Timeline

Henri Desgrange was a French bicycle racer and sports journalist. He set twelve world track cycling records, including the hour record of 35.325 kilometres (21.950 mi) on 11 May 1893. He was the first organiser of the Tour de France.

Col du Glandon is a high mountain pass in the Dauphiné Alps in Savoie, France, linking Le Bourg-d'Oisans to La Chambre. It is situated between the Belledonne, Grandes Rousses and Arvan-Villards mountain ranges, west of the Col de la Croix de Fer. The road over the Col du Glandon was opened in 1898, although it was not linked to the Col de la Croix de Fer until 1912.

Since the first Tour de France in 1903, there have been 2,289 stages, up to and including the final stage of the 2025 Tour de France. Since 1919, the race leader following each stage has been awarded the yellow jersey.

Maurice-François Garin was an Italian-French road bicycle racer best known for winning the inaugural Tour de France in 1903, and for being stripped of his title in the second Tour in 1904 along with eight others, for cheating. He was of Italian origin but adopted French nationality on 21 December 1901.

There have been allegations of doping in the Tour de France since the race began in 1903. Early Tour riders consumed alcohol and used ether, among other substances, as a means of dulling the pain of competing in endurance cycling. Riders began using substances as a means of increasing performance rather than dulling the senses, and organizing bodies such as the Tour and the International Cycling Union (UCI), as well as government bodies, enacted policies to combat the practice.

François Faber was a Luxembourgish racing cyclist. He was born in France. He was the first foreigner to win the Tour de France in 1909, and his record of winning 5 consecutive stages still stands. He died in World War I while fighting for France. Faber was known for his long solos; he is the only rider in Tour de France history to lead solo more than 1000 km.

The Giro d'Italia, also known simply as the Giro, is an annual multiple-stage road cycling race primarily held in Italy. The first race was organized in 1909 to increase sales of the newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport, and the race is still run by a subsidiary of that paper's owner. The race has been held annually since its first edition in 1909, except during the two world wars. As the Giro gained prominence and popularity, the race was lengthened, and the peloton expanded from primarily Italian participation to riders from all over the world. The Giro is a UCI World Tour event, which means that the teams that compete in the race are mostly UCI WorldTeams, with some additional teams invited as 'wild cards'.

In road bicycle racing, a domestique is a rider who works for the benefit of their team and leader, rather than trying to win the race. In French, domestique translates as "servant". The use of the term dates back to 1911, although such riders had existed before then.

Odile Defraye was a Belgian road racing cyclist who won three stages and the overall title of the 1912 Tour de France, which was the last tour decided by a points system instead of overall best time. He was the first Belgian to win the Tour and was only invited to join Alcyon's all-French team at a late stage for publicity purposes.

The general classification of the Tour de France is the most important classification of the race and determines the winner of the race. Since 1919, the leader of the general classification has worn the yellow jersey.

Léon Scieur was a Belgian cyclist who won the 1921 Tour de France, along with stages 3 and 10. His first great victory was the 1920 Liège–Bastogne–Liège; he won a stage and finished fourth in the 1919 and 1920 Tours de France.

Henri Pélissier was a French racing cyclist from Paris and champion of the 1923 Tour de France. In addition to his 29 career victories, he was known for his long-standing feud with Tour founder Henri Desgrange and for protesting against the conditions endured by riders in the early years of the Tour. He was killed by his lover with the gun that his wife had used to commit suicide.

Nikolas Frantz was a Luxembourgish bicycle racer with 60 professional racing victories over his 12-year career. He rode for the Thomann team in 1923 and then for Alcyon-Dunlop from 1924 to 1931. He won the Tour de France in 1927 and 1928.

The team classification is a prize given in the Tour de France to the best team in the race. It has been awarded since 1930, and the calculation has changed throughout the years. There is no coloured jersey for this, but the numbers on the jerseys of the members of the team with the best performance in the general classification at the end of the previous stage are against a yellow background instead of white.

André Leducq was a French cyclist who won the 1930 and 1932 Tours de France. He also won a gold medal at the 1924 Summer Olympics in the team road race event and the 1928 Paris–Roubaix.

Antonin Magne was a French cyclist who won the Tour de France in 1931 and 1934. He raced as a professional from 1927 to 1939 and then became a team manager. The French rider and then journalist, Jean Bobet, described him in Sporting Cyclist as "a most uninterviewable character" and "a man who withdraws into a shell as soon as he meets a journalist." His taciturn character earned him the nickname of The Monk when he was racing.

The mountains classification is a secondary competition in the Tour de France, that started in 1933. It is given to the rider that gains the most points for reaching mountain summits first. The leader of the classification is named the King of the Mountains, and since 1975 wears the polka dot jersey, a white jersey with red polka dots.

