Having already signalled his intent to, as borrowed from Philippe Gilbert, “Strive for Five” and win all five monuments across his career, Tadej Pogacar has signalled a new goal – triumphing in all seven of the top level week long stage races. He hasn’t signalled his desire to win all three Grand Tours yet, but given he’s chasing the Giro-Tour double and Triple Crown this year, we can pretty much take it as read that he’s thinking about it.
Pog has “only” won Paris Nice, Tirrenno Adriatico and now the Volta Catalunya, so he still needs to capture the Tour du Suisse, Criterium du Dauphine, Tour of the Basque Country and the Tour of Romandie. But is he trying to emulate someone, or is this an unprecedented feat? Who has come the closest to achieving it, and who has won the most of these events?
The Seven Seven Day (mostly) Stage Races
First, lets remind ourselves of what these races are. They are generally described as the week long stage races, but are generally now eight or nine days long, so as to encompass two weekends.
All bar Tirenno began in the first half of the 20th century, and four of the races (Pais Nice, the Volta, Itzulia and the Tour de Suisse) have actually ran for more editions than the now more prestigious Vuelta a Espana. Indeed, the Tour de Suisse was, for a period, seen as the third major race, after the Giro and the Tour.
The physical prizes for winning the races are also quite impressive, none more so than the trident that the winners of Tirenno Adriatico receive to symbolise their mastery of the two seas, with the weapon “raised” by divers every year from Neptune’s locker. Paris-Nice, as the Race to the Sun, gifts its victor a trophy symbolising the sun, wind and sea they have bettered, and the winner of the Tour de Suisse gets a rather large metal object that looks somewhat like an alphorn in one way or another.
For traditionalists, the Volta gives a very old school trophy, and ASO seemingly ordered way too many cassettes a while ago, as they give these rather boring cogs out to winners of everything from the Dauphine to Fleche, Liege, and Paris Nice, although they have at least altered the last two now. No trophies though, for winning Romandie of Itzulia – though you do get a wheel of cheese for the former and a fetching beret for the latter.
Jerseys
Unlike the Grand Tours, the leader’s jerseys are not all distinctive. Yellow and Gold rule the roost, although some of that is the fault of ASO. The Paris Nice jersey used to be white (and indeed started as blue and gold), but became fully yellow with a token white stripe in 2008 following a phased white/yellow hybrid.
Tirenno Adriatico’s jersey has actually moved away from yellow. It used to be this fetching yellow and red, before switching to an all blue to symbolise its seaward journey and awarding its “Sea Master” trophy.
The Volta has the most distinctive jersey perhaps, with its white and green hoops, based on the kit of the Unió Esportiva Sants football team.
Who has captured the most races?
273 riders have won one or more of these stage races, of which 78 have won more than one. Only 27 have won three separate races, and it’s those 27 riders we’ll be looking at.
For once, this is something Eddy Merckx doesn’t hold the record in, although he is joint second. Merckx only rode Tirreno once, in 1976 where he finished 2nd, and it seems he never rode in the Tour of the Basque Country. The 53 seconds separating Merckx from Tirreno victory thus leaves one man atop the pile having collected six out of seven races for his palmares…Primoz Roglic.
Yes, the Slovenian is missing just the Tour de Suisse, a race he has yet to attempt. With his outlook now firmly stuck on finishing off his Grand Tour collection, he may never give it a go either.
Who has won the most editions?
There are 21 riders who have won five or more editions of these races in total, and it is Sean Kelly who has the most wins, by virtue of his seven Paris Nice victories (and in consecutive years as well) to add to seven other victories, for 14 in total. Only Mariano Canardo, who won his seven editions of the Volta a Catalunya in the 1920s and 1930,s equals the number of wins for one race, with Roger De Vlaeminck sitting on six Tirrenos just behind.
Roglic’s varied palate for winning means he is joint second on 9 wins with Jacques Anquetil, who has a good buffer of Paris Nice’s to build upon. If only Primoz hadn’t fallen off whilst leading the 2020 Dauphine – he’d probably be on ten wins.
Of current riders, Quintana and Froome are on the list behind Roglic, but it’s hard to see them getting any closer to their past teammates Valverde and Porte one win above them. It will likely fall to Pogacar (who also has the Tour of California on his palmares, which is supposedly on “hiatus”) and Vingegaard to challenge Roglic’s supremacy, although these would seem to be the sort of races that suit Remco Evenepoel very well. So far, the Belgian has 2nd at Paris Nice and the Volta Catalunya, plus 3rd at the Tour du Suisse to his name, and is yet to ride the Dauphine.
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