It seems strange to think that one of the biggest sporting events on the planet was founded to sell more copies of a newspaper. But as all the Tour de France winners still living will tell you, it’s true.
The idea of a bike race across the length and breadth of France was the invention of the newspaper L’Auto (the predecessor of the modern-day sports title L’Equipe) in 1903. What was originally an adventure that captured the imagination of pre-war France is now big global business, watched by millions on TV worldwide and by the sides of the road every July. Twelve decades on, the Tour de France has created its own history of human achievement and endurance, and has become a central part of French culture.
In this blog, we’ll take a whistle-stop tour around the most famous Tour de France winners from the race’s history, including riders that dominated, riders that inspired – and riders that cheated.
Early pioneers: the first Tour de France winners
The very first Tour de France in 1903 was an arduous journey, even though it didn’t contain the Alpine and Pyrenean mountain passes that we’re so familiar with today. The race took in six stages over 1500 miles, linking together the major cities of France, from Paris to Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Nantes and back to Paris.
The racing back then was unrecognisable compared to today: heavy and cumbersome bikes, many of which only had a single gear; roads that were barely more than dirt tracks; riders racing as individuals rather than as teams; and racing taking place through the night due to the huge length of the stages.
That first Tour de France was won by Maurice Garin, a chimney sweep who won the race by almost three full hours. However, it was his antics in the following year’s race that earned him the most notoriety. Garin was initially proclaimed the winner of the 1904 Tour, but several months later, he was disqualified (along with several other riders) for covering some of the route by train. Henri Cornet, then only 19 years old, was retrospectively named the winner.
Five-star legends: who has won the Tour de France the most times?
One person crossed the finish line to win the Tour de France more than five times, but his wins don’t count (more on him a little later). This means that the record for the most Tour de France victories remains at five, but is shared between four riders.
The first five-time winner was the Frenchman, Jacques Anquetil, who won the race in 1957 and then four years running from 1961-64. His 1961 win was particularly special as he took the yellow jersey at the end of the first day and held onto it for the entire race. However, despite his success, he found himself second in the affections of the French public to his great rival Raymond Poulidor, who finished on the Tour podium eight times without ever winning it.
The second rider to win the Tour de France five times is the greatest racing cyclist the world has ever seen: Eddy Merckx. Four wins in a row from 1969-72 and a fifth win in 1974 is just one small part of the domination that the Belgian exerted on the peloton over several years and hundreds of races. Such was his control that in his 1969 win, ‘The Cannibal’ achieved the unique treble of winning the general classification, the points competition and the King of the Mountains competition at the same time.
A hard, aggressive man from Brittany known as ‘the Badger’, the last of Bernard Hinault’s quintet of wins in 1985 (preceded by wins in 1978, ‘79, ‘81 and ‘82) remains the last time a Tour de France was won by a French rider. And the most recent rider to win five Tours won them all in succession: Spain’s Miguel Indurain – known as ‘Big Mig’ – built his lasting success between 1991 and 1995 on exceptionally strong performances in the time trial stages.
The best of British Tour de France winners
For over a century, there were no British Tour de France winners to speak of. Only a few hardy souls from the UK had graced the global cycling stage, such as the late Tom Simpson (who died on the ascent of Mont Ventoux in 1967) and Robert Millar, who finished fourth overall in 1984.
But then Team Sky came along. A combination of British Cycling – fresh from unprecedented Olympic success on the track – and broadcaster BSkyB, Team Sky was launched in 2010 with the aim of delivering a British Tour de France winner within five years. The well-funded team, led by Sir Dave Brailsford, took just three to achieve its goal.
Bradley Wiggins won the 2012 Tour for Sky, and followed it up by claiming Olympic time trial gold at Hampton Court Palace just a week later. His chief lieutenant in that Tour was Chris Froome, who turned out to be Sky’s megastar, winning four Tours in five years (2013 and 2015-17). His success was followed by Welshman Geraint Thomas in 2018, who formed part of a unique British treble in all three Grand Tours that year, as Froome won the Giro d’Italia for Sky, and Simon Yates claimed the Vuelta a Espana for Mitchelton-Scott.
We need to talk about… Tour de France winners who doped
Unfortunately, there is no escaping the fact that professional cycling had a real problem with performance-enhancing drugs through much of its history, and especially in the 1990s and 2000s. That era is personified by Lance Armstrong, who recovered from testicular cancer to ‘win’ seven Tours in a row between 1999 and 2005.
At the time, the Texan vehemently denied that doping played any part in his victories. But in 2012, an investigation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency found that he had led “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen”. Armstrong was banned from sport for life and stripped of all of his titles, but doping was so prevalent among his rivals at the time that no alternative winner could be declared for any of those seven Tours.
Post-Armstrong, two other riders have lost Tour victories after failing drugs tests: Floyd Landis in 2006 and Alberto Contador in 2010. However, a sustained effort by the sport to monitor riders’ biological condition much more closely, combined with advances in testing technologies, mean that cycling today is much ‘cleaner’ than it was a generation ago.
Modern heroes: Tour de France winners today
The most recent Tour de France races have all revolved around one man: Tadej Pogacar. He burst onto the scene in the COVID-delayed 2020 race, stalking his fellow Slovenian Primoz Roglic through the mountains before snatching the overall win from him in the final time trial. On the day before his 22nd birthday, ‘Pog’ became the youngest winner of the Tour since Henri Cornet in 1904, and he picked up the polka-dot jersey for King of the Mountains and the white jersey for best young rider in the process.
Even more remarkably, he successfully defended all three of these jerseys in the 2021 race, making it back-to-back wins for his team, UAE Team Emirates. In the 2022 Tour de France, he looked on course to make it a hat-trick before Team Jumbo-Visma put him under sustained pressure in the Alps. Pogacar eventually fell to second behind Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard, who won a Tour that started in his home capital city of Copenhagen.
Pogacar and Vingegaard will undoubtedly be the two big favourites when the 2023 Tour de France gets underway in the Spanish city of Bilbao on July 1st.
Get cycling travel insurance with SportsCover Direct
Every year, the Tour de France winners and legends inspire people young and old to get onto their bikes, whether they want to emulate their heroes in the mountains or just enjoy a club ride with their friends. It’s on these occasions that cycling is a truly special pastime – but it isn’t a pastime free of risk.
When riding on the road, accidents can happen, whether it’s a collision with a vehicle, hitting a pothole, or losing control because of a flat tyre. In these situations, and in many others, having good insurance cover is absolutely essential, so that you don’t lose out financially as a result. This is especially the case if you’re going on a cycling trip abroad, where medical bills can easily run into thousands of pounds.
That’s why SportsCover Direct provides comprehensive cycling holiday insurance policies to all riders, regardless of age or ability. We can compensate you for any medical cover you need, take care of the costs of bike repairs or replacement, and help you out if your bike or kit is lost or stolen.