Romanus Maes was a Belgian cyclist who won the 1935 Tour de France after wearing the yellow jersey of leadership from beginning to end. Maes was the 13th child in his family. He started racing when he was 17. He turned professional in 1933 and won the Tour de l'Ouest. The following year he started the Tour de France and twice finished stages in second place. He then crashed on the day from Digne to Nice and left the race in an ambulance.

Georges Speicher was a French cyclist who won the 1933 Tour de France along with three stage wins, and the 1933 World Cycling Championship.

The Vuelta a España is an annual multi-stage road cycling race primarily held in Spain. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, the race was first organised in 1935. The race was prevented from being run by the Spanish Civil War and World War II in the early years of its existence; however, the race has been held annually since 1955. As the Vuelta gained prestige and popularity the race was lengthened and its reach began to extend all around the globe. Since 1979, the event has been staged and managed by Unipublic, until in 2014, when the Amaury Sport Organisation acquired control. Since then, they have been working together. The peloton expanded from a primarily Spanish participation to include riders from all over the world. The Vuelta is a UCI World Tour event, which means that the teams that compete in the race are mostly UCI WorldTeams, with the exception of the wild card teams that the organizers can invite.

Jacques Goddet was a French sports journalist and director of the Tour de France road cycling race from 1936 to 1986.

Gino Bartali,, nicknamed Gino the Pious and Ginettaccio, was a champion road cyclist. He was the most renowned Italian cyclist before the Second World War, having won the Giro d'Italia twice, in 1936 and 1937, and the Tour de France in 1938. After the war, he added one more victory in each event: the Giro d'Italia in 1946 and the Tour de France in 1948. His second and last Tour de France victory in 1948 gave him the largest gap between victories in the race.

Sylvère Maes was a Belgian cyclist, who is most famous for winning the Tour de France in 1936 and 1939. In 1937, Maes left the 1937 Tour de France together with his Belgian team while he was leading the general classification, in response to actions from French spectators and decisions from the jury.

Roger Lapébie was a French racing cyclist who won the 1937 Tour de France. In addition, Lapébie won the 1934 and 1937 editions of the Critérium National. He was born at Bayonne, Aquitaine, and died in Pessac.

Ferdinand Kübler was a Swiss cyclist with 71 professional victories, including the 1950 Tour de France and the 1951 World Road Race Championship.

The points classification is a secondary competition in the Tour de France, which started in 1953. Points are given for high finishes in a stage and for winning intermediate sprints, and these are recorded in a points classification. It is considered a sprinters' competition. The leader is indicated by a green jersey, which has become a metonym for the points classification competition.

Angelo Fausto Coppi was an Italian cyclist, the dominant international cyclist of the years after the Second World War. His successes earned him the title Il Campionissimo. He was an all-round racing cyclist: he excelled in both climbing and time trialing, and was also a good sprinter. He won the Giro d'Italia five times, the Tour de France twice, and the World Championship in 1953. Other notable results include winning the Giro di Lombardia five times, the Milan–San Remo three times, as well as wins at Paris–Roubaix and La Flèche Wallonne and setting the hour record (45.798 km) in 1942.

Louis "Louison" Bobet was a French professional road racing cyclist. He was the first great French rider of the post-war period and the first rider to win the Tour de France in three successive years, from 1953 to 1955.

Charly Gaul was a Luxembourgish professional cyclist. He was a national cyclo-cross champion, an accomplished time triallist and superb climber. His ability earned him the nickname of Angel of the Mountains in the 1958 Tour de France, which he won with four stage victories. He also won the Giro d'Italia in 1956 and 1959. Gaul rode best in cold, wet weather. In later life, he became a recluse and lost much of his memory.

Roger Walkowiak was a French road bicycle racer who won the 1956 Tour de France. He was a professional rider from 1950 until 1960. He died on 6 February 2017 at the age of 89.

Jacques Anquetil was a French road racing cyclist and the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times, in 1957 and from 1961 to 1964.

Lucien Van Impe is a former Belgian cyclist, who competed professionally between 1969 and 1987. He excelled mainly as a climber in multiple-day races such as the Tour de France. He was the winner of the 1976 Tour de France, and six times winner of the mountains classification in the Tour de France.

The young rider classification is a secondary competition in the Tour de France, that started in 1975. Excluding the years 1989 to 1999, the leader of the young rider classification wears a white jersey. It goes to whichever eligible rider has the best time in the general classification.

Luz Ardiden is a ski resort in the Pyrenees. It is situated in the Hautes-Pyrénées department, in the Occitanie Region. The ski resort lies at a height of 1,720 m (5,640 ft) and was opened on 16 January 1975. In recent years the road to Luz Ardiden has served as an occasional stage finish for the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España.

