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Tour de France Winners List

The most successful rider in the Tour de France was Lance Armstrong , who finished first seven times before his wins were removed from the record books after being found guilty of doping by the USADA in 2012. No rider has been named to replace him for those years.

> see also more information about how they determine the winners of the Tour

General Classification Winners

* footnotes

• 1904: The original winner was Maurice Garin, however he was found to have caught a train for part of the race and was disqualified.
• 1996: Bjarne Riis has admitted to the use of doping during the 1996 Tour. The Tour de France organizers have stated they no longer consider him to be the winner, although Union Cycliste Internationale has so far refused to change the official status due to the amount of time passed since his win. Jan Ullrich was placed second.
• 1999-2005: these races were originally won by Lance armstrong, but in 2012 his wins in the tour de france were removed due to doping violations.
• 2006: Floyd Landis was the initial winner but subsequently rubbed out due to a failed drug test.
• 2010: Alberto Contador was the initial winner of the 2010 event, but after a prolonged drug investigation he was stripped of his win in 2012.

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Tour de France Winners, Podium, Times

With results for every stage and complete final gc of every tour.

Bill & Carol McGann's book The Story of the Tour de France, Vol 1: 1903 - 1975 is available as an audiobook here. For the print and Kindle eBook versions, just click on the Amazon link on the right.

Results for every single stage of every single Tour de France can be found by clicking on the years in the table below.

That's every stage of every Tour!

Other competitions (points, KOM, green jersey, team classification)

Tour statistics (dates, distances, average speed, etc.)

Tour de France prizes, winners and total prize pools, by year

From 1930 to 1961 plus 1967 and 1968, national and regional rather than trade teams competed.

On October 22, 2012 Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour victories.

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The Complete Guide to Every Tour de France Winner Through History

A rider-by-rider list of champions, from Maurice Garin in 1903 to Jonas Vingegaard in 2022.

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Ever wondered what Tour de France champions were like more than 100 years ago, when the race began? How about the youngest winner in Tour history? The oldest? The first to wear the yellow jersey from start to finish? The first to be accused of cheating?

We’ve got you covered with this complete list of every rider who has ever won an overall Tour de France title.

To learn more about the stories behind these athletes and their victories, Bill and Carol McGann’s two-volume The Story of the Tour de France and Les Woodland’s The Unknown Tour de Franc e are two of the best English-language resources out there.

Maurice Garin

Country: France Team: La Française Year(s): 1903

A chimney sweep-turned-champion, Garin led the inaugural Tour de France from start to finish, winning by almost three hours over the second-place rider. He earned the equivalent of about $40,000 for his efforts, money he later used to buy his own gas station.

Henri Cornet

Country: France Team: Conte Year(s): 1904

Cornet was declared the winner of the 1904 Tour after the first four finishers (including Garin) were disqualified for various forms of cheating. Only 19 at the time, Cornet remains the youngest winner in Tour history.

Louis Trousselier

Country: France Team: Peugeot–Wolber Year(s): 1905

Trousselier had to go on leave from the French army to compete in the 1905 Tour, so he made sure he invested his time wisely, winning three stages on his way to the overall victory. The night before winning the final stage, “Trou-Trou” spent all night drinking and gambling, losing the money he was set to win. He returned to the army the day after being crowned champion.

René Pottier

Country: France Team: Peugeot–Wolber Year(s): 1906

One year after becoming the first man to abandon the Tour while leading it, Pottier got his revenge by winning five stages and the overall title. Sadly, he hanged himself in his team clubhouse the following January after learning that his wife had had an affair while he competed in the race.

Lucien Petit-Breton

Country: France Team: Peugeot–Wolber Year(s): 1907, 1908

The Tour’s first two-time winner, Petit-Breton’s name is actually Lucien Mazan. Trying to keep his occupation a secret from his father—who didn’t want him to become a cyclist—Mazan raced under a pseudonym. In earning the second of his two Tour victories, he won five stages and never finished outside the top four. He was killed while serving as a driver for the French army in World War I.

François Faber

Country: Luxembourg Team: Alcyon–Dunlop Year(s): 1909

The first foreigner to win the Tour de France, Faber was incredibly large by contemporary standards. Nicknamed the “Giant of Colombe” after the Parisian suburb in which he lived, Faber measured six feet tall and weighed more than 200 pounds. He was shot in the back and killed while trying to carry a wounded comrade across no-man’s-land during a battle in WWI.

Octave Lapize

Country: France Team: Alcyon–Dunlop Year(s): 1910

To win his only Tour de France, Lapize had to overcome both his teammate Faber, the defending champion, and the Tour’s first visit to the Pyrenees. Luckily, Lapize was a much better climber than Faber, so the high mountains played to his strengths. He is perhaps most famous for shouting, “You are assassins!” at Tour organizers while climbing the Tourmalet. While serving as a fighter pilot in WWI, he was shot down and killed over Verdun.

