47 Fun Facts About Tour De France

Which newspaper created the Tour de France in 1903 to boost its sales?

L'Auto: the race sent its sales soaring, and rival Le Vélo, the country's biggest sports daily, went out of business.

Which yellow-jersey wearer ran up a mountain on foot in 2016 after crashing into a motorbike?

Froome: the race jury then awarded him the same time as a rider caught up in the same crash, so he kept yellow.

The green jersey is awarded to the leader of which competition?

Points classification: it was launched in 1953 to mark the Tour's 50th anniversary, and it rewards high stage finishes, which is why sprinters chase it.

Which jersey is worn by the leader of the mountains classification?

Polka dot: the jersey arrived in 1975, and its first wearer, Joop Zoetemelk, never went on to win the mountains title at the Tour.

What colour jersey goes to the best-placed rider aged under 26?

White: in 2020 Tadej Pogačar won it, and on the penultimate day he overturned his deficit in a time trial to take the yellow jersey too.

Who was the first rider to win the Tour de France five times?

Jacques Anquetil: before the 1961 Tour he vowed to take the yellow jersey on day one and keep it all the way to Paris, and he did.

Which rider won five Tours de France in a row, from 1991 to 1995?

Miguel Induráin: he hammered his rivals in the time trials and simply contained them in the mountains.

Which Frenchman won his fifth Tour de France title in 1985?

Bernard Hinault: a crash on stage 14 broke his nose, yet he held on to win in Paris.

What nickname did Eddy Merckx earn for refusing to let anyone else win?

The Cannibal: chasing a sixth Tour win in 1975, he broke his cheekbone in a crash, yet rode on to finish second.

Which American was stripped of seven straight Tour titles in 2012?

Lance Armstrong: the ruling that erased all his results since August 1998 also banned him from the sport for life.

Tadej Pogačar's 2020 win at 21 made him the second-youngest champion, behind which 1904 winner?

Henri Cornet: he finished fifth on the road, but the first four were disqualified for cheating and he was handed the title months later.

Before Pogačar in 2024, who was the last rider to win the Giro and the Tour in one year, in 1998?

Marco Pantani: a year later he was thrown out of the Giro while leading it, after a blood test showed his haematocrit above the limit.

Which Tour de France champion worked early-morning shifts handling fish before turning pro?

Jonas Vingegaard: the shifts ran until around midday, so his bike training had to wait for the afternoons.

Which rider lost the 1989 Tour by just 8 seconds?

Laurent Fignon: his rival won the closing time trial into Paris on triathlon-style aero bars, snatching the title on the final day.

Who in 1986 became the first non-European to win the men's Tour de France?

Greg LeMond: the next year he was accidentally shot while hunting and missed two Tours, then came back to win twice more.

Which sprinter broke Eddy Merckx's long-standing record with a 35th Tour stage win in 2024?

Mark Cavendish: 2023 was meant to be his final season, but he put off retiring for one more year to chase the outright record.

Which rider won a record seven green jerseys between 2012 and 2019?

Peter Sagan: the one year he missed in that run, 2017, officials disqualified him for causing a crash in a sprint finish.

Which French climber won the King of the Mountains title a record seven times, the last in 2004?

Richard Virenque: in that 2004 race he also won the Bastille Day stage with a solo attack, finishing more than five minutes clear.

Which Paris avenue has hosted the Tour's finale almost every year since 1975?

Champs-Élysées: the first finish there, in 1975, also ended Eddy Merckx's winning run, as a Frenchman rode into Paris in yellow.

Because Paris was preparing to host the Olympics, which city staged the 2024 finish?

Nice: Tadej Pogačar sealed his third Tour there by winning the closing time trial from Monaco, his sixth stage win of that race.

Until 1967, which Paris venue hosted the Tour de France finish?

Parc des Princes: the very first finish in 1903 was timed outside Paris, and the riders then rode laps of honour on its track.

Which city hosted the first Grand Départ outside France, in 1954?

Amsterdam: that year's race had no Italian team at all, because Italy's cycling federation refused to send one.

On which mountain did British rider Tom Simpson collapse and die during the 1967 Tour?

Mont Ventoux: amphetamines and alcohol, combined with the heat and the hard climb, are thought to have caused his collapse.

The Tour's 21-hairpin climb to Alpe d'Huez ends at what kind of place?

