tour de france historical photos

Vintage photos from the First Tour de France, 1903

The winning scene at the finish of the first Tour. In the middle on the right: the winner, Maurice Garin, to his left: most likely Leon Georget.

A publicity stunt dreamed up by newspapermen, the first Tour de France saw a rag-tag bunch of cyclists waved off from outside a bar on the outskirts of Paris in 1903. Rapidly the Tour expanded into a race will legendary champions, a set of iconic leader’s jerseys, and a wanderlust that took the race into the farthest corners of France.

Henri Desgrange, the editor of L’Auto (ancestor to today’s l’Equipe ), was desperate to find a way to win a circulation war with competing sports newspaper Le Vélo . The Tour de France was suggested to Desgrange as a sales promotion.

It was to have been a five-week race, from 1 June to 5 July, with an entry fee of 20 francs. These conditions attracted very few cyclists: one week before the race was due to start, only 15 competitors had signed up.

Desgrange then rescheduled the race from 1 to 19 July, increased the total prize money to 20,000 francs, reduced the entry fee to 10 francs, and guaranteed at least five francs a day to the first 50 cyclists in the classification. After that, 79 cyclists signed up for the race, of whom 60 actually started the race.

The 1903 Tour de France was run in six stages. Compared to modern stage races, the stages were extraordinarily long, with an average distance of over 400 km (250 mi).

Cyclists had one to three rest days between each stage, and the route was largely flat, with only one stage featuring a significant mountain. The cyclists were not grouped in teams but raced as individuals

The riders get ready to start. Note that what constitutes effective cycle clothing hadn’t been settled.

In 1903, it was normal for a professional cyclist to hire pacers, who would lead them during the race. Desgrange forbade this: it was originally intended that in the final, longest, stage pacers would be allowed, but this was rescinded after the fifth stage.

To ensure that the cyclists rode the entire route, stewards were stationed at various points around the course. The yellow jersey for the leader in the general classification had not yet been introduced, but the leader was identified by a green armband.

Sixty cyclists, all professionals or semi-professionals, started the race, of whom 49 were French, 4 Belgian, 4 Swiss, 2 German, and one Italian; 21 of them were sponsored by bicycle manufacturers, while 39 entered without commercial support.

Advertising poster for the event.

The pre-race favorite, Maurice Garin, won the first stage and retained the lead throughout. He also won the last two stages and had a margin of almost three hours over the next cyclist.

After celebrating with champagne, the riders cycled to Parc des Princes, where they made several laps of honor before an adoring crowd, to the sound of a bugle.

The circulation of L’Auto increased significantly due to this event; a special edition of 130,000 copies was made after the race was over, and normal circulation increased from 25,000 to 65,000. The big success made sure that the Tour de France was scheduled again for 1904. The cyclists had also become national heroes.

Garin would also win the next year’s race only to then be disqualified along with eight other riders for cheating including the illegal use of cars and trains.

The first kilometer in the history of the Tour de France.

The ancient bidon and the feeding zone.

Marcel Kerff.

The first stage finish line in Lyon.

The finish in Bordeaux, which saw the first-ever foreign winner of a stage, the Swiss Charles Laeser.

Maurice Garin, in his trademark white coat and flat cap racing in the 1903 Tour.

Maurice Garin is greeted by enthusiastic fans.

Leon Georget signs in under the watchful eye of an official. To minimize cheating riders signed in a stops along each stage.

Willie Hume.

The winner Maurice Garin.

Lucien Pothier.

The 1903 Tour de France winner Maurice Garin.

Maurice Garin pictured after his victory in the first stage.

Maurice Garin.

The Tour De France became a tradition. Pictured here are the cyclists in 1906.

(Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons / Flickr).

Updated on: June 15, 2022

Any factual error or typo?  Let us know.

Photos: Tour de France from 1903 to Today

By Laura Carroll

Five-time Tour de France winner Eddy Merckx (aka "The Cannibal").

Hippolyte Aucouturier, a very sartorial cyclist.

Curious cows add challenge and charm to the 1929 race.

Priests give water to Italian rider Alberto Ghirardi and other passing cyclists.

A chef and his staff take a break to cheer on the racers.

Cyclists gear up for the first Tour de France since World War II. The war caused a seven-year gap between races.

Maurice Garin, the first ever Tour de France winner.

French cyclist Bernard Hinault leads the way down the Col d'Aspin in the French Pyrenees.

Hinault is the only Frenchmen to win five Tours, and the only cyclist besides Merckx to claim all Tour de France classifications.

Spanish cyclist Miguel Indurain waves to the camera just before winning his fifth Tour de France in a row.

A beautiful backdrop for stage 21 of the 1996 Tour de France.

Confetti marks the spot of the 100th Tour de France takeoff.

Lance Armstrong waves goodbye during the last stage of his final Tour de France.

July 5, 2014

The Duke and Duchess cut the ribbon on Saturday's start to the 2014 Tour de France.

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Tour de France: Never-Before-Seen Historical Photos of the Race

• By Daniella

The Tour de France is a beloved tradition in France dating back to 1903, when a bicycle race was first organized to increase newspaper sales. It has since become one of the most prestigious and popular sporting events in the world. Usually spanning a period of 3 weeks in July and August, it covers a distance of approximately 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) and is divided into 21 stages. Every year, cyclists from all over the world travel to France to compete, and millions of people line up along the route to watch.

As the race has been held for almost 100 years, many people who grew up in France have fond childhood memories of watching it — and some of those memories were caught on camera. Below, we’re excited to share some beautiful memories from MyHeritage users with stories about Tour de France in decades past.

La Villedieu-Les-Poêles (Manche), 1949

Sara Picazo unearthed a couple of old family photos dating back to 1949. “While searching through my memories, I remembered some old photos I had from my maternal grandfather, Maurice Lottin,” says Sara. “I took them out of an album and saw on the inscriptions on the back that they were taken during the Tour de France in 1949 in La Villedieu-Les-Poêles (Manche). But I wonder how my grandfather could have been there, since he lived in Versailles his whole life. I asked my mother for an explanation and she knew absolutely nothing about it.”

“She was always amazed to see these photos because she didn’t know her father loved cycling so much, though she does recall that as a child, he told her from time to time about some cyclists’ exploits,” says Sara. “Still, we were not fans of cycling in the family. We never watched the Tour de France on television together.”