Jeannie Longo is a French racing cyclist, 6-time French champion and 13-time world champion. Longo began racing in 1975 and was active in cycling through 2012. She was once widely considered the best female cyclist of all time, although that reputation is now clouded by suspicion of doping throughout her career. She is famous for her competitive nature and her longevity in the sport – when she was selected to compete for France in the 2008 Olympics, it was her seventh Olympic Games; some of Longo's competitors that year had not yet been born when she took part in her first Olympics in 1984. She had stated that 2008 would be her final participation in the Olympics. In the Women's road race, she finished 24th, 33 seconds behind the winner Nicole Cooke, who was one year old when Longo first rode in the Olympics. At the same Olympics, she finished 4th in the road time trial, just two seconds shy of securing a bronze medal. She is currently number two on the all-time list of French female summer or winter Olympic medal winners, with a total of four medals including one in gold, which is one less than the total number won by the fencer Laura Flessel-Colovic.

Freddy Maertens is a Belgian former professional racing cyclist who was twice world road race champion. Maertens' career swung between winning more than 50 races in a season to winning almost none and then back again. His life has been marked by debt and alcoholism. It took him more than two decades to pay a tax debt. At one point early in his career, between the 1976 Tour and 1977 Giro, Maertens won 28 out of 60 Grand Tour stages that he entered before abandoning the Giro due to injury on stage 8b. He achieved eight Tour stage wins, thirteen Vuelta stage wins and seven Giro stage wins in less than one calendar year.

Renault was a French professional cycling team that existed from 1978 to 1985. The team cycled on and promoted Gitane racing bikes.

Jan Raas is a Dutch former professional cyclist whose 115 wins include the 1979 World Road Race Championship in Valkenburg, the Tour of Flanders in 1979 and 1983, Paris–Roubaix in 1982 and Milan–San Remo in 1977. He won ten stages in the Tour de France. In six starts, Raas won the Amstel Gold Race five times. In his entire career he competed in 23 of the highly contested "Monument" Races and he finished on the podium in almost half of them: 1st place four times and 3rd place six times.

Steven Rooks is a former Dutch professional road racing cyclist known for his climbing ability. His professional career ran from 1982–1995.

Laurent Patrick Fignon was a French professional road bicycle racer who won the Tour de France in 1983 and 1984, as well as the Giro d'Italia in 1989. He held the title of FICP World No. 1 in 1989. Fignon came close to winning the Tour de France for a third time in 1989 but was defeated by Greg LeMond by eight seconds, the closest margin ever to decide the Tour. Fignon won many classic races, including consecutive victories in Milan–San Remo in 1988 and 1989. He died from cancer in 2010.

Carrera was an Italian-based road bicycle racing team active from 1984 to 1996, named after sponsoring Italian jeans manufacturer Carrera. The team was successful in the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France with three overall wins and several wins in the Points classification and Mountain Classifications.

Pedro Delgado Robledo, also known as Perico, is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer. He won the 1988 Tour de France, as well as the Vuelta a España in 1985 and 1989. He finished in the top 10 of eighteen Grand Tours.

Groupama–FDJ United is a French cycling team at UCI WorldTeam level. The team is managed by Marc Madiot, a former road bicycle racer and winner of the Paris–Roubaix classic in 1985 and 1991. The team is predominantly French.

The 1986 Tour de France was a cycling race held in France, from 4 July to 27 July. It was the 73rd running of the Tour de France. Greg LeMond of La Vie Claire won the race, ahead of his teammate Bernard Hinault. It was the first ever victory for a rider outside of Europe. Five-time Tour winner Hinault, who had won the year before with LeMond supporting him, had publicly pledged to ride in support of LeMond in 1986. Several attacks during the race cast doubt on the sincerity of his promise, leading to a rift between the two riders and the entire La Vie Claire team. The 1986 Tour de France is widely considered to be one of the most memorable in the history of the sport due to the battle between LeMond and Hinault.

Stephen Roche is an Irish former professional road racing cyclist. In a 13-year professional career, he peaked in 1987, becoming the second of only three male cyclists to win the Triple Crown of victories in the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia general classification, plus the World road race championship, the others being Eddy Merckx and Tadej Pogačar. Roche's rise coincided with that of fellow Irishman Sean Kelly.

Olaf Ludwig is a former German racing cyclist. His career began at the SG Dynamo Gera / Sportvereinigung (SV) Dynamo. As an East German, he raced as an amateur until reunification of Germany allowed him to become professional with Panasonic team. As a sprinter, the highlight of his career was winning the points classification in the 1990 Tour de France. Other highlights include the Olympic road race in Seoul in 1988, a record 38 stage victories in the Peace Race, winning the Amstel Gold Race in 1992, and podium placings in the Paris–Roubaix. He also won the 1992 UCI Road World Cup. In 1992 he won the Champs-Élysées stage in the Tour de France and won the third Tour stage of his career the following year.