Gustave Garrigou

Country: France Team: Alcyon–Dunlop Year(s): 1911

Despite complaints from racers, Tour organizers considered the Pyreneean stages such a success that they added the Alps in 1911. Faber again lost to a teammate, the climber Garrigou, who needed a bodyguard and disguise to finish the race after accusations that he poisoned a fellow competitor. He was later found innocent.

Odile Defraye

Country: Belgium Team: Alcyon–Dunlop Year(s): 1912

The first Belgian to win the Tour de France, Defraye rode the Tour six times and only finished once (in the same year that he won).

Philippe Thys

Country: Belgium Teams: Peugeot–Wolber, La Sportive Year(s): 1913, 1914, 1920

The Tour’s first three-time winner, Thys was the last rider to win before the start of WWI, and one of only a few prior champions to survive the conflict and continue his career.

Firmin Lambot

Country: Belgium Teams: La Sportive, Peugeot-Wolber Year(s): 1919, 1922

When the Tour started again after the war, Lambot continued Belgium’s run of success, taking the lead just two stages from the finish after Eugène Christophe—for the second time in his career—had his Tour ruined by a broken fork. Lambot won his second title at age 36, making him the oldest winner to date.

Léon Scieur

Country: Belgium Team: La Sportive Year(s): 1921

Discovered by Lambot, who hailed from the same town in Belgium, Scieur was nicknamed “the Locomotive” in the press for the way he relentlessly consolidated his lead. His wheel broke on the penultimate day and he carried it more than 300K on his back to show officials that he was justified in taking a replacement (rules at the time limited outside support for riders).

Henri Pélissier

Country: France Team: Automoto–Hutchinson Year(s): 1923

The oldest of three brothers, all of whom were cyclists, Pélissier finished only two of the eight Tours he started, placing second in 1914 and finally winning in 1923. Talented but ill-tempered, he dropped out mostly by choice. His most famous DNF came in 1920, when rather than accept a two-minute penalty for throwing away a flat tire, he abandoned the race in protest.

Ottavio Bottecchia

Country: Italy Team: Automoto Year(s): 1924, 1925

In 1924, Bottecchia became Italy’s first Tour de France champion and the first rider to wear the yellow jersey from start to finish. His initial win was made easier thanks to the departure of the Pélissier brothers on Stage 3. Discovered to be wearing two jerseys at a time, then a violation of the rules, Henri, his brother, and another teammate abandoned—you guessed it—in protest.

Lucien Buysse

Country: Belgium Team: Automoto–Hutchinson Year(s): 1926

Buysse rode selflessly for Bottecchia in 1925 and was rewarded with a chance to win the Tour for himself in 1926. Tragically, the Belgian received news that his daughter had died early in the race, but his family convinced him to carry on to victory.

Nicolas Frantz

Country: Luxembourg Team: Alcyon–Dunlop Year(s): 1927, 1928

Fourth in 1925 and second in 1926, Frantz set the foundation for his first Tour victory by winning Stage 11, a mountainous day that tackled the Pyrenean “Circle of Death,” a route with four challenging climbs including the Col d’Aubisque and Col du Tourmalet. He led the 1928 Tour from start to finish, becoming only the fifth rider (at the time) to win the overall twice.

Maurice De Waele

Country: Belgium Team: Alcyon–Dunlop Year(s): 1929

Second in 1927 and third in 1928, De Waele overcame several flat tires—riders were then required to change their own flats—and illness to win in 1929. He wasn’t a popular champion, which caused organizer Henri Desgrange to remark, “A corpse has won my race!”

André Leducq

Country: France Teams: Alcyon–Dunlop, France Year(s): 1930, 1932

The year 1930 brought a change to the Tour: National and regional teams, instead of sponsored trade teams, would now compete. This shifted the power back to France, with Leducq winning two of the decade’s first five Tours (all of which went to the French).

Antonin Magne

Country: France Team: France Year(s): 1931, 1934

Third behind Leducq in 1930, Magne took advantage of new three-minute time bonuses given to stage winners—as well as a mysterious letter tipping him off to the tactics of a competitor—to win in 1931, his first of two victories.

Georges Speicher

Country: France Team: France Year(s): 1933

Historians consider the French team at the 1933 Tour to be one of the strongest collections of pre-war riders ever assembled. Speicher was joined on the start line by former winners Leducq and Magne, as well as future winner Roger Lapébie.

