Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome, who six years ago came closest to becoming the first rider since Marco Pantani in 1998 to complete the Giro-Tour double, believes that Tadej Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates) has a "strong chance" of accomplishing the feat and that "if anyone can do it could do it, it would be him."

Froome's near-miss came after one of the most stunning comeback victories in cycling history at the 2018 Giro d'Italia, overturning a 4:52 gap in the third week, thanks largely to an 80km solo victory on stage 19.

But backing that up with a fifth Tour GC victory was simply too much, as he finished only third behind then-teammate Geraint Thomas and Dutchman Tom Dumoulin, who was second in both the Giro and Tour that same season. This was also his fourth consecutive Grand Tour win, after winning the 2017 Tour and Vuelta a España, and his first GT win in the 2018 Giro.

"Just speaking from my own experience, winning the Tour, Vuelta, and Giro makes it my fourth consecutive Grand Tour win," Froome said into the ITV microphone before the second stage of the Criterium du Dauphiné.

"Coming into the Tour de France, I felt at the start that I lacked freshness and edge, and I was able to control my workload throughout the preparation period in May, and I'm very happy with the result.

Lack of freshness in the Giro left Froome behind Thomas.

However, he believed that Pogachar's dominant Giro victory was very different from his comeback, believing that the Slovenian superstar had not run out of energy, despite having the largest winning margin in the Giro since 1965.

Although he will not be able to witness it firsthand at the start line, as he was not selected for the Israeli Premier Tech, Froome believes that Pogachar can bring his best legs to the Tour, which starts Saturday in Italy, by chance.

"Now Taddej seemed to have a very different Giro than the one I ran in 2018, like he was running inside himself. He took time away from the other riders, though," said Froome.

"He seemed to take it very honestly and I really believe he can do the double this year. If anyone could pull it off, it would be him."

"I think he's a very good player,"

said Fulme.

Another difference is that while Froome had just over 40 days to prepare between the Giro and the Tour, Pogachar had only 33 days to prepare because the Tour was moved up a week due to the Paris Olympics.

However, other variables were also on Pogachar's side, especially his main rival and two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard (Vimaris a Bike), who had just started his Tour selection after a long recovery from injury, and Florence He is scheduled to run his first race day since April in the Grande Pearl in Florence.

Despite already building a legacy, Froome was unable to join the Giro/Tour double achieved in 1998 by Fausto Coppi, Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Stéphane Roche, Miguel Indurain, and Pantani. Pogachar was not able to join them. Pogachar is a more than worthy successor, but is it simply too many to dominate a six-week Grand Tour race in the modern era?

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