Sara recognizes her grandfather’s handwriting in the inscriptions on the back, and they indicate that the photos feature two stars of the Tour de France of 1949: Custodio Dos Reis and Jean Robic. “I knew nothing about them, so I looked them up on the internet. In short, they were cycling hotshots,” says Sara. She used MyHeritage In Color™ and the Photo Enhancer to colorize and enhance the photos.

“Thanks for giving me the opportunity to search for my grandfather’s old photos. I learned even more about him and about the 1949 Tour de France.”

The Pyrenees, c. 1952

Colette Fontanié used to watch the Tour as a child when a stage of the race passed through the Pyrenees. She shared this photo of herself with her family members waiting for the peloton (large group of cyclists riding together) in 1952 or 1953.

“We followed the Tour de France,” recalls Colette. “Our parents regularly took us to a pass in the mountains. Anquetil, Darrigade, and Bahamontes are names that still resonate in my mind.”

Bar-sur-Aube, 1954

Pierre Boillon shared this photo taken by his father, Roger Boillon, when the race passed through their hometown, Bar-sur-Aube, in front of Pierre’s parents’ charcuterie.

“The whole family was at the window. I am the little boy with the cap,” says Pierre.

Pierre explains that he had just been released from the hospital, where he had almost died after a medical error, and spent several weeks on an IV drip. “My favorite was Jean Robic, who unfortunately had to retire after an accident,” Pierre recalls. “Louison Bobet won the Tour that year. An unforgettable memory for me.”

Near Tourbes, 1954

Jean Malafosse shared this beautiful memory from the Tour de France, also taken in 1954:

“The photo was taken by a Tour de France photographer in 1954,” says Jean. “That was the year that Le Guilly and Bobet were both in the Tour. The photo appeared in a cycling magazine in 1979. It was my father who recognized it. The place is located at the junction of the Route Nationale 113, around 1.5 kilometers past the village of Tourbes. That village is near Pézenas, in the Hérault,” Jean explains.

“The smiling grandpa with the hat on the end of the cane would be my grandfather Louis Malafosse,” says Jean. “Under the hat, in front of the guy in front of the tree, is my uncle Louis. The little kid in white sitting between his father’s legs is Michel Arrufat, my cousin. His father, Barthélémy Arrufat, the husband of my aunt Marie Malafosse, Arrufat by marriage. Barthélémy tragically died in a work accident in 1957.”

La Baule-Escoublac, 1965

Jean-Luc Magré shared this memory from the Quimper-La Baule stage in 1965:

“That Sunday, June 27, 1965, part of my family gathered on the road to La Baule-Escoublac airport to watch the passage of the Tour de France,” recalls Jean-Luc. “This bike race was and still is a very popular event.”

Sitting near the airport gave the kids room to run around and relax. “We were 7 or 8 kilometers from the finish line,” says Jean-Luc. “The cyclists pass by very quickly. A Dutch rider, Johan de Roo, broke away to take the lead, which thrilled my uncle Rudolf, my aunt Marie (who took the photo) and my cousin Renee, who were on vacation from Rotterdam in Holland. We all applauded him. He had only a short lead. The peloton passed very quickly and we applauded them too. We left after they passed. We learned later that he was overtaken and the stage was won by a Belgian, Guido Reybrouck.”

“In the previous generation of the Magré family, there was a family member who was a local cycling champion, Edouard Magré de Pontchâteau. The family often spoke about him,” says Jean-Luc. “My father had participated in bicycle races and so had his two older brothers. The Tour de France has always been a passion for the family. Whenever it passed nearby, we would go to see it. Once the tour arrived in our city, Saint-Nazaire. It was an opportunity to see the champions up close and ask for autographs.”

“Watching the Tour de France pass by requires perspective and patience,” explains Jean-Luc. “You have to find a good vantage point. To do so, you need to arrive early and then wait for the cyclists to pass. Sometimes we would use the opportunity to have a picnic. Before the cyclists pass, there is an advertising caravan promoting brands and products, and sometimes they would distribute samples. Then, in a few seconds, the cyclists rode past. We would recognize some of them — the champions first, then sometimes the regional champions.”

Near Limoges, 1967

Hélène Laclie shared this lovely photo from the 1967 Tour de France:

“My mother, Nicole Griffault, is applauding on the right, with me in her lap,” says Hélène. “I was barely one year old at the time.”

The photo was taken by her father, Maurice Cogneau, near Limoges. “My parents are both deceased,” she says. “All I have is the photo — no further explanation.”

Anderlecht, 1968

Christian Polfliet shared several photos of the leaders during the Forest-Roubaix stage of the 1968 Tour de France, when the Tour passed through the district of La Roue, in the community of Anderlecht.

“That year, the Tour passed through our neighborhood,” recalls Christian. “My father and I went to the course about two hundred yards from the house. We lived in a small house similar to those seen in the photos, with a small garden in the front and another in the back. I lived there with my parents as an only child.”

“I must have been 12 at the time, and watching the Tour pass by was the big event of the beginning of summer vacation,” says Christian. “We were cycling enthusiasts, but we weren’t going to miss this show!”

The street was very straight, so the cyclists passed at high speed. “Luckily, my dad had time to take pictures!”

Christian points out that the church in the background is where he was baptized and made his first communion. “It is also in this church that my parents had their funeral masses, in 1974 and in 2006,” he says. “I stayed in the same city, but in a neighborhood located more in the countryside, where we built a house. My wife and I have lived there for 33 years. Our two children, now aged 40 and 35, left home long ago, but come back regularly to visit with our grandchildren, who are 12 and 8.”

Nancy, 1978

Bruno Tesson immortalized a key moment in the 1978 Tour de France: “After purchasing a motor (3 frames per second) for my camera, I went to Cours Léopold in Nancy to inaugurate it at the Tour de France,” says Bruno. “The day was July 21, 1978, and it was the arrival of the 20th stage: a time trial from Metz to Nancy. It was Bernard Hinault’s first Tour de France and he was the big favorite at this stage of the race. Many people had gathered to see the expected hero, so it was difficult to sneak in and get a good vantage point. The jubilant crowd shouted his name to encourage him.”

He captured two photos of Bernard Hinault’s arrival, escorted by several press motorbikes. Joaquim Agostinho, who Bernard Hinault would overtake in the seconds that followed, appears in the foreground in the first photo:

Hinault went on to finish in the lead in this time trial — and to win the Tour for the first time.