Djamolidine Mirgarifanovich Abdoujaparov is a former professional road racing cyclist from Uzbekistan. Abdoujaparov was a sprinter, nicknamed "The Tashkent Terror" as he was so ferocious in the sprints. His unorthodox and often erratic sprinting caused a number of crashes. He competed in the individual road race at the Olympic Games on two occasions: in 1988 for the Soviet Union and in 1996 for Uzbekistan; he placed fifth in 1988.

Gert-Jan Theunisse is a Dutch former road bicycle racer. He won the 1988 edition of the Clásica San Sebastián one-day race. In the 1989 Tour de France, he won the King of the Mountains classification.

Andrew Hampsten is an American former professional road bicycle racer who won the 1988 Giro d'Italia and the Alpe d'Huez stage of the 1992 Tour de France. Between 1986–1994 he finished in the Top 10 of eight Grand Tours.

The 1989 Tour de France was the 76th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The race consisted of 21 stages and a prologue, over 3,285 km (2,041 mi). It started on 1 July 1989 in Luxembourg before taking an anti-clockwise route through France to finish in Paris on 23 July. The race was won by Greg LeMond of the AD Renting–W-Cup–Bottecchia team. It was the second overall victory for the American, who had spent the previous two seasons recovering from a near-fatal hunting accident. In second place was previous two-time Tour winner Laurent Fignon, ahead of Pedro Delgado (Reynolds), the defending champion.

Claudio Chiappucci is a retired Italian professional cyclist. He was on the podium three times in the Tour de France general classification: second in 1990, third in 1991 and second again in 1992.

Miguel Induráin Larraya is a retired Spanish road racing cyclist. Induráin won five Tours de France from 1991 to 1995, the fourth, and last, to win five times, and the only five-time winner to achieve those victories consecutively.

Marion Clignet is a French former track cyclist. Born in Chicago, United States, Clignet was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 22 and was shunned by the United States Cycling Federation. She subsequently raced for France from 1991 onwards. She rode at three Olympic Games for France, winning two silver medals in the individual pursuit. Clignet won six world championships in the late 1990s – 3 times in the individual pursuit and 2 times in the points race on the track, and the team time trial on the road.

The Amaury Sport Organisation is a private company, founded in 1992, that is part of the privately owned French media group Éditions Philippe Amaury (EPA). ASO organises the Tour de France and other cycling races, as well as golf, running, sailing and off-road motorsport events over 250 days of competition per year, with 90 events in 30 countries. The president of ASO is Jean-Etienne Amaury, the son of Philippe Amaury and Marie-Odile Amaury, and grandson of EPA founder, Émilien Amaury.

Bjarne Lykkegård Riis, nicknamed The Eagle from Herning, is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer and cycling team manager. He won the 1996 Tour de France and later admitted to having doped throughout the most successful period of his career.

Jan Ullrich is a German former professional road bicycle racer. Ullrich won gold and silver medals in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. He won the 1999 Vuelta a España and the HEW Cyclassics in front of a home crowd in Hamburg in 1997. He had podium finishes in the hilly classic Clásica de San Sebastián. His victorious ride in the 1997 Tour de France led to a bicycle boom in Germany. He retired in February 2007.

Marco Pantani was an Italian road racing cyclist, widely regarded as one of the greatest climbing specialists in the history of the sport by measures of his legacy, credits from other riders, and records. He recorded the fastest ever climbs up the Tour's iconic venues of Mont Ventoux (46:00) and Alpe d'Huez (36:50), and other cyclists including Lance Armstrong and Charly Gaul have hailed Pantani's climbing skills. He is the second to last rider and one of only eight to ever win the Tour de France – Giro d'Italia double, doing so in 1998. He is the sixth of seven Italians, after Ottavio Bottecchia, Gino Bartali, Fausto Coppi, Gastone Nencini and Felice Gimondi, and before Vincenzo Nibali to win the Tour de France.

Richard Virenque is a retired French professional road racing cyclist. He was one of the most popular French riders with fans, known for his boyish personality and his long, lone attacks. He was a climber, best remembered for winning the King of the Mountains competition of the Tour de France a record seven times, and as one of the central figures in a widespread doping scandal in 1998, the Festina Affair.

The 1998 Tour de France was the 85th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The 3,875 km (2,408 mi) race was composed of 21 stages and a prologue. It started on 11 July in Ireland before taking an anti-clockwise route through France to finish in Paris on 2 August. Marco Pantani of Mercatone Uno–Bianchi won the overall general classification, with Team Telekom's Jan Ullrich, the defending champion, and Cofidis rider Bobby Julich finishing on the podium in second and third respectively.