Since getting hooked on pro cycling while watching Lance Armstrong win the 1993 U.S. Pro Championship in Philadelphia, longtime Bicycling contributor Whit Yost has raced on Belgian cobbles, helped build a European pro team, and piloted that team from Malaysia to Mont Ventoux as an assistant director sportif. These days, he lives with his wife and son in Pennsylvania, spending his days serving as an assistant middle school principal and his nights playing Dungeons & Dragons.

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Tour de France winners

Every winner of the Tour de France from 1903 onwards

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The roll-call of Tour de France winners contains the names of many of the world's best bike riders through time.

The most illustrious of the three Grand Tours, the Tour de France  has been taking place on an annual bases since 1903 - with two breaks in its history, one for each of the World Wars.

The most prolific winner would have been Lance Armstrong, who wore the yellow jersey in Paris for seven consecutive years between 1999 and 2005. However, he was stripped of all of his titles in 2012 following investigation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

Next in line, we have a prolific quartet of Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. All four have five titles to their names, Anquitel was the first to do it but Mercx is still the only person to have won the general, points and king of the mountains classifications in the same Tour - a feat he accomplished in 1969.

Chris Froome (now Israel Start-Up Nation) has four wins to his name - he won in in 2013 and then consecutively from 2015 to 2017 but hasn't managed to equal the record of five overall victories yet.

Tour de France titles won between 1999-2005 were formerly allocated to Lance Armstrong (USA) but stripped after he was found guilty of doping. No alternative winner has been announced for these years.

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How do you win the Tour de France?

In the first ever edition of the race, the winner of the General Classification earned their place based on overall riding time. However, following the disqualification of its 1904 victor, Maurice Garin, the organisers introduced a points based system.

Then, in 1912 they reverted back to awarding the win based on time. This remains the case today - the rider with the lowest overall accumulated time leads the General Classification and whoever holds that position once the peloton arrives in Paris is crowned the winner.

Youngest ever Tour de France winner

Henri Cornet, 19-years-old

Oldest ever Tour de France winner

Firmin Lambot, 36-years-old

First Tour de France winner

The first ever win went to a rider from the race's home country - Maurice Garin, in 1903.

First ever Tour de France GC disqualification

Also Garin. The Frenchman also won in 1904, however he was disqualified for allegedly using means of transport outside of the bicycle (car, rail).

The result was that Henri Cornet took his place, and at 19-years-old he will no doubt remain the youngest ever for a long time, if not indefinitely.

There have been quite a few disqualifications since, mostly for doping (Armstrong, 1999-2005, Floyd Landis, 2006, Alberto Contador, 2010).

First non-French Tour de France winner

The winner's list for the early years of the race is dominated by Frenchman. The first winner from outside the country of origin was 1909 leader François Faber of Luxembourg.

Britain took a while to catch up - the first British rider of the men's Tour de France race was Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) in 2012. GB now have five overall victories to their name thanks to Wiggins and Froome.

Smallest ever winning margin

In 1989, American Greg LeMond won over Laurent Fignon by just eight seconds.

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Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!

I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.

It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.

After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.

When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.

My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.

Woods buoyed by recent Vuelta a España stage win as he gets set to race back on home turf

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Tadej Pogacar dominates final stage to win Tour de France for a third time

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Tadej Pogacar had no need to attack on the final stage of the Tour de France. Defending a lead of more than five minutes in Sunday’s time trial, he was set to comfortably win the race for the third time and first time in three years, anyway.

But defense has not been in his vocabulary during this race and he simply could not resist another attack.

With his main rival Jonas Vingegaard unable to challenge him, Pogacar celebrated his Tour victory in style with a dominant win in the time trial ending in Nice for the 17th stage win of his already illustrious Tour career.

The 25-year-old Slovenian rider also became the first cyclist to secure the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the same year since the late Marco Pantani in 1998.

“To win both together is another level above,” said Pogacar, who rides for UAE Team Emirates. “I think this is the first Grand Tour where I was totally confident every day. Even at the Giro I remember I had one bad day. This year, the Tour was just amazing. I was enjoying it from day one.”

The two-time defending champion Vingegaard of Denmark was second overall. He also finished the 21st and final stage in second place.

Pogacar won the 34-kilometer (21-mile) time trial on the French Riviera’s roads from Monaco to Nice in 45 minutes, 24 seconds. Vingegaard was 1 minute, 3 seconds behind him and Belgian rider Remco Evenepoel 1:14 back in third spot.

In the overall standings, Vingegaard finished 6:17 behind Pogacar and Evenepoel was third overall, 9:18 behind Pogacar — whose other Tour wins came in 2020 and 2021.

“I’m super happy. I cannot describe how happy I am after two hard years in the Tour de France,” Pogacar said. “This year everything (was) perfection.”

