History of Tour de France is a subcategory under the category Road cycling history. The most famous cycling event of the world, established in 1903, delivers unbelievable, fascinating, epic stories every year.
This website focusing on the time period before 1980, preferring to tell stories predominantly from the first half of the 20th century.
Check out its sibling categories too:
History of Giro d’ Italia |History of Vuelta a Espana |History of one-day races
In the world of grand tours, the line between teammate and rival can blur quickly. Two of the most storied and tense leadership battles (the Hinault–LeMond saga during the Tour de France editions 1985 and 1986 and the Roche–Visentini conflict at the Giro d’Italia 1987) offer strikingly similar insights into what happens when ambition, pressure,…
The 1969 edition of the Tour de France was Merckx’s first. Coming off wins in other prestigious races such as the Giro d’Italia, Merckx had already established himself as one of the strongest riders in the world. In the lead-up to the 17th stage, Merckx had already shown his class. By that point, he had…
The world of road cycling often celebrates the second-place riders as much, if not more, than the winners. Few embody this sentiment better than the legendary French cyclist, Raymond Poulidor (1936-2019), known affectionately as “The Eternal Second.” Over the course of his career, Poulidor competed in the Tour de France 14 times, completing 12 of…
In 1910, Henri Desgrange, the Tour’s founder and director, decided to introduce mountain stages into the race to make it even more challenging. The Pyrenean stages were added, including climbs like Col du Tourmalet, and Col d’Aubisque which were among the most difficult ascents the cyclists had ever encountered. The Col du Tourmalet, in particular,…
The 10th stage of Tour de France 1926 is often dubbed as the toughest stage ever in the history of the race. The 326 km long route between Bayonne and Luchon on the 6th July 1926 went down in history also as one of the most chaotic ones thanks to the extreme weather conditions in…
There is a picture from that day, the 13th July in 1975, when Eddy Merckx and Bernard Thévenet riding side by side, and yet to far from each other to be parts of an actual duel between the two biggest favourites of the event. But if you know the story of the 15th stage of…