Tour de France

Highlights

The Tour de France is the biggest annual sporting event on the planet that attracts the best male riders to battle it out for the yellow, green, polka dot, and white jerseys over three-weeks in the middle of the European summer. A rider's career and place in history can be made and broken in a single stage with the peloton tackling France in a clockwise, or counter clockwise loop. 

First held in 1903, the 2017 Tour de France will be the 104th edition with Düsseldorf to host the grand depart for the first time.

In 2012, Bradley Wiggins become the first British winner of the race and since then, the race has belonged to Team Sky with Chris Froome taking the 2013, 2015 and 2016 victories. While the likes of Australia with Cadel Evans and Great Britain have enjoyed overall victories for the first time in recent years, after a prolonged absence from the podium, the French have inserted themselves back into contention for the overall with Jean-Christophe Péraud and Thibaut Pinot finishing second and third to Italian Vincenzo Nibali in 2014, and Romain Bardet continuing the charge with second place overall in 2016. Colombian Nairo Quintana has emerged as chief rival to Froome, finishing on the podium each time he has won the race, and looks to animate the Tour in the years to come alongside his compatriots. 

Facts

Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain hold the record of the most Tour de France victories with five. Indurain is the last rider to join the club and is the only rider to have won five in consecutive years. In the current peloton, Chris Froome has won the most Tour's with three, while Alberto Contador has won the race on two occasions with a third title taken away from him after he was disqualified from the 2010 edition.

Along with the shared record of overall victories, Merckx holds the record of most individual victories with 34 stages. Mark Cavendish is the only other rider to have broken through the 30 stage barrier with 30 wins, while Hinault is third on the list with 28.

Merckx also holds the record for most yellow jerseys with 96 days spent as the leader of the Tour de France. 

The record for the most points classification wins is held by Erik Zabel with six. In the king of the mountains classification, Richard Virenque holds the record with seven wins. In the other jersey classification, Jan Ullrich and Andy Schleck share the record of three victories in the white jersey competition for the best young rider in the race.

Previous Winners

2015
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky
2 Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas (Col) Movistar Team
3 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar Team

2014
1 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team
2 Jean-Christophe Péraud (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale
3 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ.fr

2013
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling
2 Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas (Col) Movistar Team
3 Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Katusha

2012
1 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling
2 Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling
3 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale

2011
1 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team
2 Andy Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek
3 Frank Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek

2010
1 *Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank
2 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank
3 Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi

2009
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana
2 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank
3 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana

2008
1 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC - Saxo Bank
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto
3 *Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank

2007
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Discovery Channel
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor - Lotto
3 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel

2006
1 *Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears
2 Andreas Klöden (Ger) T-Mobile
3 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC  

The Tour de France is an annual pro stage race.