BMC sport manager Allan Peiper has told Velonews that the grand tour double attempt is getting incrasingly difficult.  This season, after his win at the Giro d'Italia, Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) tried to make the double with the Tour de France, but he finished fifth at the French three-week race.

Chris Froome (Team Sky) won the Tour de France, but he crashed out of the Vuelta a España. Italian Fabio Aru (Astana Pro Team) came closest, riding to second at the Giro and winning the Vuelta, though they were not back-to-back on the racing calendar.

"I think part of that change is sport science, and how that’s playing out with the training and racing programs", Peiper explained. "They realize it’s another year to the next Tour, and filling in that gap with race-like intensity takes a lot of work, so maybe bridging part of that gap by doing the Vuelta is a really good way of doing that. You go into the winter on a really good level, so that means you come out of the winter already at a good level. It also could be due to sponsorship, or even WorldTour points. There could be some other factors there."

He added that doing two grand tours is getting even more difficult: "I think it becomes more evident as we pass from grand tour to grand tour, as riders go from the Giro to the Tour, or the Tour to the Vuelta, that it’s hard to back up two [grand tours]. Riders are getting ever more specific. Teams are understanding how specific they can be in their buildup and planning for a race, and how they can excel and win.

"If you go into the first one with already the second one in your mind, it’s really difficult. But to go out of the first one, and then to immediately start thinking about another, that’s also a challenge. It’s a different era. The competition is just so intense now."