’t “he’s stronger”—it’s that his range of abilities is wider than others’. This actually has a very direct takeaway for everyday riders: many people define themselves as “I’m a climber” or “I only ride flats,” and then pile all their training in one direction.

Pogačar’s path offers a different way of thinking—keeping diversity lets you stay competitive in more situations. Of course, a pro’s training load is completely different from an everyday rider’s, and any adjustment carries individual variation, so it’s best to progress gradually and plan according to your own condition and how your body responds.

Next time you ride Wuling, Beiyi, or Fengguizui, think about this: if you swapped “climbing only” for a mix of “climbing + flat tempo + short bursts,” would you have a few more ways to ride a year from now?

Epilogue

The 2024 Triple Crown turned Pogačar from “a very strong Tour de France rider” into “a permanent name in cycling history conversations.” From that year on, comparisons between him and Merckx were no longer hyperbole, but a topic that had to be seriously discussed.

He’s 27 this year, with Paris-Roubaix, a Vuelta a España overall title, an Olympic gold medal, and Merckx’s 19 Monuments still ahead of him. But whether or not those boxes get ticked, the 2024 box is already written into the history books—the 3rd Triple Crown winner in history.

Related Reading

• Two Straight World Titles: What the Rainbow Jersey Really Means for a Grand Tour Rider
• Defending Both in 2025: The First-Ever Same-Year Tour and Rainbow Jersey Defense by Pogačar
• Pogačar’s Fifth Title: 2026 Tour de France Overview, the Year He Tied Four Legends
• Vuelta a España: Why Has Pogačar’s Missing Piece for a Grand Tour Sweep Gone Unfilled for So Long?