A ski resort: its hotel owners brought the Tour up there in 1952, and their leader lured the race back in 1976.

Who won the first ever stage finish at Alpe d'Huez, in 1952?

Fausto Coppi: he dominated that Tour so completely that organisers doubled the prize money for second place to keep the race alive.

Because their riders won there so often, which nation's fans pack Alpe d'Huez when the Tour visits?

The Dutch: every year, people also ride up it in Alpe d'HuZes, a Dutch event that raises money for cancer research.

Which pass has featured in more Tours de France than any other, as of 2025?

Col du Tourmalet: in 1913 the virtual race leader broke his fork on it and had to carry his bike down to a village forge to mend it himself.

The Tour's first high-mountain stages, in 1910, took the race through which range?

The Pyrenees: even that year's winner, Octave Lapize, had to get off and walk up the climbs.

Which Alpine pass has a memorial to the Tour's founder beside its summit tunnel?

Col du Galibier: when the Tour first crossed it, stage winner Émile Georget was one of the few riders who never got off to walk.

Who was the founding director of the Tour de France, running it for more than three decades?

Henri Desgrange: he kept multiple gears out of the race for years, and in 1930 made every rider use a plain yellow bike he supplied.

Which 26-year-old cycling journalist came up with the idea of a race around France?

Géo Lefèvre: his editor stayed behind in Paris, so Lefèvre followed the first race himself as its director on the road.

When the Tour returned after World War II, which newspaper won the right to run it?

L'Équipe: the old organising paper had been shut for publishing under the occupation, and the new paper won the rights by staging a better trial race.

Which early Tour de France champion had worked as a chimney sweep?

Maurice Garin: he went on to win the very first Tour in 1903, but was stripped of his 1904 title for cheating.

Where did the opening stage of the very first Tour de France finish?

Lyon: that stage set off from Paris in the afternoon, so the leaders rode on through the night to get there.

What is the last-placed rider in the general classification called?

Lanterne rouge: in 1980 the organisers even removed the last-placed rider from the race after each of stages 14 to 20.

Who won the first edition of the Tour de France Femmes in 2022?

Annemiek van Vleuten: on the penultimate stage she dropped her last rival and rode on alone to win it, taking the yellow jersey.

Which French rider won the 2025 Tour de France Femmes, taking the lead on the Col de la Madeleine?

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot: back on the road after years of mountain biking, she had set out to win it within three years, and did it in one.

What is the procession of decorated sponsor vehicles that drives the route ahead of the riders called?

The publicity caravan: it began in 1930, when teams went national and the organisers let advertisers ride ahead to pay the riders' costs.

Which Frenchman was called 'The Eternal Second' after eight podium finishes without ever wearing yellow?

Raymond Poulidor: in 2021 his grandson, Mathieu van der Poel, won a stage and pulled on the yellow jersey.

Which Italian holds the record for the longest gap between Tour victories, winning in 1938 and 1948?

Gino Bartali: in 2013 Yad Vashem named him Righteous Among the Nations for helping Jews during the war in between.

Which German electronic band released the single 'Tour de France' in 1983?

Kraftwerk: the song marked the race's 80th anniversary, and in 2003 the band built a whole album, Tour de France Soundtracks, around it.

Which 1992 Olympic road race champion died crashing on the Col de Portet d'Aspet in 1995?

Fabio Casartelli: the next day the peloton rode in his honour and let his Motorola teammates cross the line first.

The 1998 doping scandal that nearly derailed the Tour is named after which team?

Festina: it began when soigneur Willy Voet was stopped at the Belgian border with a car full of doping products, and the team was thrown out.

The famous 1964 shoulder-to-shoulder duel between two French rivals took place on which extinct volcano?

Puy de Dôme: in 1975 a spectator on the same climb punched Eddy Merckx, then the race leader.

Who was the first rider ever to wear the yellow jersey?

Eugène Christophe: the official history credits him with it in 1919, though Philippe Thys later claimed he had been offered one in 1913.

In 1968, the only year the green jersey changed colour, what colour did it become?

Red: it was switched to match a new sponsor for that one race, and green has been used every other year.

Which chocolate brand sponsored the Tour's best-climber prize when its distinctive jersey arrived in 1975?

Chocolat Poulain: it wanted the climbers' leader to be easier to pick out in the peloton, so a new jersey was designed.