The Giro d’Italia has just finished, but anyone suffering from post-Grand Tour withdrawal will not have long to wait for some more amazing racing to start. The Tour de France is just around the corner. How do we know that? Because one of the most important tune-up races for the Tour starts on Sunday, June 2nd: the Critérium du Dauphiné.

We’ve already written about how the Tour de France is unquestionably the most important race on the professional cycling calendar. It has earned the reputation over the course of more than a century of editions. Though it may not be the oldest race on the calendar, it is considered the oldest stage race, having first been held in 1903 and every year after that, with the exception of the years during the two world wars (1915-1919 and 1940-1946).

First winners of the Tour de France

Early editions of the Tour would hardly be recognizable to a modern fan today. There was no huge promotional caravan that would toss out freebees like cycling caps and small bags of Haribo gummy bears. But a lot of the traditions that we recognize today were established with that very first Tour. Most obviously, it took place in the month of July. It was initially scheduled to run in June, but minimal applicants forced the organizers to postpone the race a month and increase the prize purse to get the initial 60 starters on the line. 

What was completely different is that the event took place in just six stages even though the race was 2,428 km (1,509 mi) long. That meant some stages could be as long as 400 km. In that sense, it resembled much more the type of ultra-endurance road and gravel events we see much more commonly now with races like Badlands and Kilometro Cero in Spain, Seven Serpents in Slovenia/Croatia, and the Transcontinental across Europe. 

Something that might sound familiar to modern audiences is that the first winner of the Tour de France was indeed the pre-race favorite. Maurice Garin had been racing successfully as a professional since 1893, winning important events like 24-hour races in Paris and Liège. He also took 3rd at the very first Paris-Roubaix in 1896 and won it the following two years.

For the inaugural Tour de France, Garin won the first stage from Paris to Lyon as well as the fifth and sixth stages. He was the overall leader for the entire race and took over 94 hours to complete the event. He won the 1904 edition as well, though he was disqualified afterwards – another similarity that modern fans might recognize. However, there is a shade of mystery around why he was DSQ'd in 1904. 

The Tour de France, which as we’ve mentioned in the past was started as a way to promote L’Auto newspaper and give it something to hype and write about, was already a huge success with a rabid group of followers. These “fans” would passionately support certain riders and attack others. Garin, as the most dominant cyclist of the era, became an easy target and even faced physical attack on his way to finishing the 1904 Tour first. He was accused of taking a train during the race and also taking unauthorized assistance.

In any case, after a rowdy, brawly second edition of the race, the organizers disqualified not just Garin, but the top four finishers and all stage winners. Professional cycling obviously was already working on its less than stellar reputation early on.

Tour de France winners by nation

Inevitably in the early years of the race, riders from France dominated, winning eight of the first twelve editions before the onslaught of World War One. After the war, Belgians became the dominant nation, winning the first four post war editions and nine total in the years between the wars. During that time, Italy could manage only two wins, both of which by the ill-fated Ottavio Bottecchia.

Bottecchia had fought in the First World War and even suffered from gas attacks. After the war, he moved to France and struggled to make a living until he turned professional cyclist in 1920. He placed 5th in the 1923 Giro d’Italia and then went on to take 2nd at the 1924 Tour de France, winning the Tour in 1924 and 1925. Bottecchia did not have long to enjoy his triumph. He dropped out of the 1926 Tour in the midst of a horrendous storm and was found brutally beaten and battered on the side of a road in May of 1927. He died a few days later.

A clear cause of death has never been established, with everyone from Fascist thugs disapproving of Bottecchia’s liberal politics to a farmer angry at him for stealing grapes while out on a training ride have all been given as likely perpetrators. Whatever the cause, Bottecchia’s fame lived on via the frames built with his name. He had started making racing bikes with the help of frame-maker Teodoro Carnielli in 1926 as a great way to capitalize on his Tour de France success and the racing knowledge he had gained. He would not be the last rider in his position to parley racing success into a bike building business. But he is probably the most tragic example of Tour champions burning brightly for a few years only to implode shortly after.

Fast forward to today

Though France was the dominant country for the first several decades of the race, the country has famously not won a Tour de France since 1985 when Bernard Hinault took his controversial fifth and final Tour de France victory. Since then, Greg Lemond became the first (and now recognized as the only) North American winner.  Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis subsequently both stood on the Champs Elysée as the winner of the Tour, though both have had their titles stripped.

In addition to the American, Spain found lots of success first with Pedro Delgado who won in 1988 aboard his red Pinarello. Miguel Induráin became the first rider to win the Tour five times in a row from 1991 to 1995. Óscar Pereiro, Alberto Contador, and Carlos Sastre would all win for Spain. Andy Schleck from Luxembourg would belatedly be given the overall title from 2010 after Contador was ultimately disqualified – a common theme by now in professional cycling. And in 2011, Cadel Evans from Australia would take that nation’s first, and so far only, victory at the Tour.

The 2000-teens were dominated by the British and Team Sky/Ineos. Bradley Wiggins improbably won in 2012 after transforming himself from a pretty burly track rider to a willowy climber. Then Chris Froome took up the British Sky mantle and won four Tours at a trott. The dominance of the “Sky train”, which used as domestiques riders who were strong enough to be the leaders at any other team in the peloton, strangled the competition and made those years particularly dull to watch (unless you were a Sky fan, of which there are some, we understand). In 2014, Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali managed to break up the monotony by taking an impressive win. 

Welshman Geraint Thomas, who just finished taking 3rd place at the 2024 Giro, won the Tour in 2018 ahead of Tom Dumoulin in 2nd and his team leader Froome in 3rd. But that year, the rider who looked the strongest in fact was Thomas and Froome’s young Columbian teammate, Egan Bernal. At just 21 years old, he was tasked with shepherding Thomas and in particular Froome around France that July. It cost him a chance at the Best Young Rider’s white leader’s jersey since he was frequently waiting to help save Froome’s position on the general classification. 

In 2019 Bernal had his moment, and took the overall victory in the Tour de France, becoming the first and so far, only rider from South America to do so. 

His victory at 22-year-old was a marvel and made him the youngest rider in almost a century to win the race. It seemed like that record would not be soon surpassed. But in 2020, Tadej Pogačar became the second youngest rider ever to win the Tour, which he did at just 21 years old (the youngest rider ever was 1904’s winner Henri Cornet, who was just 19). Pogačar then dominated the 2021 race, winning again, ahead of a skinny Danish rider who didn’t really seem to be that much of a threat to the Slovenian’s domination.

Then again, in 2022 Jonas Vingegaard emerged as the best climber in the world on the best team in the world. Together he and his team went about taking the perhaps overconfident Pogačar apart and stealing away with the overall victory at the Tour.  Then they did it again less surprisingly in 2023.

What’s in store for the 2024 Tour de France?

Well, it’s hard to say. Pogačar just finished destroying the competition at the Giro d’Italia. With a new coach and improved tactics, the Slovenian seems almost unstoppable. His chances are enhanced by the fact that not only Vingegaard, but other super strong rivals Primož Roglič and Remco Evenepoel all suffered a serious crash at the Tour of the Basque Country in April. Chances are that they will all be on the start line in Florence for the Tour de France’s Grand Départ on June 29th. But will they all be 100%? 

We’ll all just have to tune in to find out.

Be sure to check our article on cycling stage races.