Bruno recalls that he was squatting to get this perfect shot, and a spectator pulled him back by the collar at the last moment so he wasn’t hit by one of the press motorbikes.

“Thank you for allowing me to dive 44 years back in my memories,” says Bruno.

Valérie Sabries-Vives shared with us a beautiful postcard she inherited from her grandfather. The photo was taken in front of an “Au Tour de France” bicycle shop in June 1914 — the last Tour de France before World War I.

“This photo was taken in Aude, a village south of Carcassonne,” says Valérie. “My grandfather participated in amateur bicycle races before the war. He was one of the first to be called up, as he was from the class of 1914, born in 1894.”

Valérie’s grandfather survived the war despite being wounded and gassed during active duty. After he returned, he married Valérie’s grandmother.

“This is the only photo I have of him as an athlete,” says Valérie. “He loved sports, especially cycling and rugby.”

Do you own any family photos that document key moments from history? We’d love to see them! Please share them with us using this form , or send us an email at [email protected].

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The First Tour de France of 1903 Through Fascinating Historical Photos

First held in 1903, the Tour de France came about as a publicity stunt dreamed up by newspaper journalists. A ragtag bunch of cyclists set off from outside a bar on the outskirts of Paris. The Tour was transformed into a race with iconic leaders’ jerseys and a wanderlust that took it to the farthest corners of France.

The editor of L’Auto (the precursor of today’s l’Equipe) was desperate to find a way to win the circulation war with Le Vélo. The Tour de France was proposed to Desgrange as a sales promotion. The race was to last for five weeks, from 1 June to 5 July. The entry fee was 20 francs. The conditions attracted a minimal number of cyclists: only 15 had registered one week before the race was due to begin. The event was then rescheduled from 1 to 19 July, the prize money increased to 20,000 francs, the entry fee was lowered to 10 francs, and the first 50 cyclists in the classification were guaranteed at least five francs a day. In the end, 79 cyclists registered for the race, 60 of whom actually started it.

The 1903 Tour de France had six stages. A typical stage race distance was over 400 km, which is exceptionally long compared to modern stage races. Between each stage, cyclists had one to three rest days. The route was essentially flat, with one mountainous stage. Cyclists did not race in teams but as individuals. Cycling professionals often hired pacers to lead them during races in 1903. After the fifth stage, Desgrange decided not to allow pacers. It was initially planned to allow pacers in the final, longest stage. Stewards were stationed at various points to ensure that cyclists rode the entire route. There was no yellow jersey for the leader in the general classification, but a green armband identified the leader.

The race featured sixty cyclists, all professionals or semi-professionals, of which 49 were French, 4 Belgian, 4 Swiss, 2 Germans, and one Italian; 21 of them had sponsors, while 39 didn’t have any. Maurice Garin won the first stage and retained the lead throughout. He also won the last two stages and had a three-hour margin over the next cyclist. In addition to champagne, the riders rode to Parc des Princes, where they made several laps of honor in front of an adoring crowd over the sounds of a bugle.

After the race was over, a special edition of 130,000 copies was printed, and the normal circulation increased from 25,000 to 65,000 copies. After the immense success of 1904, the Tour de France was scheduled again for 1905. In addition to winning the next year’s race, Garin would be disqualified along with eight other riders for cheating, including using cars and trains illegally. The cyclists had also become national heroes.

#1 The winning scene at the finish of the first Tour.

In the middle on the right: the winner, Maurice Garin, to his left: most likely Leon Georget.

#2 The riders get ready to start. Note that what constitutes effective cycle clothing hadn’t been settled.

#3 Advertising poster for the event.

#4 The first kilometer in the history of the Tour de France.

#6 The ancient bidon and the feeding zone.

#7 Marcel Kerff.

#8 The first stage finish line in Lyon.

#9 The finish in Bordeaux, which saw the first-ever foreign winner of a stage, the Swiss Charles Laeser.

#10 Maurice Garin, in his trademark white coat and flat cap racing in the 1903 Tour.

#11 Maurice Garin is greeted by enthusiastic fans.

#12 Leon Georget signs in under the watchful eye of an official.

To minimize cheating riders signed in a stops along each stage.

#13 Willie Hume.

#14 The winner Maurice Garin.

#15 Lucien Pothier.

#16 The 1903 Tour de France winner Maurice Garin.

#17 Maurice Garin pictured after his victory in the first stage.

#18 Maurice Garin.

#19 The Tour De France became a tradition. Pictured here are the cyclists in 1906.

Written by Alicia Linn

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312,235 Tour De France Photos & High-Res Pictures

Browse 312,235  authentic tour de france  photos, pictures, and images, or explore tour de france 1919 or tour de france cycling to find the right picture.

The Biggest Champions in Tour de France History

While we anticipate who will rise to glory this year, let’s look at the legends who have already cemented their place in Tour history.

Can Tadej go for back-to-back Grand Tours? Will Jonas be able to defend his double titles? Is 2024 finally the year that Primož Roglič—at the front of a new team—can exorcize the demons of the Super Planche des Belles Filles? Will Remco finally deliver on all of the promise and raw talent he’s long exhibited? Or will some sleeper pounce on a golden opportunity and surprise us all the way Sepp Kuss did in last year’s Vuelta?

All of these questions will be answered in just a few days. But for now, instead of looking forward, let’s look back. Rather than speculate on the unknown, let’s remember the known. Let’s talk about some of the most famous (and at least one infamous) winners in the history of the Tour de France, men whose names and exploits have become synonymous with Le Tour.

The Classic Era

Maurice garin – 1903.

Any list of Tour de France winners has to include Garin for no other reason than the Frenchman won the first-ever. In 1903, Garin won the six-stage Tour, covering its 1,509 miles in under ninety-five hours. But don’t let those six stages fool you, as the race averaged over 250 miles each day. Garin defended his title the following year, only to be stripped of the win following allegations that he was transported by a car or a horse at some point during the race.

Phillipe Thys – 1913, 1914, 1920

Thys’s first Tour victory wasn’t without issue, as the Belgian won the 1913 race despite suffering a broken fork. He was penalized ten minutes after it was discovered he repaired the fork at a bicycle shop, yet still won the race by nine minutes. He repeated this in 1914, again overcoming a major penalty. This time, he was hit with a thirty-minute deduction for an unauthorized wheel change. As the race was not run between 1915 and 1918 due to the First World War, Thys had to wait until 1920 for his third and final Tour victory. Following that win, Tour de France founder Henri Desgrange wrote of Thys, “France is not unaware that, without the war, the crack rider from Anderlecht would be celebrating not his third Tour, but his fifth or sixth.”

