The Tour de France is an annual road bicycle race held over 23 days in July. Established in 1903 by newspaper L'Auto, the Tour is the best-known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the others being the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España. The race usually covers approximately 3,500 kilometres (2,200 mi), passing through France and neighbouring countries. The race is broken into day-long stages, and individual finishing times for each stage are totalled to determine the overall winner at the end of the race. The course changes every year, but has finished in Paris every year except 2024, when it finished in Nice. Since 1975, it has finished along the Champs-Élysées.

The rider with the lowest aggregate time at the end of each day wears the yellow jersey, representing the leader of the general classification. There are other jerseys: the green jersey, worn by the leader of the points classification; the polka dot jersey, worn by the leader of the mountains classification; and the white jersey, worn by the leader of the young rider classification.

Sixty-four individual cyclists from 15 countries have won a combined total of 106 Tours, the most recent winner being Slovenian Tadej Pogačar. Pogačar, Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Induráin hold the record for the most victories at five each, with Induráin being the only one to win five consecutive Tours. Winners have ranged in age from 19 (Henri Cornet, 1904) to 36 years (Firmin Lambot, 1922). The most common nationality among winners is French (36 Tours won by 21 cyclists), followed by Belgian (18 Tours won by 10 cyclists) and Spanish (12 Tours won by 7 cyclists).

History The Tour de France was established in 1903 by the newspaper L'Auto, in an attempt to increase its sales. The first race was won by Frenchman Maurice Garin. He won again the next year, but was disqualified after allegations that he had been transported by car or rail. Henri Cornet became the winner after the dispute was settled, and is the youngest to win the Tour. Following the scandals in 1904, the scoring system was changed from being time-based to a point-based system, in which the cyclist who has the fewest points at the end of the race is victorious. This system lasted until 1912, when the time-based system was reintroduced. French cyclists won the first six Tours, before François Faber of Luxembourg won in 1909, the first non-Frenchman to win.

Belgian riders were more successful before and after the First World War, which caused the Tour to be suspended from 1915 to 1918. In the 1920s, trade teams dominated the Tour, and cyclists such as Nicolas Frantz won the Tour with the Alcyon team. When Alcyon cyclist Maurice De Waele won the Tour in 1929 while ill, the organisers decided to introduce national teams the following year, to stop team tactics from undermining the race. Because of the Second World War, the Tour de France was suspended from 1940 to 1946.

After the Second World War, no one dominated the Tour until Louison Bobet, who won three consecutive Tours from 1953 to 1955—he was the first person to achieve this feat. This was bettered by the French cyclist Jacques Anquetil, who won four successive Tours from 1961 to 1964. Anquetil, who also won in 1957, became the first to win five Tours. Anquetil's five victories were matched when Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx won four successive Tours from 1969 to 1972 and the 1974 Tour. Merckx is the only person to have won the general, points and king of the mountains classifications in the same Tour, which he achieved in 1969.

Merckx looked to be heading for a record sixth Tour victory in 1975, but Bernard Thévenet beat him, becoming the first French winner in seven years. Thévenet won again in 1977, but he was eclipsed in the following years by fellow Frenchman Bernard Hinault, who won consecutive Tours in 1978 and 1979. Hinault won the Tour at his first attempt in 1978, becoming one of 11 cyclists (including Anquetil, Merckx, Hugo Koblet and Fausto Coppi) who managed to do so. In 1980, the Tour was won by Joop Zoetemelk, after Hinault had to pull out because of tendinitis. Hinault returned and won in 1981 and 1982. Hinault sat out the Tour in 1983, and Laurent Fignon, another Frenchman, achieved victory. Fignon won again the following year, beating Hinault, before Hinault recovered in 1985 to win his fifth Tour.

American Greg LeMond became the first non-European to win the Tour in 1986. LeMond won again in 1989 to win the Tour by finishing eight seconds ahead of Fignon, the smallest winning margin in the Tour's history. LeMond also won in 1990. In 1991, Spaniard Miguel Induráin won his first Tour. Induráin came to dominate the Tour, winning four more Tours consecutively—making him the first person to win five consecutive Tours. He tried to win a record sixth Tour in 1996, but was beaten by Bjarne Riis, who later admitted to using Erythropoietin. Jan Ullrich and Marco Pantani won in 1997 and 1998, respectively, but Pantani's victory was overshadowed by doping scandals.

