FILE PHOTO: Cycling - Tour de France - Stage 21 - Monaco to Nice - Monaco, France - July 21, 2024 UAE Team Emirates' Tadej Pogacar celebrates on the podium wearing the yellow jersey after winning the Tour de France REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
(Reuters) - Tadej Pogacar has already secured his place among the greats of cycling by completing the Tour de France/Giro d'Italia double on Sunday, and the Slovenian now wants to put his name on an even more elite list by targeting the "Triple Crown" of cycling.
Pogacar is the first man to win the Giro and the Tour in the same season since Marco Pantani in 1998, and only the eighth rider ever to do so, and he did it emphatically, winning the final three stages and making it six stage wins overall.
The 25-year-old went into Sunday's individual time trial with over five minutes to spare over defending champion Jonas Vingegaard, but showed his utter dominance by sailing to victory and had an overall winning margin of six minutes and 17 seconds.
No rider has ever won all three Grand Tours in one year, and Pogacar has no intention of tackling Vuelta a Espana this year, something he had previously said during the Giro and which he reiterated after his success in France.
"For sure it crossed my mind to do the Vuelta, people tell you to go do this or that, so of course it was there," Pogacar said. "But I'm trying to let it go in one ear and out the other."
Instead, Pogacar is aiming for the Triple Crown of cycling - adding the world road race championship, where he finished third last year as Mathieu van der Poel took gold, to his two grand tours.
That triple has only been achieved twice in men's cycling, by Belgium's Eddy Merckx in 1974 and Irishman Stephen Roche in 1987, and Pogacar has now given himself more time to recover as he will no longer compete in the Paris Olympics.
"For me, putting a cherry on top of this season would be to have a really nice August, to relax a bit, to prepare well for the World Championships and then give it my all there," Pogacar said.
"Next I want to take the world championship jersey. I know that Mathieu looks good in the rainbow jersey, but I want to take it from him."
The Slovenian's six stage wins at the Tour is the most by a winner since Bernard Hinault in 1979 - and there were 24 stages then compared with 21 this year.
Pogacar has also won the Volta a Catalunya, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Strade Bianche this year. But his hunger and ambition won't let him rest yet, with the Triple Crown within reach in September in Zurich.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