The race did not finish in Paris as it usually does because of the Olympic Games. Nice mayor Christian Estrosi called the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the southern French Alps “perfect cycling territory.”

From early Sunday morning, fans camped along the popular Promenade des Anglais in Nice to guard a spot that would offer the best glimpse of cyclists.

Some fans chanted “Remco, Remco” as the race-against-the-clock specialist zoomed past them.

They may have been surprised to see Pogacar going flat out.

After his explosive attack on Friday, Pogacar said he would not try to win Saturday’s stage. Yet he still won it to become the second man to clinch five mountain stages in one Tour after Italian rider Gino Bartali in 1948.

Pogacar led Vingegaard overnight by 5 minutes, 14 seconds. But the lure of another stage win proved too strong and he flew down the winding roads past picturesque Èze and Villefranche-sur-Mer on the approach to Nice, where the route flattened out again.

Pogacar held out three fingers as the finish line and a sixth stage win approached on this year’s Tour — the same number of stages he won when dominating the Giro d’Italia.

It was Pogacar’s biggest winning margin of his three Tour wins — beating the 5:20 gap on Vingegaard three years ago, but below the 7:29 victory margin Vingegaard enjoyed over Pogacar last year.

The battle with Vingegaard was not as close as it might have been in different circumstances.

The 27-year-old Vingegaard was hospitalized for nearly two weeks in April following a high-speed crash in the Tour of the Basque Country. He resumed competitive racing only on this Tour.

“Under normal circumstances, I would be disappointed with my Tour de France. But, after everything I’ve gone through, I can’t be disappointed,” Vingegaard said. “I would have loved to go a bit further, but it is what it is. I would like to come back to the Tour de France and win it again ... I believe the yellow jersey is the most beautiful jersey in road cycling.”

Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz won the best climber’s polka dot jersey while Eritrea’s Biniam Girmay won the top sprinter’s green jersey and the 24-year-old Evenepoel capped a fine debut Tour with the white jersey for best young rider.

“I feel like I’m floating through the sky. It’s super nice,” Girmay said. “I just want to say for the young kids, keep working hard and everything is possible.”

Jerome Pugmire is a writer with the Associated Press.

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Tour de France: Winners and records

The Tour de France has 4 jerseys on offer for the various competitions that take place within the race. The most prestigious jersey is the yellow jersey of the GC leader, which unfortunately has been tainted on a few occasions since the turn of the century (see table below). The green jersey is the points classification sought after by sprinters and classics men. The polka dot jersey recognizes the rider who obtains the most mountain points, while the white jersey is a GC for riders under 26.

* Initially Alberto Contador was the winner. He had to give back his title after charges of doping.

** Lance Armstrong’s victories (1999 t/m 2005) have been taken from him due to the use of doping. No new winner was declared.

Tour de France Records

Four riders remain in the record books for having won the Tour de France five times: Eddy Merckx, Bernhard Hinault, Miguel Indurain and Jacques Anquetil .

Anquetil pulled off the unthinkable in 1961 when he held the yellow jersey from the first day of the race right up until the end.

Peter Sagan holds the record for green jersey wins with seven.

Richard Virenque is the King of the Mountains in the Tour de France. He won the polka dot jersey 4 times in a row from 1994-1997, and added a further three jerseys in 1999, 2003 and 2004.

Tadej Pogacar took home the white jersey four times, while Andy Schleck and Jan Ullrich both won the young riders classification three times.

In 1969, Eddy Merckx won the yellow jersey, the green jersey and the polka dot jersey, the only man ever to do so in a single Tour de France. He also was the record holder in terms of stage wins for a a long time, but Mark Cavendish took it from him on Wednesday 3 July 2024. The ManX Missile won 35 Tour de France stages.

Three riders won eight stages in a single Tour de France: Freddy Maertens (1976), Eddy Merckx (1970, 1974), and Charles Pélissier (1930).

The youngest winner ever was Henri Cornet, winning the 1904 Tour at 19 years of age. The oldest winner is Firmin Lambot, who was 36 years when he won in 1922.

Cadel Evans is the oldest winner post WWII – in 2011 he was 34 when he finally won his yellow jersey after years of trying.

Tadej Pogacar is the youngest post-WW2 Tour de France winner. He turned 22 the day after he won the 2020 edition.

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Tour de France: Too Fast To Be Clean?

Tour de france.

On the way to his second Tour de France victory last year, Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard was facing tough questions regarding his pace before he even arrived in Paris. How was he going so fast? How was it possible to be over seven minutes ahead of a cyclist of Tadej Pogačar's caliber? Some reporters even explicitly asked: "Are you cheating?".