The 1999 Tour saw the first of Lance Armstrong's seven consecutive victories. He was stripped of his titles in October 2012, when it emerged he had used performance-enhancing drugs throughout much of his career, including the Tour de France victories. Floyd Landis won the Tour in 2006, but was later stripped of his title after a failed drug test. Óscar Pereiro was subsequently awarded the victory. Alberto Contador won the 2007 Tour with the . The 2007 Tour was also marred by doping scandals, thus Contador was unable to defend his title in 2008, as his Astana team was banned for its part in the controversy. Fellow Spaniard Carlos Sastre of won. Contador and Astana returned in 2009 to regain the title. He won the Tour again in 2010, but was later stripped of his title after he was found guilty of doping. Runner-up Andy Schleck was awarded the victory.

Cadel Evans became the first Australian to win the Tour in 2011. In 2012, Bradley Wiggins became the first British cyclist to win the Tour. Chris Froome became the second successive British winner in 2013, which was the 100th edition of the race. He could not defend his title the following year, as he crashed out in stage 5, with Vincenzo Nibali winning his first Tour. Froome regained the title in 2015 and successfully defended it in 2016, the first rider in over 20 years to do so. Froome won the Tour for a third consecutive year in 2017. Froome's teammate, Geraint Thomas, was the winner of the 2018 race. Egan Bernal won in 2019, becoming the first Colombian cyclist to win the Tour, finishing ahead of his teammate Thomas.

The 2020 Tour was postponed, to start on 29 August, following the French government's extension of a ban on mass gatherings after the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak. This was the first time since the end of World War II that the Tour was not held in July. It was won by Tadej Pogačar, who became the first Slovenian rider to win the race as well as one of the youngest winners in Tour history. He repeated as champion in the 2021 edition. The following year, Jonas Vingegaard became the first Danish rider since 1996 to win the race. Vingegaard won again in 2023, by 7 minutes and 29 seconds from Pogačar. Pogačar won again in 2024 and became the first person to win the Giro and Tour in the same year since Pantani in 1998. Pogačar retained his title in 2025, beating Vingegaard by 4 minutes and 24 seconds. Pogačar again retained his title in 2026, beating Remco Evenepoel by 6 minutes and 26 seconds.

Winners

Also won points classification in the same year*Also won mountains classification in the same year#Also won young rider classification in the same yearAlso won points and mountains classification in the same year§Also won the mountains and young rider classification in the same year

The "Year" column refers to the year the competition was held, and wikilinks to the article about that season. The "Distance" column refers to the distance over which the race was held. The "Margin" column refers to the margin of time or points by which the winner defeated the runner-up. The "Stage wins" column refers to the number of stage wins the winner had during the race.

+Tour de France general classification winnersYearCountryCyclistSponsor/TeamDistanceTime/PointsMarginStage wins190331904Conte1190551906519072190851909619104191121912319131191411915~Not contested due to World War I1916191719181919La Sportive11920La Sportive41921La Sportive219220192331924419254192621927319285192911930France21931France11932France61933France31934France31935Belgium31936Belgium41937France31938*Italy21939*Belgium21940~Not contested due to World War II1941194219431944194519461947France31948*Italy71949*Italy31950Switzerland31951Switzerland51952*Italy51953France21954France31955France21956France01957France41958Luxembourg41959*Spain11960Italy01961France219622196341964419653196601967119682196961970*81971419726197361974819752197611977119783197971980219815198241983#1198451985La Vie Claire219861198711988119893199001991219923199321994119952199621997#2199821999No winner2000No winner2001No winner2002No winner2003No winner2004No winner2005No winner200602007#12008*1200922010#2201112012220133201442015*12016220170201822019#02020§32021§32022*220231202462025*420265

Multiple winners

The following riders have won the Tour de France on more than one occasion.

Alberto Contador won three Tours, but was stripped of one following an anti-doping violation.

Lance Armstrong was removed from the head of the list after having all seven of his Tour victories stripped when he was found guilty of repeated doping offences.

+Multiple winners of the Tour de France general classificationCyclistTotalYears 5 1957, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1985 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 2020, 2021, 2024, 2025, 2026 4 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 3 1913, 1914, 1920 1953, 1954, 1955 1986, 1989, 1990 2 1907, 1908 1919, 1922 1924, 1925 1927, 1928 1930, 1932 1931, 1934 1936, 1939 1938, 1948 1949, 1952 1975, 1977 1983, 1984 2007, 2009 2022, 2023

By nationality +Tour de France general classification winners by nationality Country Wins Winning cyclists362118101271076354513231222211111111

See also List of Tour de France secondary classification winners Yellow jersey statistics List of Grand Tour general classification winners

Footnotes

References