We study the imaginary parts of the isoscalar electromagnetic and isovector axial form factors of the nucleon close to the 3π-threshold in covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory. At the two-loop level, the contributions arising from leading and next-to-leading order chiral πN -vertices, as well as pion-induced excitations of virtual ∆(1232)-isobars, are calculated. It is found that the heavy baryon treatment overestimates substantially these 3π-continua. From a phenomenological analysis, that includes the narrow ω(783)-resonance or the broad a 1 -resonance, one can recognize small windows near threshold, where chiral 3π-dynamics prevails. However, in the case of the isoscalar electromagnetic form factors G s E,M (t), the radiative correction provided by the π 0 γ-intermediate state turns out to be of similar size.