Gino Bartali – 1938, 1948

Though Coppi was perhaps better known for his trio of wins at his native Giro d’Italia (which included seven King of the Mountains wins), he was twice the winner of the Tour de France. After withdrawing from his first Tour in 1937, where he wore the leader’s jersey for a time, Bartali returned the following year and won, immediately becoming an icon in Italy. A decade later, Bartali returned to the Tour, leaving a nation of people to choose between him and his countryman Fausto Coppi. Bartali won seven stages en route to both the yellow jersey and the KOM classification. Years later, it was discovered that Bartali secretly used his training rides to shuttle documents back and forth between Florence and Assisi in order to aid Jews who were being persecuted by the Nazis.

The Golden Era

Fausto coppi – 1949, 1952.

Fausto Coppi kicked off what many call cycling’s Golden Age and is perhaps most well-known for the fact that he won the Giro/Tour double twice. Coppi was the first to achieve the double. Only eight other riders have achieved the result. Coppi’s early career was interrupted due to the Second World War, leaving generations of pundits to wonder what he might have done in the early 1940s. However, he did win five Giris d’Italia and scores of classics in addition to his pair of Tours. He frequently clashed with his biggest rival, Gino Bartali, dividing a nation of fans down into “Coppiani” and “Bartaliani.”

Jacques Anquetil – 1957, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964

Over the course of eight years, Jacques Anquetil won the race five times. His first victory came on debut, just months after he was discharged from military service. Following a rocky few years spent chasing an elusive Giro/Tour double, Anquetil returned to the top of the podium in 1961. He repeated as Tour champion the following year doubled up the next two years, with the Tour and the Vuelta a España in 1963 and the Tour and the Giro in 1964.

Eddy Merckx – 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974

There might be no more famous bicycle racer than Eddy Merckx. The Belgian legend remains forty-five years after his retirement, as the name to which everyone else is compared. “Is he the next Mercxk?” is asked every few years. And to this point, everyone has fallen short of the mark. And though he’s tied with three other riders on this list with five Tours de France on his resume, his name rises above all due in large part to the rest of his palmarés, which includes victories at virtually every other race of import. And for all of his yellow jerseys, he’s equally known for his thirty-four stage wins at the Tour, matched only by Mark Cavendish, and six stage wins clear of the next closest racers (Bernard Hinault with twenty-eight).

Bernard Hinault – 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1985

In Mercxk’s final year, his heir apparent was coronated when Frenchman Bernard Hinault won his first Tour de France. He won again the following year and was leading the race in 1980, expected by many to three-peat. However, “The Badger” was forced to abandon due to a knee injury. He came back the following year and the year after that, again going back-to-back. His final Tour victory came in 1985 thanks in large part to the work of his teammate, a young Greg LeMond.

The New Era

Greg lemond – 1986, 1989, 1990.

Greg LeMond finished his first-ever Tour de France in third place. The following year, he took one step further on the podium, finishing second after he spent the race working in service of his La Vie Claire team leader Hinault. The year after that, in 1986, the reins came off, and LeMond entered Le Tour as La Vie Claire’s co-leader. He won that race, besting Hinault by just over three minutes. After being shot in a hunting accident, LeMond missed the next two Tours de France, only to return in 1989, winning what many call the greatest Tour of all time. LeMond entered the race with little hype or expectation. He hoped for a top-twenty finish. However, over the course of the Tour, LeMond’s strength and position grew as he battled back and forth with his French rival, Laurent Fignon. LeMond headed into the race’s final stage, a time trial fifty seconds short of Fignon. He finished it eight seconds clear of the Frenchman, winning the race in what remains the smallest margin of victory ever. Later that year, he won his second World Championship (his first came in 1983) and followed up his performance with a repeat Tour de France victory the next summer.

Miguel Indurain – 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995

There was a time when it was presumed that no one would top Eddy Mercxk’s record of four consecutive Tour de France wins (1969-1972). But then came Miguel Indurain, who unseated LeMond in 1991 (LeMond finished second), snatching his first of a then-record five straight Tour de France victories. In addition to his stretch of Tour wins, Indurain twice doubled up, winning the Tour and the Giro in 1992 and 1993.

Marco Pantani – 1998

Unlike most of the others on this list, Marco Pantani’s renown doesn’t come from repeated success at the Tour de France. In fact, Il Pirata only won the yellow jersey once, in 1998 (after a pair of third-place finishes in 1994 and 1997). However, that year, he doubled up, winning his home race, the Giro d’Italia. Much of Marco Pantani’s legacy is couched in legend and lore, owing in large part to his elusiveness while racing and untimely death at just thirty-four years old.

The Modern Era

Lance armstrong – 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 (all vacated).

Lance Armstrong had all seven of his Tour de France titles stripped and received a lifetime ban from all sports that follow the World Anti-Doping Code.

Alberto Contador – 2007, 2009

Alberto Contador is one of just seven riders to have won all three Grand Tours more than once. He’s also a four-time winner of the Vélo d’Or, the only person to win the award for the year’s best rider four times. He was the first man in the twenty-first century not named Lance Armstrong to win the Tour de France. However, after being implicated in a doping scandal (he was later cleared), Contador didn’t even have a pro contract going into the 2007 season. He went on to win that race by just twenty-three seconds over Cadel Evans (who would go on to win the Tour in 2011). Two years later, he notched his second Tour victory, beating Andy Schleck by just over four minutes.

Bradley Wiggins – 2012

Like Marco Pantani, Bradley Wiggins has just one Tour de France victory. That win came in 2012 after the British track champion fully committed to road racing. Wiggo won over many European fans after a fan threw carpet tacks onto the course during stage 14. Unaffected, Wiggins commanded the peloton to slow down and wait for his competitors—namely Cadel Evans, who suffered a puncture—to catch up. Since his 2012 victory, Wiggins has remained in the spotlight as a pundit, a rower, a published author, and lately, an advocate for mental health awareness.

The Contemporary Era

Chris froome – 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017.

After displaying strong form as a super domestique during the 2012 season, riding in support of Bradley Wiggins, Froome entered 2013 with massive expectations. He took on the leader’s role in some early-season races and headed into the Tour de France as the heavy favorite, fulfilling bets with a four-plus-minute win over Nairo Quintana. The following year, he crashed out of the race on stage 5. However, Froome returned with a 2015 victory, the first in three consecutive Tour de France wins.