Vingegaard's response? In a press conference following stage 17, which he had finished more than five minutes ahead of his biggest rival Pogačar, the Dane proclaimed: "For me, it’s hard to tell what more you can say. I guess, I understand that it’s hard to trust in cycling with the past there has been. But I think nowadays everyone is different than they were 20 years ago. And I can tell from my heart that I don’t take anything. I don’t take anything I would not give to my daughter, and I would definitely not give her any drugs.”

At the end, Vingegaard completed the grueling 3-week, 3,401 kilometer competition at an average speed of 41.4 km/h (25.574 mph). Given cycling's deservedly bad reputation, it is perhaps understandable that exceptional performances like that still raise suspicions. As this chart shows, the Tour de France has not slowed down since the doping-infested years of the early 2000s. Whether that's due to super-fast carbon bikes, favorable routing or the use of performance-enhancing substances is a question the sport is not yet fully able to answer.

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This chart shows the average speed of Tour de France winners since 1903, by decade (in kilometers per hour).

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Out for a Ride: Tadej Pogacar Wins 2nd Straight Tour Title

The 22-year-old pogacar won his first title last september when he became the tour’s youngest champion in 116 years, by samuel petrequin • published july 18, 2021 • updated on july 18, 2021 at 3:10 pm.

Tadej Pogacar took the yellow jersey to Paris to win his second straight Tour de France on Sunday after a grueling three-week odyssey that at times he made look like a recreational ride.

Pogacar’s repeat success at cycling’s biggest event was a tale of total dominance, prompting one question: At age 22, how many more Tours can the Slovenian win?

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Pogacar won his first title last September when he became the Tour’s youngest champion in 116 years. He is now the youngest double winner of the race.

In sharp contrast to last year — when as a rookie he had to wait until the penultimate stage to seize the overall lead — Pogacar has been untouchable in this race.

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His team was better equipped and better prepared, and Pogacar assumed the favorite’s mantle with the ease of a seasoned veteran. His supremacy was such that, in addition to his overall win, he also claimed the King of the Mountains and best young rider jerseys.

The UAE Team Emirates leader successfully defended his huge lead of 5 minutes, 20 seconds over second-place Jonas Vingegaard in the mostly ceremonial final stage to the Champs-Elysees on Sunday. Richard Carapaz finished third overall, 7:03 off the pace.

Vingegaard and Carapaz were the only riders to finish within 10 minutes of the two-time champion.

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“I did my best, maximum, like I always do, and that was enough,” Pogacar said.

Wout van Aert won the 21st stage in a mass sprint. That prevented Mark Cavendish from beating Belgian great Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 stage wins which the British sprinter equaled earlier in the race.

The mostly flat 108-kilometer (67-mile) leg began in Chatou just outside Paris and concluded with eight laps up and down the famed avenue.

Pogacar and his teammates rode together at the front of the pack as they reached the Champs-Elysees, and the Slovenia champion raised his fist in the air in celebration.

Pogacar’s gesture acted as a signal for those fighting for a prestigious stage win as the first accelerations took place. But the attackers’ efforts did not pay off and the stage ended in a mass sprint.

Cavendish, who consoled himself with the best sprinter’s green jersey, banged his handlebar in frustration after van Aert edged Jasper Philipsen to the line. Cavendish was third.

Van Aert, a 26-year-old versatile Belgian with exceptional skills on all terrains, became the first competitor since 1979 to win a sprint, a mountain stage and an individual time trial in the same edition of the Tour.

As for Pogacar, the only crack in his armor came in the Mont Ventoux stage in the second week, when he was briefly dropped by Vingegaard during the second ascent of the iconic mountain. But Pogacar showed calm and composure that day to catch his rival and remained unscathed.

Apart from that scare, Pogacar’s ride was flawless and merciless.

Following his stunning display in the first time trial, he was in a class of his own in the Alps and seized the race lead with a vintage long-distance attack in atrocious weather. He then wrapped up the demolition work in the Pyrenees with two prestigious stage wins to become only the fourth rider in Tour history to win consecutive summit finishes at cycling’s biggest race.

Even Merckx, the five-time Tour champion widely regarded as the greatest-ever winner, was impressed.

“I see in him the new ‘Cannibal,’” said Merckx, who earned that nickname for his ruthless will to win. “He can certainly win the Tour de France more than five times.”

Pogacar has won praise for his attacking mentality and his ambition to deliver in all types of races. This season, he linked up his first Tour triumph with victories at the UAE Tour, Tirenno-Adriatico and the prestigious one-day classic Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

But as always at the Tour de France when a competitor outclasses the field, Pogacar’s dominant ride also raised suspicions. He was asked this week about UAE Team Emirates general manager Mauro Gianetti’s ties with riders who received doping suspensions in the past.