The Festina affair was a series of doping scandals within the sport of professional cycling that occurred during and after the 1998 Tour de France. The affair began when a large haul of doping products was found in a support car belonging to the Festina cycling team just before the start of the race. A resulting investigation revealed systematic doping involving many teams in the Tour de France. Hotels where teams were staying were raided and searched by police, confessions were made by several retired and current riders, and team personnel were arrested or detained. Several teams withdrew completely from the race.

Anthony Charteau is a French former professional road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional between 2001 and 2013. His biggest career victory was winning the Mountains classification in the Tour de France in the 2010 edition, which was his major breakthrough. He also won the Tropicale Amissa Bongo stage race in Gabon for three years in a row from 2010 to 2012.

Gary Imlach is a British author, journalist and broadcaster, specialising in sport. After first being known as a sports presenter on TV-am, Imlach has particularly become associated with non-mainstream sports, working for many years as the face of Channel 4's coverage of American football. Imlach has covered the Tour de France since 1990, formerly on Channel 4, transferring to ITV in 2001 when the station bought the television rights to the cycle race.

Tom Boonen is a Belgian former road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional between 2002 and 2017 for the U.S. Postal Service and Quick-Step Floors teams and a professional racing driver who currently competes in Belcar, having previously competed in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series. Boonen won the 2005 UCI World Road Race Championships, and was a single-day road specialist with a strong finishing sprint. He won the cycling monuments Paris–Roubaix four times and the Tour of Flanders three times, among many other prestigious victories, such as prevailing five times in the E3 Harelbeke, winning six stages of the Tour de France and winning the overall title of the Tour of Qatar four times.

Robbie McEwen is an Australian former professional road cyclist. He is a three-time winner of the Tour de France points classification in 2002, 2004 and 2006 and, at the peak of his career, was considered the world's fastest sprinter.

Erik Zabel is a German former professional road bicycle racer who raced for most of his career with Team Telekom. With 152 professional wins and 211 wins in his career, he is considered by some to be one of the greatest German cyclists and cycling sprinters of all time. Zabel won a record nine points classifications in grands tours including the points classification in the Tour de France six consecutive years between 1996 and 2001 and the points classification in the Vuelta a España in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Zabel won the Milan–San Remo four times and numerous six-day track events. He was one of the few road cyclists of recent times who raced all year, including track cycling in winter. For season 2012 he joined Team Katusha as sprint coach. He previously held that same position with the HTC–Highroad team until their dissolution. Zabel admitted to doping from 1996 to 2003. He is the father of cyclist Rick Zabel.

The 2003 Tour de France was a multiple stage bicycle race held from 5 to 27 July, and the 90th edition of the Tour de France. It has no overall winner—although American cyclist Lance Armstrong originally won the event, the United States Anti-Doping Agency announced in August 2012 that they had disqualified Armstrong from all his results since 1998, including his seven Tour de France wins from 1999 to 2005; the Union Cycliste Internationale has confirmed this verdict.

EF Education–EasyPost is an American professional cycling team. Founded in 2003, they have competed in the UCI World Tour since 2009. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, United States, the team maintains an equipment and training facility in Girona, Catalonia, Spain. In 2018, EF Education First, an international education company — founded in Sweden but headquartered and incorporated in Switzerland — purchased a controlling equity stake in Slipstream Sports, the sports management company behind the team. The founder and CEO is American Jonathan Vaughters and the head sporting director is Briton Charly Wegelius.

Alessandro Petacchi is an Italian former professional road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 1996 and 2015. A specialist sprinter, Petacchi has won 48 grand tour stages with wins of the points jersey in the Giro d'Italia in 2004, the Vuelta a España in 2005 and the Tour de France in 2010. He also won the classics Milan – San Remo in 2005 and Paris–Tours in 2007. His career spanned over 18 years during which he earned 183 victories.

U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team was a United States–based professional road bicycle racing team. On June 15, 2004, the Discovery Channel signed a deal to become sponsor of the team for the 2004–2007 seasons and its name changed to Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team. From 2005 until 2007, the team was one of the 20 teams that competed in the new UCI ProTour. As part of the sponsorship deal, Lance Armstrong, the team's undisputed leader, provided on-air appearances for the Discovery Networks TV channels. The deal did not affect the rights of secondary sponsor OLN, later known as NBCSN in the US, to air major cycling events such as the Tour de France, although the two channels are competitors.

Vincenzo Nibali is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional from 2005 to 2022. He is one of eight cyclists who have won all three of cycling's Grand Tours in their career – having won the 2010 Vuelta a España, the 2013 and 2016 Giro d'Italias, and the 2014 Tour de France.