Tadej Pogačar – 2020, 2021

In his short career, Tadej Pogačar has won just about everything there is to win. And he’s often done as much with aplomb and style, with many experts saying his versatility, pure strength, and insatiable will win make Pogačar the closest thing we’ve seen to Eddy Merckx since the real thing. His first Tour de France victory came in 2020 after he snatched the win from fellow Slovenian Primož Roglič. It was there that he won on the race’s penultimate stage, going from fifty seconds down on Roglič to one minute up in the span of one final climb. The following year, he defended with relative ease, beating then-newcomer Jonas Vingegaard by more than five minutes.

Jonas Vingegaard – 2022, 2023

Jonas Vingegaard’s backstory is already the stuff of legend. While working in a Danish fish factory, he was discovered after posting a ride to Strava. Within a few years, he won his first Tour de France, beating the seemingly invincible Tadej Pogačar. The following year, he went head-to-head with Tadej, winning his second-straight Tour on the back of one of the greatest time trials in the history of the Tour (and arguably ever). He then put the final nail into the coffin by doing what was then unthinkable: cracking Tadej Pogačar up a brutal climb.

Michael Venutolo-Mantovani is a writer and musician based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He loves road and track cycling, likes gravel riding, and can often be found trying to avoid crashing his mountain bike. 

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The Birth of the Tour de France

By: Christopher Klein

Updated: May 8, 2023 | Original: June 28, 2013

On July 1, 1903, 60 men mounted their bicycles outside the Café au Reveil Matin in the Parisian suburb of Montgeron. The five-dozen riders were mostly French, with just a sprinkle of Belgians, Swiss, Germans and Italians. A third were professionals sponsored by bicycle manufacturers, the others were simply devotees of the sport. All 60 wheelmen, however, were united by the challenge of embarking on an unprecedented test of endurance—not to mention the 20,000 francs in prize money—in the inaugural Tour de France.

At 3:16 p.m., the cyclists turned the pedals of their bicycles and raced into the unknown.

Nothing like the Tour de France had ever been attempted before. Journalist Geo Lefevre had dreamt up the fanciful race as a stunt to boost the circulation of his struggling daily sports newspaper, L’Auto. Henri Desgrange, the director-editor of L’Auto and a former champion cyclist himself, loved the idea of turning France into one giant velodrome. They developed a 1,500-mile clockwise loop of the country running from Paris to Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes before returning to the French capital. There were no Alpine climbs and only six stages—as opposed to the 21 stages in the 2013 Tour— but the distances covered in each of them were monstrous, an average of 250 miles. (No single stage in the 2013 Tour tops 150 miles.) Between one and three rest days were scheduled between stages for recovery.

The first stage of the epic race was particularly dastardly. The route from Paris to Lyon stretched nearly 300 miles. No doubt several of the riders who wheeled away from Paris worried not about winning the race—but surviving it.

Unlike today’s riders, the cyclists in 1903 rode over unpaved roads without helmets. They rode as individuals, not team members. Riders could receive no help. They could not glide in the slipstream of fellow riders or vehicles of any kind. They rode without support cars. Cyclists were responsible for making their own repairs. They even rode with spare tires and tubes wrapped around their torsos in case they developed flats.

And unlike modern-day riders, the cyclists in the 1903 Tour de France, forced to cover enormous swathes of land, spent much of the race riding through the night with moonlight the only guide and stars the only spectators. During the early morning hours of the first stage, race officials came across many competitors “riding like sleepwalkers.”

Hour after hour through the night, riders abandoned the race. One of the favorites, Hippolyte Aucouturier, quit after developing stomach cramps, perhaps from the swigs of red wine he took as an early 1900s version of a performance enhancer.

Twenty-three riders abandoned the first stage of the race, but the one man who barreled through the night faster than anyone else was another pre-race favorite, 32-year-old professional Maurice Garin. The mustachioed French national worked as a chimney sweep as a teenager before becoming one of France’s leading cyclists. Caked in mud, the diminutive Garin crossed the finish line in Lyon a little more than 17 hours after the start outside Paris. In spite of the race’s length, he won by only one minute.

“The Little Chimney Sweep” built his lead as the race progressed. By the fifth stage, Garin had a two-hour advantage. When his nearest competitor suffered two flat tires and fell asleep while resting on the side of the road, Garin captured the stage and the Tour was all but won.

The sixth and final stage, the race’s longest, began in Nantes at 9 p.m. on July 18, so that spectators could watch the riders arrive in Paris late the following afternoon. Garin strapped on a green armband to signify his position as race leader. (The famed yellow jersey worn by the race leader was not introduced until 1919.) A crowd of 20,000 in the Parc des Princes velodrome cheered as Garin won the stage and the first Tour de France. He bested butcher trainee Lucien Pothier by nearly three hours in what remains the greatest winning margin in the Tour’s history. Garin had spent more than 95 hours in the saddle and averaged 15 miles per hour. In all, 21 of the 60 riders completed the Tour, with the last-place rider more than 64 hours behind Garin.

For Desgrange, the race was an unqualified success. Newspaper circulation soared six-fold during the race. However, a chronic problem that would perpetually plague the Tour de France was already present in the inaugural race—cheating. The rule-breaking started in the very first stage when Jean Fischer illegally used a car to pace him. Another rider was disqualified in a subsequent stage for riding in a car’s slipstream.

That paled in comparison, however, to the nefarious activity the following year in the 1904 Tour de France. As Garin and a fellow rider pedaled through St. Etienne, fans of hometown rider Antoine Faure formed a human blockade and beat the men until Lefevre arrived and fired a pistol to break up the melee. Later in the race, fans protesting the disqualification of a local rider placed tacks and broken glass on the course. The riders acted a little better. They hitched rides in cars during the dark and illegally took help from outsiders. Garin himself was accused of illegally obtaining food during a portion of one stage. The race was so plagued by scandal that four months later Desgrange disqualified Garin and the three other top finishers. It, of course, wouldn’t be the last time a Tour winner was stripped of his title.

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Alpe d'Huez – A history of the most famous 21 turns of the Tour de France

The very first mountain-top finish in the Tour has never failed to live up to its status as the most iconic in the race's history

Though neither the steepest nor the longest climb in any Tour de France , the Alpe d'Huez is, by some distance, the most famous of the many mountains that have featured in the race over the years.

