While events’ organizers did their utmost to make the Giro-Tour double feasible next season, at least for Alberto Contador, information from the camps of remaining two serious contenders Vincenzo Nibali and Chris Froome suggest that they are less enthusiastic about this idea. Even though this year’s Tour de France champion first hinted that he might be interested in participating in these two three-week races, his trusted trainer Paolo Slongo now suggests that it provides with too big risk of losing both.

Threatening Patrick Lefevere’s and Fabian Cancellara’s position as two leading philosophers of modern cycling, Slongo shared a highly revealing thought that trying to win the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in one season provides with a huge risk of coming short in both. Astana’s trainer explained that Nibali might have been forced to challenge strong riders - like Froome and Quintana - targeting exclusively the Italian or French three-week, what would significantly reduce his chances of winning. Apparently Slongo either forgot to mention Contador or didn’t consider him as a serious contender.

“That’s what worries me,” Slongo told Cycling Weekly.

“If you race the Giro and the Vuelta [a España], you have more time to recover and find another peak in form. If you race against Froome at the Giro and Quintana at the Tour, you might not find that 100 per cent peak in form and you could do poorly in both. We shouldn’t run that risk.”

Thus, we can expect that Nibali will target Tour de France as his sole objective again next season. Just as he did this year, without showing the slightest glimpse of good disposition in events preceding or following the French three-week event.

“Vincenzo liked the Tour route when he saw it presented last week in Paris,” Slongo continued. “The time trial is short, the team time trial is OK because Astana has a strong team to compete, the stage with pavé to Cambrai is a plus, the many climbs are good… On paper, it’s a Tour for Nibali.

However, after his breakthrough season Fabio Aru might be Astana’s man to tackle the Giro-Tour double in 2015, leading the Kazakh squad in the former and supporting his older compatriot in the latter.

“For sure, the Tour will be his first goal also next year. He could only do the Tour and we could let Fabio Aru race the Giro, but we need to set down and talk it over. Those races that suit him, we should go there to win. He can’t just go to the Giro to train, it’d be better to stay at home in that case.”

Final decisions regarding 2015 schedules for both Italians will be made by the end of November.