Gianetti was previously the manager of Saunier Duval, the team of Riccardo Ricco, an Italian rider who tested positive for the blood-boosting drug CERA in 2008. He was also manager of the Geox-TMX outfit of Juan Jose Cobo, who was stripped of his 2011 Spanish Vuelta title for doping violations.

“I can only speak for myself,” Pogacar said. “When I met Mauro, he was really great to me, and he is a super good person. I believe what is in the past is in the past, and this new cycling is a way more beautiful sport than before.”

Pogacar has insisted that the repeated doping controls he underwent should be enough to convince doubters that he is riding clean.

“I think we have many controls to prove them wrong,” Pogacar said during the race’s first rest day.

Pogacar’s dominance was helped by the misfortunes of two of his biggest rivals, last year’s runner-up Primoz Roglic and former Tour champion Geraint Thomas, who tumbled during the crash-marred first week of racing and never recovered. More importantly, 2019 champion Egan Bernal skipped the Tour this year after his Giro victory in May. The Colombian climber is just 24, has excellent time trial abilities and should be Pogacar’s main rival in the years to come.

Meanwhile, Pogacar will fly to the Tokyo Olympics where he will be among the favorites for the gold medal in the road race.

“Anyone who can follow Tadej will be close to victory,” said van Aert.

More Tour de France coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/TourdeFrance and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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Tour de France 2021

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In the Winners’ Words: Tadej Pogacar

Tadej pogacar wins 2021 tour de france as van aert takes final stage.

Tour de France stage 21 - As  it happened

Wout van Aert ( Jumbo-Visma ) sprinted to the prestigious stage 21 victory in Paris to win the final stage of the 2021 Tour de France . The finish straight on the Champs-Élysées was 700 metres in length, 400 metres longer than in previous years, but that did not afford chasers enough real estate to catch Van Aert, who surged to the front of the peloton with under 250 metres remaining and took his third stage win of the three-week Grand Tour.

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix) finished second, less than a wheel length from the line, to get his third second-place finish at the Tour. Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-QuickStep) finished third, but held on to the green jersey as the overall points classification victor, beating Michael Matthews (Team BikeExchange) by 56 points.

UAE Team Emirates rode into Paris with Tadej Pogačar wearing the maillot jaune and safely escorted him to the final podium to claim three classifications – overall, mountains and best young rider.

For the first time since 2012, only two riders finished within 10 minutes of the yellow jersey - Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) finished second, 5:20 off the winning mark, and Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) placed third, another 1:43 back.

Bahrain Victorious won the team competition by 19 minutes ahead of EF Education-Nippo, and Franck Bonnamour (B&B Hotels p/b KTM) claimed the super-combativity award after an aggressive three weeks of racing.

Stage 21 started in Chatou with a gentle pace set by UAE Team Emirates, sporting new jerseys emblazoned with yellow bands to celebrate Pogačar’s second consecutive Tour win. The final 52km of the stage took place over the eight laps of the Champs Élysées, and while sprinters looked for glory in the stage win, Pogačar and his teammates eased across the finish to celebrate a job well done.

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The build-up

Here at Cyclingnews we've been counting down the days until the 2021 Tour de France, with a series of special features to build up to the Grand Départ on Saturday June 26. 

• Tour de France 2021: The essential race guide
• Tour de France bikes: who's riding what in 2021
• Form ranking: Tour de France 2021 contenders, pre-race
• Philippa York: I struggle to see Chris Froome as a Tour de France road captain
• Tour de France snubs: The 9 most controversial rider non-selections
• Out of Pinot's shadow and into the glare: David Gaudu takes aim at the Tour de France
• Tadej Pogacar: A life-changing moment captured in a photograph
• Analysing Ineos Grenadiers' 2021 Tour de France team
• Analysing Jumbo-Visma's 2021 Tour de France squad
• Tour de France 2021: 5 key stages
• Brandon McNulty: The Tour de France call-up
• Alberto Contador: Blowing the Tour de France apart

The 2021 Tour de France will start in Brest in Brittany , on Saturday, June 26 having originally been scheduled for a Grand Départ in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The opening two stages to Landerneau and Mûr-de-Bretagne will provide a chance for the puncheurs, versatile sprinters and climbers to take the maillot jaune early on before the sprinters get two chances to win as the race heads east across the centre of France.

An early GC showdown will come on stage 5 with the 27.2-kilometre time trial from Changé to Laval Espace Mayenne before the road racing resumes with two stages that take the peloton to the Alps.