From the thousands of fans that line its slopes to cheer on their heroes, to the 21 numbered switchbacks each labelled with the names of former winners, Alpe d'Huez symbolizes the passion that is the Tour de France.

This year, the Tour peloton will tackle the 13.8km, 8.1% for the 31st time in its history, stretching all the way back to 1952. The 165.1km stage 12 will be the first time the Tour has visited since the 2018 edition.

Here, Cyclingnews look back at the storied history of the Alpine climb, and how it has determined the outcome of the race through the years.

Our list of ascents is far from exhaustive, but captures some of the mountain's most momentous years as a protagonist in the race.

L'Alpe d'Huez changed the face of the Tour de France when it became the first ever mountain-top finish. At the end of a 266-kilometre stage 10 beginning in Lausanne, the unpaved ascent proved to be the launching pad where Fausto Coppi would return from two rather lacklustre years to take his final Tour victory. 

Coppi stormed up the mountain in 45 minutes and 22 seconds - a record which would hold until 1989 - took the yellow jersey from Italian Andrea Carrea and never relinquished the lead.

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Surprisingly, 23 years went by before the Tour de France would return to the mountain, and the epic battle that ensued would make the Alpe a fixture of the race.

On the Tour's second visit to Alpe d'Huez, the 258-kilometre stage 9 beginning in Divonne-les-Bains, Joop Zoetemelk and Lucien Van Impe treated the fans along the slopes to an duel all the way up the mountain. Yellow jersey Freddy Maertens was left behind as the top GC challengers including Raymond Poulidor, Francisco Galdos, Raymond Delisle, Van Impe, and Zoetemelk battled on the lower slopes of the Alpe.

Zoetemelk and Van Impe would eventually leave everyone else and battle it out in a sprint. The Dutchman took his first of two victories at the top of Alpe d'Huez, while Van Impe would take the yellow jersey and go on to win the Tour overall. 

Zoetemelk would finish the Tour in second, something he ultimately did six times, but his victory started an unusual run of Dutch wins on Alpe d'Huez. To this day no country has more victories on the Alpe, and the Dutch fans usually outnumber all others on the mountain in July.

In the 1977 Tour, Bernard Thévenet went into stage 17 to Alpe d'Huez (184.5 km from Chamonix) with three men hot on his heels in the overall classification: Dietrich Thurau at 11 seconds, Van Impe at 33 seconds, Hennie Kuiper 49 seconds back, and Zoetemelk 1:13.

Urged on by the Dutch fans, Kuiper put in a gutsy ride up the Alpe and took the day ahead of an equally courageous Thévenet, who held onto his yellow jersey by just eight seconds at the top of the mountain. The final time trial only extended his lead to 36 seconds, and until Greg LeMond's win in 1989, this year would stand as the closest Tour de France in history.

The Tour was so enamoured with Alpe d'Huez that it was decided to climb it twice. The first time up was stage 17, which ran 167 kilometres from Les Menuires. The first trip was won by Joaquim Agostinho, the great Portuguese cycling star, who put more than three minutes into the yellow jersey Bernard Hinault. Unfortunately that didn't help him much as he was still 22 minutes back.

The next stage would begin and end at Alpe d'Huez for a 119 kilometre circuit which would give Joop Zoetemelk his second win on the mountain. In a strange bit of symmetry, Van Impe again finished second on the stage, and Zoetemelk would again finish second overall. Hinault, secure in the yellow jersey, finished a much more respectable third on the Alpe, only 47 seconds back. 

Perhaps losing twice on Alpe d'Huez was not how Hinault wanted to remember his second Tour victory. On the final day in Paris, wearing the maillot jaune, he won the sprint on the Champs Elysees just for the heck of it.

Frenchman Laurent Fignon would dominate his countryman and former teammate Bernard Hinault by more than 10 minutes to win the 1984 Tour, thanks in part to a storming ride up l'Alpe d'Huez.

 Fignon took the yellow jersey from the shoulders of his teammate Vincent Barteau on the 151 kilometre stage 17 from Grenoble to l'Alpe, but it was a Columbian, Luis Herrera, who would ride into history on Alpe d'Huez as the first South American and first amateur to win a stage of the Tour de France.

Absent from the previous year's Tour, Hinault would struggle on the mountain to challenge Fignon. The revelation of the Tour, American Greg LeMond, would pass Hinault before the finish. Only Fignon would come within a minute of Herrera by the finish of the stage.

The 1986 Tour de France was a battle between two men who happened to be on the same team. Early in the Tour, first Bernard Hinault and then Greg LeMond had taken the maillot jaune. By the time they reached Alpe d'Huez for the 163 kilometre route from Briançon, LeMond was in yellow with Hinault in second, and the field had been left far behind.

The stage was marked by a vicious solo attack by Hinault allegedly made to demoralize the opposition, but which added fuel to the pair's rivalry. LeMond matched the 'Badger' pedal stroke for pedal stroke, and while the two riders reached the top hand-in-hand, beaming smiles, their truce was short-lived. 

The American went on to become the first American to win the Tour de France, and Hinault retired.

The 20th stage of the 1987 Tour, the 201 kilometre journey from Villard-de-Lans to Alpe d'Huez began with four riders in close contention for the overall. In a year where the previous edition's winner, Greg LeMond did not compete due to his hunting accident, the Tour was still wide open heading into the famous switch-backed climb.

Irishman Stephen Roche led with just 41 seconds over Charly Mottet, while Pedro Delgado and Jean-François Bernard were just over a minute back in the overall classification. But Roche faltered on the ascent, losing 1:44 to Delgado who became the new overall leader. Spaniard Federico Echave took his biggest career win on the day. Roche would gain back all the lost time and more in the final time trial and win the Tour by just 40 seconds over Delgado.

The stage to Alpe d'Huez came early in the 1988 Tour, as stage 12, the 227 kilometre route from Morzine. Just as in 1987, the general classification was separated by seconds, with Canadian Steve Bauer in yellow. Delgado was down by 1:52 at the start, and managed to dislodge all of the contenders except for Dutch rider Stephen Rooks, who stayed with him all the way up Alpe d'Huez.

Climbers Fabio Parra and Gert-Jan Theunisse eventually caught the two leaders as they neared the top, but it was Rooks who sprinted away to take the stage. Delgado came in 17 seconds behind to take the yellow jersey from Bauer, who fought hard by lost the overall lead by 25 seconds. Delgado went on to win his one and only Tour.