UAE Team Emirates XRG is an Emirati road bicycle racing team. The team competes at the UCI WorldTeam level and has done so since the UCI World Tour was formed as the top category of road cycling in 2005.

Floyd Landis is an American former professional road racing cyclist. At the 2006 Tour de France, he would have been the third non-European winner in the event's history, but was disqualified after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. The competition was ultimately won by Óscar Pereiro.

Operación Puerto is the code name of a still unfinished Spanish Police operation against the pro sports doping network of Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. It started in May 2006, which resulted in a scandal that involved several of the world's most famous cyclists and teams at the time.

Christian Prudhomme is a French journalist and general director of the Tour de France since 2007.

Stuart Peter O'Grady is a retired Australian road bicycle racer, who rode as a professional between 1995 and 2013. A former track cyclist, O'Grady and Graeme Brown won a gold medal in the Men's Madison at the 2004 Summer Olympics. O'Grady also won Paris–Roubaix in 2007. O'Grady competed in the Tour de France from 1997 and contended for the points classification in the Tour de France known as the green jersey, finishing second in the 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2005 races. He wore the yellow jersey of general classification leader in 1998 and 2001.

Carlos Sastre Candil is a former Spanish professional road bicycle racer and winner of the 2008 Tour de France. He consistently achieved outstanding results in the Vuelta a España and in the Tour de France. Sastre established himself as a strong and stable climbing specialist, and after working to improve his individual time trial skills, he became a contender for the top GC spots in the Grand Tours. In total, Sastre finished in the top ten of fifteen Grand Tours during his career, and finished on the podium of each of them. Sastre never tested positive for drugs, nor was he implicated in any doping investigation, even though he performed at the top level of cycling.

Andy Raymond Schleck is a Luxembourgish former professional road bicycle racer. He won the 2010 Tour de France, being awarded it retroactively in February 2012 after Alberto Contador's hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. He has also been the runner-up at the Tour twice; in 2009 and 2011. He's the current deputy general manager for the Lidl-Trek. He is the younger brother of Fränk Schleck, also a professional rider between 2003 and 2016. Their father Johny Schleck rode the Tour de France and Vuelta a España between 1965 and 1974.

Mont Ventoux is a mountain in the Provence region of southern France, located some 20 km northeast of Carpentras, Vaucluse. On the north side, the mountain borders the department of Drôme. At 1,910 m (6,270 ft), it is the highest mountain in the region and has been nicknamed the "Beast of Provence", the "Giant of Provence", or "The Bald Mountain". It has gained fame through its inclusion in the Tour de France cycling race; in 2009 it was the scene of the first penultimate-day mountain top finish in the Tour de France.

The UCI WorldTour is the premier men's elite road cycling tour, sitting above the UCI ProSeries and various regional UCI Continental Circuits. It refers to both the tour of 38 events and, until 2019, an annual ranking system based upon performances in these. The World Ranking was launched in 2009, and merged fully with its predecessor the UCI ProTour in 2011. UCI WorldTeams must compete at all events that were part of the tour prior to the 2017 expansion.

Óscar Pereiro Sío is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer. Pereiro was declared the winner of the 2006 Tour de France, after the original winner Floyd Landis was disqualified for failing a doping test after his stage 17 victory. Pereiro is a former member of Porta da Ravessa, Phonak Hearing Systems, Caisse d'Epargne, and the Astana cycling team (2010). After retiring from cycling in 2010, Pereiro joined his local part-time football club Coruxo FC of the Segunda División B.

Thor Hushovd is a Norwegian former professional road bicycle racer. He is known for sprinting and time trialing, having been a three-time Norwegian national road race champion, and was the winner of the 2010 World Road Race Championships, making him the first Scandinavian to do so. He was also the first Norwegian to lead the Tour de France and is the Scandinavian with the most stage wins in Grand Tours. He is widely considered the greatest Norwegian cyclist of all time. He retired in September 2014.

Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe is a UCI WorldTeam cycling team established in 2010 with a German license, founded and managed by Ralph Denk. The team is based in Raubling, in the Rosenheim district of Upper Bavaria. It is sponsored by global energy drinks brand Red Bull, BORA, a German manufacturer of extractor hoods and cooktops, and Hansgrohe, a bathroom fittings manufacturer. Its aim is "improving the image of road cycling in Germany".

Cadel Lee Evans is an Australian former professional racing cyclist who competed professionally in both mountain biking and road bicycle racing. A four-time Olympian, Evans is one of three non-Europeans – along with Greg LeMond and Egan Bernal – to have won the Tour de France, winning the race in 2011.

Marcel Kittel is a German former racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2011 and 2019 for the Team Giant–Alpecin, Quick-Step Floors and Team Katusha–Alpecin squads. As a junior, he specialised in time trials, winning a bronze medal in the World Championships for cyclists aged under 23. When he became a professional in 2011, he specialised in bunch sprints, winning 19 stages across the three Grand Tours, and taking 89 wins in his professional career.