Stage 8 to Le Grand Bornard will see the first major climbing of the Tour, with three first-category climbs – including the Col de la Colombière – in the second part of the 150.8-kilometre stage. The following day to the 21-kilometre long summit finish at Tignes is just as tough, revisiting the Critérium du Dauphiné one-two of the Col du Pré and Cormet de Roselend.

Tignes also hosts the first rest day on July 5, ahead of a sprint stage in Valence and stage 11's visit to Mont Ventoux, which will be tackled twice before a descent straight to the finish in Malaucène.

Nîmes and Carcassonne offer up two more sprint chances on the following days before a nailed-on breakaway stage in the hills to Quillan take the peloton to the Pyrenees.

There, stage 15 to Andorra brings with it three first-category tests, including the Souvenir Henri Desgrange as the race hits 2,408 metres at Port d'Envalira. A rest day in the microstate. A tough stage to Saint-Gaudens follows but all minds will be on the final two mountain stages.

Stage 17 takes the riders over the Col de Peyresourde and Col de Val Louron-Azet before the HC-rated summit finish at 2,215 metres at the Col du Portet. Stage 18 provides two more HC tests in the Col du Tourmalet and the summit finish at Luz Ardiden, the last chance for climbers to make their mark.

A penultimate sprint stage follows, taking the peloton to Libourne, where stage 20 brings the GC finale in the shape of a 30.8-kilometre time trial to Saint-Emilion. If the Tour hasn't already been decided, then it certainly will be here.

As ever, the grand finale and the crowning of the Tour de France champion comes in Paris on the Champs-Élysées following a 108.4-kilometre ride from Chatou on July 18.

Check out the full details of the 2021 Tour de France route here.

The contenders

Once again, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) will be the main favourites for the title. The two are among the strongest climbers in the peloton and are also world-leading time trialists, which could prove decisive with two tests against the clock lying in wait for the riders.

The pair have enjoyed stellar starts to 2020, with Pogačar taking wins at the UAE Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, while Roglič took three wins at PAris-Nice and the overall at Itzulia Basque Country.

The main challenge to the Slovenian duo should come from Ineos Grenadiers, who are led by 2018 winner Geraint Thomas and 2019 Giro d'Italia champion Richard Carapaz . The Welshman recently finished third at the Critérium du Dauphiné and looks best placed to challenge in both the mountains and time trials, while Carapaz is arguably the stronger climber.

Movistar's triumvirate will this year be headed up by new signing Miguel Ángel López , alongside Enric Mas and Alejandro Valverde. The Colombian looked in dominant form at the Mont Ventoux Dénivéle Challenge in June and will hope to improve on his sixth place in 2020.

His compatriot Nairo Quintana is a three-time podium finisher at the Tour and once again leads out Arkéa-Samsic. He won the Vuelta Asturias earlier this year but was off form at the Dauphiné.

Another Colombian to watch is EF Education-Nippo's Rigoberto Urán , who finished second in 2017 and has taken two top 10s since. His teammate and countryman Sergio Higuita could end up the team leader this year.

Elsewhere, look out for Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation), Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), Wilco Kelderman (Bora-Hansgrohe), Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), and Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange). They're all likely to be in the top 10 GC battle, though fighting for the very top spots looks a little tougher.

Finally, the battle for sprint victories and the green jersey looks wide open, with Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) facing challenges from Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal), Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Victorious), Tim Merlier and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix), Elia Viviani (Cofidis), Giacomo Nizzolo (Qhubeka Assos), Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ), Cees Bol (Team DSM), Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates), and more.

Bikes and tech

As the world's biggest bike race, the publicity and global reach that the Tour de France achieves is a sponsor's dream. As a result, the Tour de France is always a hotbed of tech, with new releases and custom colourways unveiled almost daily as brands work to capture the attention of onlookers. 

What's more, with the hard-fought battle for the yellow jersey, teams will do everything within their power to eke out marginal gains with innovative inventions and mechanical hacks. Most of the time this comes directly from their contracted sponsors, but occasionally teams will look further afield, breaking contracts in the pursuit of free speed. 

Here are the tech talking points we've seen so far:

• Tour de France bikes : who's riding what in 2021
• Oakley launches 2021 Tour de France collection
• Lapierre launches new Xelius SL ahead of the Tour de France
• Trek-Segafredo bikes given all-new colour schemes ahead of the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia Donne
• Pinarello launches new Dogma F in preparation for the Tour de France
• Michael Matthews gets a custom Bianchi Oltre XR4 for Tour de France
• Why are Jumbo Visma using blue tyres at the Tour de France?
• Ineos Grenadiers switch to sponsor-incorrect Princeton Carbonworks wheels at Tour de France
• Tour de France tech: All the tech and trends from the 2021 race
• Is Canyon's broken Aeroad handlebar now fixed? Van der Poel's Tour de France bike suggests it is
• Tour de France winning bikes : Which brand has won the most Tours in history?
• Julian Alaphilippe's S-Works Tarmac SL7 at the Tour de France
• Radical new sunglasses for Tadej Pogacar at the Tour de France
• Tour de France gallery: 40 years of time trial technology
• Mark Cavendish's Tour de France stage-winning S-Works Tarmac SL7
• 10-hour journey delivers sponsor-incorrect wheels for Van der Poel's Tour de France time trial
• Alpecin-Fenix go all-in with sponsor-incorrect tech as Van der Poel fights to keep yellow
• Kasper Asgreen to ride the Specialized Aethos in Tour de France mountain stages
• Tour de France helmets : Who's wearing what?
• Tour de France power analysis: Ben O'Connor's Stage 9 win in Tignes
• Spotted: Jumbo Visma on yet more non-sponsor wheels at the Tour de France

Race history

Pogačar is the reigning champion, having overhauled his Slovenian compatriot Roglič in the final time trial at last year's race. The 21-year-old became the race's second-youngest winner after Firmin Labot back in 1904.

Pogačar broke a Ineos/Sky stranglehold on the race, with the British team having won seven of the previous eight Tours de France with Egan Bernal, Geraint Thomas, Bradley Wiggins and four-time winner Chris Froome. Vincenzo Nibali, then riding for Astana, was the other man to break the British squad's dominance with a win in 2014.

The Tour wins record is currently held by four men, with Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Jacques Anquetil and Miguel Indurain all on five titles.

2020 was also the year which saw the rare occasion of Sagan getting beaten in the battle for the green jersey. He lost out to Bennett after a race-long battle, but still holds the all-time green jersey rankings with seven wins in nine participations. Erik Zabel's six jerseys lie second, ahead of Sean Kelly's four.

Pogačar is the reigning mountain classification champion, too, having won the yellow, polka dot and white jerseys in 2020. He broke a three-year French stranglehold on the jersey after wins for Romain Bardet, Julian Alaphilippe and Warren Barguil.

Richard Virenque holds the record for polka dot jersey wins at seven, and it won't be beaten anytime soon as Rafał Majka is the only current rider to have won more than one king of the mountains title, with two.

Read on for a list of the riders with the most wins of the Tour de France, the most stage wins, as well as the major jerseys (active riders in bold ).

Most Tour de France wins

• 5 – Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain
• 4 –  Chris Froome
• 3 – Phiilippe Thys, Louison Bobet, Greg LeMond
• 2 – Lucien Petit-Breton, Firmin Lambot, Ottavio Bottecchia, Nicolas Frantz, André Leducq, Antonin Magne, Sylvère Maes, Gino Bartali, Fausto Coppi, Bernard Thévenet, Laurent Fignon, Alberto Contador
• 1 – Vincenzo Nibali , Geraint Thomas , Egan Bernal , Tadej Pogačar

Most Tour de France stage wins

• 34 – Eddy Merckx
• 30 – Mark Cavendish
• 28 – Bernard Hinault
• 25 – André Leducq
• 22 – André Darrigade
• 20 – Nicolas Frantz
• 19 – François Faber
• 17 – Jean Alavoine
• 16 – Jacques Anquetiil, René Le Grevès, Charles Pélissiier –
• 12 – Peter Sagan
• 11 – André Greipel
• 7 – Chris Froome
• 6 – Vincenzo Nibali

Most Tour de France green jersey wins

• 7 –  Peter Sagan
• 6 – Erik Zabel
• 4 – Sean Kelly
• 3 – Jan Janssen, Eddy Merckx, Freddy Maertens, Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Robbie McEwen
• 2 – Stan Ockers, Jean Graczyk, André Darrigade, Laurent Jalabert, Thor Hushovd
• 1 – Mark Cavendish , Michael Matthews , Sam Bennett

Most Tour de France polka dot jersey wins

• 7 – Richard Virenque
• 6 – Federico Bahamontes, Lucien Van Impe
• 3 – Julio Jiménez
• 2 – Felicien Vervaecke, Gino Bartali, Fausto Coppi, Charly Gaul, Imerio Massignan, Eddy Merckx, Luis Herrera, Claudio Chiappucci, Laurent Jalabert, Michael Rasmussen, Rafał Majka
• 1 – Nairo Quintana , Chris Froome , Warren Barguil , Julian Alaphilippe , Romain Bardet , Tadej Pogačar

• Tour de France 2021 map
• Tour de France 2021: The Essential Race Guide
• Tour de France past winners

• Rest Day 1 2021-07-05

• Rest Day 2 2021-07-12

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