In what would be Greg LeMond's third and final Tour win, he spent much of the race chasing an unknown Italian named Claudio Chiappucci. The stage to Alpe d'Huez provided LeMond one of his first opportunities to get back some time. On the 182.5 kilometre route from St. Gervais, Chiappucci was dropped on the Alpe. 

LeMond, Gianni Bugno, Erik Breukink, Fabio Parra, and Thierry Claveyrolat stormed into the final corner before the short climb up to the finish. LeMond skidded hard into the turn and ended up in front, giving the perfect lead-out to Bugno who took the victory, and gained 1:26 on Chiappucci.

Still over seven minutes behind the Italian after Alpe d'Huez, LeMond would use the normally not so decisive stage to St. Etienne to gain five minutes on him. He then sealed the deal in the Pyrenees, coming out of the mountains just five seconds in arrears and then finishing Chiappucci off in the final time trial with ease.

In the first year of Miguel Indurain's reign, the stage to Alpe d'Huez came on stage 17 and was just 125 kilometres in length, leaving from Gap. Indurain had already gained three minutes on his nearest competitor by the start of the day. It would be Gianni Bugno who would battle with Indurain to the top of Alpe d'Huez.

For much of the climb, Jean Francois Bernard paced his Banesto team leader and the pack up the mountain. Eventually Bugno, Indurain, and Luc LeBlanc would leave the rest behind. In what would be a preview of the World Championships later that year, Bugno out-sprinted Indurain to the line to take his second victory on top of Alpe d'Huez.

The only American to ever win the Giro d'Italia, Andy Hampsten was never able to achieve the same level of success in the Tour de France. But in his last Tour, he put it all together and had one of his greatest rides on Alpe d'Huez. Reaching the bottom of the mountain with a five-man lead group, Hampsten shed them one-by-one and soloed to victory. He would go on to finish his final Tour de France in fourth place overall, the same position he had finished his first six years before.

Indurain was already in the yellow jersey when the Tour hit its 14th stage, this year a proper length from Sestriere of 186.5 kilometres passing over the Col du Galibier and La Croix de Fer. Big Mig wasn't too concerned with Hampsten who was over 11 minutes down on GC.

Marco Pantani was a revelation when he arrived at the Tour de France in 1994, but in spite of his incredible climbing abilities he didn't win a stage. So when he hit the bottom of Alpe d'Huez the next year, he raced up the mountain faster than anyone before or since. 

Dancing out of the saddle in his typical style, he passed rider after rider until he had ridden everyone off his wheel. Pantani was so focused on the win that he nearly missed the final corner, and yet he still beat Miguel Indurain and Alex Zulle by almost a minute and a half.

Despite Pantani's antics, the Alpe was not terribly decisive as the Tour's 10th stage , since Indurain could not gain time on Alex Zülle and Bjarne Riis on the 162.5 kilometre stage from Aime La Plagne.

Giuseppe Guerini's win atop Alpe d'Huez will most likely be remembered for one thing: the unfortunate fan that knocked him off his bike. Nearing the top of the climb with riders like Lance Armstrong and Pavel Tonkov in hot pursuit, Guerini crashed into a fan that had stepped out of the crowd to snap a photo. Quickly back on his bike, Guerini was still able to celebrate his greatest victory with about 20 seconds to spare.

Armstrong already had the yellow jersey in a stranglehold despite the fact that day to Alpe d'Huez was only the 10th stage . He'd stormed to Sestrieres the previous day and already had six minutes on Abraham Olano at the start of the 220.5 kilometre stage. In 2012, Armstrong would be stripped of his Tour de France victories by the US Anti-Doping Agency.

This was the year a large breakaway was given a somewhat ridiculous 36 minutes, and Stuart O'Grady was in yellow heading into Alpe d'Huez, the 209 kilometre 10th stage from Aix les Bains. After playing possum for much of the stage to Alpe d'Huez, Armstrong reached the final climb in a group containing his arch rival, Jan Ullrich.

Leading the way up the mountain, Lance turned to look behind him, and seemed to gaze directly into the eyes of Ullrich. After cycling's most infamous stare, Armstrong turned around and raced away to win on top of the Alpe by nearly two minutes over the German. 

Armstrong later claimed that he wasn't looking specifically at Ullrich, but actually to see where his teammates and the rest of his competitors were. While that GC battle was won, Armstrong didn't take the yellow jersey until three stages later after an epic day in the Pyrenees ending on the Pla d'Adet.

Alpe d'Huez normally draws some of the largest crowds of any stage in the Tour de France, but perhaps no day saw more people on the mountain than on the stage 16 individual time trial . The estimated 900,000 fans were able to cheer on each of the 157 survivors as they raced up the mountain one-by-one.

Perhaps no one has suffered more on the climb than Jens Voigt. One day earlier, Voigt, a team-mate of second placed Ivan Basso, single-handedly dragged a group containing Lance Armstrong and Basso back to Jan Ullrich, who had broken away. German fans, apparently unaware that Voigt's paycheck came from his CSC team, were incensed that a fellow countryman had chased down Ullrich. They let him have all the way up Alpe d'Huez as he raced his time trial, an unprotected target for their jeers of 'Judas' and 'traitor'.

Ultimately all of those voices cheered Lance Armstrong as he made another quite literally "incredible" ride up the mountain, already in yellow after his 'no gifts' sprint in the previous stage. At the end of the day, Armstrong had put a minute into Ullrich, and nearly two and a half into Basso, putting to rest any doubt about whether he would win a record sixth Tour de France - only to later break another record of losing all six in a single day.

In 2012, Armstrong would be stripped of all of the above Tour de France victories by the US Anti-Doping Agency and no winner was named in his place as Ullrich had also been banned as part of the Operación Puerto doping scandal.

The 2006 ascent Alpe d'Huez was a day for Fränk Schleck. That day, Oscar Pereiro was in yellow as the Tour traversed the 187 kilometre stage from Gap, having taken the yellow from Floyd Landis after making a break which held a 30 minute gap on stage 13.

On stage 15, Schleck made the early breakaway, and survived the push of the GC contenders along with Damiano Cunego and then out-sprinted his Italian companion to take the win. Landis took over the yellow jersey, but the courageous Pereiro limited his losses and stayed within 10 seconds of the American, and the rest is history.

