A UNIQUE TRIPLE OF STAGE RACES

When Egan Bernal won all three of Paris-Nice, the Tour de Suisse and the Tour de France in 2019, he became the first rider in history to achieve that rare triple in a single season. Even Eddy Merckx, who won most major races multiple times, never did that. It’s actually fairly rare to win even two of these races in a single season - Louison Bobet, Jacques Anquetil, Merckx, Alberto Contador and Bradley Wiggins all won Paris-Nice and the Tour de France in a single season (some of them multiple times). Fewer have won the Tour de Suisse and then the Tour in the same year - Merckx and Bernal are the only riders to have done that. And two more riders have won Paris-Nice and Suisse in the same year - Sean Kelly and Alexander Vinokourov. Bernal’s historic triple is so rare and difficult mainly because of the timing of the races. Paris-Nice is in the spring, so it has to be a separate peak of fitness. Meanwhile, the Tour de Suisse finishes only two weeks before the Tour - perilously late for a big effort.