Sir Bradley Marc Wiggins is an English former professional road and track racing cyclist, who competed professionally between 2001-16. He became Great Britain’s most decorated Olympian, amassing eight medals across five Games, and remains the only rider to have won World and Olympic titles on the track and road. In 2012 he was the first British winner of the Tour de France.

Lance Edward Armstrong is an American former professional road racing cyclist. He achieved international fame for winning the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005, but was stripped of his titles in 2012 after an investigation into doping allegations found that Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs over his career. Armstrong is banned from all sanctioned bicycling events.

Christopher Clive Froome is a British former professional road racing cyclist. He has won seven Grand Tours: four editions of the Tour de France, one Giro d'Italia (2018) and the Vuelta a España twice. He has also won several other stage races, and the Vélo d'Or three times. Froome has also won two Olympic bronze medals in road time trials, in 2012 and 2016, and took bronze in the 2017 World Championships.

La Planche des Belles Filles is a ski station in the Vosges Mountains, in France. It is located in the Haute-Saône département. Since 2012, the climb to the summit has been used several times during the Tour de France cycle race.

Federico Martín Bahamontes, born Alejandro Martín Bahamontes, was a Spanish professional road racing cyclist. He won the 1959 Tour de France and a total of 11 Grand Tour stages between 1954 and 1965. He won a total of nine mountain classifications and was the first cyclist to complete a "career triple" by winning the mountain classification in all three Grand Tours. Following his retirement, Bahamontes ran a bicycle and motorcycle shop and was named the best climber in the history of the Tour de France by a panel organised by L'Équipe in 2013.

Laurent Jalabert is a French former professional road racing cyclist, from 1989 to 2002. Despite neither denying nor admitting using EPO in his notorious cycling teams throughout the 1990s, French Senate investigation proved his EPO use in 2013.

Rafał Majka is a Polish former professional road bicycle racer, who most recently rode for UCI WorldTeam UAE Team Emirates XRG. He is known as a strong climber, and rose to prominence at the 2013 Giro d'Italia, where he finished 7th overall, and 6th one year later; he has taken fifteen victories during his professional career.

La Course by Le Tour de France was an elite women's professional road bicycle race held in France. First held in 2014 as a one-day race on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, it was part of the UCI Women's WorldTour since 2016 as a one or two day race. The race was organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), the organisers of the Tour de France. It was replaced from 2022 onwards by Tour de France Femmes, a multi day stage race organised by ASO.

Mikel Landa Meana is a Spanish Basque professional road cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam Soudal–Quick-Step. His career breakthrough came at the 2015 Giro d'Italia where he won two stages and finished third overall.

Elizabeth Mary Deignan is an English track and road racing cyclist, who last rode professionally for UCI Women's WorldTeam Lidl–Trek. She was the 2015 World road race champion. She is regarded as the best British female road cyclist of her generation, scoring a total of 43 UCI race wins.

Wout van Aert is a Belgian professional road and cyclo-cross racer who rides for UCI WorldTeam Visma–Lease a Bike. Van Aert won three consecutive men's races at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in 2016, 2017, and 2018.

Warren Barguil is a French cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam Team Picnic–PostNL. He is best known for winning two mountain stages and the mountains classification of the 2017 Tour de France.

Team Bahrain Victorious is a UCI WorldTeam cycling team from Bahrain which was founded in 2017. Its title sponsor is the government of Bahrain.

Lotte Kopecky is a Belgian road and track racing cyclist, who rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Team SD Worx–Protime, and the 2023 and 2024 UCI Elite Women's World Road Race Champion. She is a multiple world champion on the track, having won six gold medals across four UCI Track Cycling World Championships; she won the madison in 2017 and 2022, the points race in 2021 and 2023, and the elimination race in 2022 and 2023.

Geraint Howell Thomas, is a Welsh former professional racing cyclist who rode for UCI WorldTeam Netcompany INEOS, Wales and Great Britain. He is one of the few riders in the modern era to achieve significant elite success as both a track and road rider, with notable victories in the velodrome, in one-day racing and in stage racing. On the track, he won three World Championships, and two Olympic gold medals, while on the road he won the 2018 Tour de France becoming the first Welshman and third British rider to win it.

Thibaut Pinot is a French former professional road cyclist, who competed as a professional from 2010 to 2023, spending his entire career with Française des Jeux. Once considered one of the most promising talents in French cycling, he finished third overall in the 2014 Tour de France and first in the young rider classification. He has won stages in all three Grand Tours, with 3 in the Tour de France, 1 in the Giro d'Italia and 2 in the Vuelta a España. Pinot has taken more than thirty professional victories, including the Giro di Lombardia in 2018, and he won the mountains classification at the 2023 Giro d'Italia.