Certainly the 2008 and 2011 ascents of L'Alpe d'Huez were not without excitement, but the 2013 ascent was truly historical. For the first time in the race's history, there would be two ascents on a single day.

L'Alpe d'Huez has been climbed twice in the same Tour de France previously but that was on two consecutive days in 1979 with Joaquim Agostinho winning the 17th stage followed the next day by Joop Zoetemelk. In 2010, for the centennial of the Pyrénées's inclusion in the Tour, the Tourmalet was also on the menu two days in a row. But for the first time in the history of the world's biggest race, spectators were able to enjoy watching the show on a gruelling climb twice on the same day. 

As anyone who had seen the bustling growth of Dutch corner over the years may have predicted, it made for a true party on the Alpe. 

That day, on stage 18 of the race, Christophe Riblon won the stage from the breakaway, while Nairo Quintana got the better of Chris Froome, though it didn't manage to put a dent in the Brit's GC lead. Not that many of the spectators would remember.

The two would do battle again in 2015, where Quintana once again broke loose of Froome, and on that day (stage 20) edged to only 1:12 off the yellow jersey - a margin he carried into Paris.

When Geraint Thomas won the Tour de France in 2018, no doubt the most iconic moment of his victory came atop the Alpe. 

The Welshman reached the finish of the legendary 13.8km climb with a select group of four others, and opened his sprint with 300 metres to go after the decisive left turn, crossing the line ahead of Tom Dumoulin and Romain Bardet, while Chris Froome trailed in fourth.

Thomas increased his lead on Froome, though the Welshman insisted his teammate was still the Ineos team leader. Winning so emphatically atop such a historic climb, onlookers wondered if that could really be true. As history would have it, Thomas led all the way to Paris.

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Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor and later being hired full-time. Prior to joining the team, they had written for numerous major publications in the cycling world, including CyclingWeekly and Rouleur.

Dani has reported from the world's top races, including the Tour de France, World Championships, and the spring Classics. They have interviewed many of the sport's biggest stars, including Mathieu van der Poel, Remco Evenepoel, Demi Vollering, and Anna van der Breggen.

As well as original reporting, news and feature writing, and production work, Dani also oversees How to Watch guides and works on The Leadout newsletter throughout the season. Their favourite races are Strade Bianche and Paris-Roubaix and their favourite published article is from the 2024 edition of the latter: 'Unless I'm in an ambulance, I'm finishing this race' – Cyrus Monk, the last man home at Paris-Roubaix

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Mark Cavendish boasts the speed and support crew to break Tour de France record

I t has been three years since Mark Cavendish equalled Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 Tour de France stage wins at the 2021 Tour. The 39-year-old sprinter is now fully focused on ensuring that the 35th victory comes within the next three weeks.

Not selected by his former Soudal Quick-Step team in 2022 despite his impressive haul of four wins the previous summer, Cavendish came within a dropped chain of passing the historic milestone in stage seven to Bordeaux last year in the colours of Astana-Qazaqstan .

A day later, a crash on an innocuous stretch of road after a touch of wheels in the peloton crushed Cavendish’s dreams in an instant . His broken collarbone was the first of a long, illustrious career that has also seen the Manx Missile secure the Tour’s famous green jersey twice and become world champion in 2011.

With Cavendish only under contract for one year at the time, it looked as if the so-called “Project 35” had been nipped in the bud. But having come so close to glory in Bordeaux, the most successful sprinter in the sport’s history was not prepared to throw in the towel just yet. So when Astana manager Alexandre Vinokourov offered a lifeline in the form of a one-year extension, it was enough to make Cavendish reconsider.

“Of course, if you wrote it, you wouldn’t want it to end like that,” Cavendish said about his character arc in the second series of the Tour de France documentary, Unchained , recently released on Netflix .

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In his own inimitable style, Cavendish added: “Ultimately, I don’t want to share the record.

“So I spent a long time thinking, ‘F**k, can I do another year?’ And, er, yeah, let’s just do it. F**k it.”

Which brings us to the grand depart of the 111th edition of the Tour, which takes place over the border in the Tuscan city of Florence. Two lumpy days in northern Italy will be a question of damage limitation for Cavendish, whose first chance of a win will come in stage three on Monday 1 July, when the race’s first bunch sprint is expected to play out in Turin.

Cavendish may be 13 years older than his main rival, the Belgian Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Deceuninck, but on his day he still has the speed – together with the experience and savoir faire – to compete with the best. What he also has is one of the best lead-out trains in the business at Astana-Qazaqstan.

The veteran Dane Michael Morkov and the powerhouse Italian Davide Ballerini – both integral cogs in the Quick-Step machine behind Cavendish’s success in 2021 – have been drafted in to work alongside the towering Dutchman Cees Bol. On top of this, Cavendish’s old lead-out man from his heyday at the HTC Columbia team – the Australian Mark Renshaw – is now one of Astana’s sports directors.

All in all, it’s a collection of components that makes Cavendish’s entourage excited about the next few weeks. Long-time coach Vasilis Anastopoulos, reunited with his charge after himself joining Astana from Quick-Step this season, told Rouleur magazine that he was “really optimistic” ahead of Cavendish’s fifteenth and final Tour.

“I remember giving an interview before the 2021 Tour, and I said then that if Mark could win one stage, he would win four or five stages, because once he’s got momentum he cannot be stopped. And what did he do? He won four stages,” Anastopoulos said.

I've seen the solution to England's problems. Now let's pray Southgate has too

If the right support network is there behind Cavendish as he nears the end of his fourth decade, his current form is unknown. Before turning 39, Cavendish got his season off to a solid start with a win in the Tour of Colombia. A 164th career win then came in May at the Tour de Hongrie – ahead of Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen, who will be another of his main opponents in July.

Cavendish recently rode the mountainous Tour de Suisse for conditioning ahead of a final block of sprint training behind closed doors. But as Anastopoulos inferred in his interview with Rouleur, Cavendish is a rider who can use his cunning as much as his pure speed – and a rider for whom confidence breeds success.

“I think we have the best lead-out train in the Tour,” Anastopoulos stressed. “Ballerini, Mørkøv and Cees Bol are all in good shape and not many teams can challenge us. And, of course, Mark’s experience is second to none, especially in the Tour de France.”

With up to eight stages suited to the sprinters, including four wholly flat finishes on the parcours, Cavendish will start his final Tour knowing that by the time he drops to his knees and King Charles III taps his shoulders with his ceremonial sword , he will finally have the mighty Merckx off his back.