Oleg Tinkov's decision to offer one million euros to the four best riders if they do the three grand tours in the same year, has gained a lot of attention. Every day new voices express their opinion. In general, no one has rejected the idea except Vincenzo Nibali but it's a general assessment that there's a vast difference between doing all three races and trying to win them which seems to be a very complicated task. It is not always easy to combine the sports and business aspects.

In France, the idea has been greeted by skepticism. Nicolas Portal, sports director for Chris Froome at Sky, says that the idea "is great, it's like the Galacticos in football." However, he doesn't think it is realistic. "It is an utopia. What is the interest from a sporting point of view? Paris-Nice, Tirreno and races like that would become second-class events and the same goes for the riders that do them. Everything would be devalued," he said in an interview with L'Equipe .

Europcar sports director Andy Flickinger agreed.

"It sounds more like a business than anything else. I'm not sure if Tinkov is concerned about the future of cycling. The background may be modern but everything would revolve around the three Grand Tours. We must not fall into the traps of the past because of money."

Gérard Guillaume, FDJ team doctor, goes one step further:

"This is a provocation for money, a clear incitement to doping. I have no interest in seeing a zombie, a genetically programmed man, win all three Grand Tours."

"Today, there are very few guys capable of winning two Grand Tours," says Guillaume. "Winning three is impossible. Physiologically, it can not be done safely. You have to make a lot of sacrifices to do three races of this caliber. Riders face consequences for months or even years. And then there is the difficulty of the course and we must also add the weather conditions in the Giro," he tells the French sports daily.

But for Jacques Decrion, Nacer Bouhanni's coach, it "is feasible. But only for riders over thirty years who have experience and done big workloads in the past." 

Flickinger partly agrees:

"They always say that a rider has three peaks in a year, so it is possible. But to win three..."