The Col de la Loze is a mountain pass in the French Alps, with an elevation of 2,304 metres (7,559 ft). A path up the mountain was opened in May 2019, and is the seventh-highest mountain pass in France. The ascent featured in the 2020, 2023, and 2025 Tours de France, as well as in the 2019 Tour de l'Avenir.

The 2019 Tour de France was the 106th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's three Grand Tours. The 3,365.8 km (2,091 mi)-long race consisted of 21 stages, starting in the Belgian capital of Brussels on 6 July, before moving throughout France and concluding on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 28 July. A total of 176 riders from 22 teams participated in the race. The overall general classification was won for the first time by a Latin American rider, Egan Bernal of Team INEOS. His teammate and 2018 Tour winner Geraint Thomas finished second while Steven Kruijswijk came in third.

The 2020 Tour de France was the 107th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's three Grand Tours. Originally scheduled to start on 27 June 2020, it was postponed until 29 August 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France. The race began in Nice on 29 August and concluded with its traditional run on the Champs-Élysées on 20 September. A total of 176 riders from 22 teams participated in the race. The overall general classification was won for the first time by a Slovenian, Tadej Pogačar of UAE Team Emirates. His fellow countryman Primož Roglič finished second, while Australian Richie Porte (Trek–Segafredo) came third.

Egan Arley Bernal Gómez is a Colombian professional cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam Netcompany INEOS. He won the 2019 Tour de France, becoming the first Latin American rider to do so, and the youngest winner since 1909. Two years later, Bernal took his second Grand Tour win at the 2021 Giro d'Italia. Bernal was involved in a serious crash in 2022, and although he returned to racing in 2023, he has not raced at the same level as before.

Jonas Vingegaard Hansen is a Danish professional road racing cyclist. He rides for UCI WorldTeam Visma–Lease a Bike. Described as one of the best climbers of all time, he is equally celebrated for a rivalry with Tadej Pogačar that ranks among the sport's greatest. Vingegaard is one of only eight riders in history to have won all three Grand Tours, having won the 2022 and 2023 editions of the Tour de France, the 2025 Vuelta a España and the 2026 Giro d'Italia.

André Greipel is a German cyclist, who rode professionally in road bicycle racing between 2005 and 2021. Since his retirement from road racing, Greipel has worked as a directeur sportif for UCI Continental teams Saris Rouvy Sauerland Team and P&S Benotti, and in 2023, he became the national road coach for the German Cycling Federation. He also competes in masters cycling events for RC Schmitter Köln.

Jasper Philipsen is a Belgian professional cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Alpecin–Premier Tech. Specialising as a sprinter, he has won ten stages in the Tour de France and six in the Vuelta a España, and the points classification in the 2023 Tour de France.

The 2023 Tour de France was the 110th edition of the Tour de France. It started in Bilbao, Spain, on 1 July and ended with the final stage at Champs-Élysées, Paris, on 23 July.

Tadej Pogačar, nicknamed "Pogi", is a Slovenian professional cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam UAE Team Emirates XRG. His victories include four Tours de France, the 2024 Giro d'Italia, and thirteen one-day Monuments, as well as the World Championship Road Race twice. Comfortable in time-trialing, one-day classic riding and grand-tour climbing, he has been compared to all-round cyclists such as Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault. He is considered one of the greatest cyclists of all time.

Peter Sagan is a Slovak former professional cyclist who competed in road bicycle racing and mountain bicycle racing. Sagan had a successful junior cyclo-cross and mountain bike racing career, winning the junior cross-country race at the 2008 UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships, before moving to road racing. He ended his cycling career in 2024.

The 2024 Tour de France was the 111th edition of the Tour de France. It started in Florence, Italy, on 29 June, and finished in Nice, France, on 21 July. The race did not finish in Paris for the first time since its inception, owing to preparations for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Katarzyna "Kasia" Niewiadoma-Phinney is a Polish racing cyclist who rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Canyon//SRAM. Among her eighteen professional wins are the Tour de France Femmes in 2024, La Flèche Wallonne in 2024, the Amstel Gold Race in 2019, the Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio in 2018, and the Women's Tour in 2017. She finished third overall three times in the Tour de France Femmes, in 2022, 2023, and 2025, taking the Queen of the Mountains jersey in 2023. In 2023, she became UCI Gravel World Champion.

Romain Bardet is a French former professional racing cyclist. Bardet is known for his climbing and descending abilities, which make him one of the top general classification contenders in Grand Tours. After retiring from the road in the wake of the 2025 Critérium du Dauphiné he turned to professional gravel racing.