Nairo Quintana Movistar

any have tried, and it almost always ends in failure. History has shown us that attempting to win the Giro d’italia and the Tour de France in the same year is unadvisable, particularly in this pinfocused age of cycling performance. Marco Pantani in 1998 was the last man for whom it worked out, and in that blood doping-ravaged era, the less said about that the better.

This year it was the turn of Nairo Quintana to succumb to the lure of cycling’s most prized double, and to the surprise of very few it will elude him whatever happens in France, as he had to make do with second in the Giro behind Tom Dumoulin.

What Quintana has gained from the Giro is a good deal of fatigue, which has seen him miss the final Tour build-up races which many deem so important. This will, however, allow him to train exactly as he sees fit, and reach the Tour as fresh as is possible after the Giro.

The Colombian still claims to have total confidence in his ability to win the Tour, and the fact that he approached the Giro slightly under conditioned may stand him in good stead. He also suffered from illness in Italy, meaning he couldn’t go as hard as he usually would. So long as this hasn’t stressed his body, it may well have left him with more in the tank come July.

Quintana’s biggest rival, Chris Froome, isn’t convinced, insisting that an attempt on the Giro makes winning the Tour simply too hard.

In either case, the young pretender is teetering on a precipice as he goes into the Tour, over which a dizzying plummet to poor form and even total inability to compete is all too likely.

Hang on tight, Nairo.