Introduction
After Paris, which city has hosted the Tour the highest number of times? The answer is Bordeaux.
Who won the largest number of stage victories? The answer is Eddy Merckx.
Which was the longest Tour? The 1926 Tour with 5,745 km.
The number of questions is endless… all the answers are in the following pages.
Here are a few figures, technical details and stats. The 95 editions of the Tour de France raced between 1903 and 2008 represent over 350,000 km, i.e. the distance between the Earth and the Moon. All the Departments of Metropolitan France have been visited as well as all the bordering countries.
Over 500 towns and villages have hosted the Tour (about 2,000 stages and prologues). More than 10,000 riders have taken their chance on the Tour and over 6,000 have completed the race. Finally, some 250 different riders have worn the Yellow Jersey.
Raymond Poulidor may not have won the Yellow Jersey, but he is the rider who stepped the highest number of times on the podium of the Tour (he finished 8 times in the Top 3!), more than Hinault, Zoetemelk, Ullrich and Armstrong (7), Garrigou, Anquetil and Merckx (6), LeMond and Indurain (5), Van Impe and L. Bobet (4).
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Statistics
Greatest number of wins
- 7: Lance Armstrong (Usa)
- 5: Jacques Anquetil (Fra)
- 5: Eddy Merckx (Bel)
- 5: Bernard Hinault (Fra)
- 5: Miguel Indurain (Esp)
Greatest number of days in yellow
- 111: Eddy Merckx (Bel)
- 83: Lance Armstrong (Usa)
- 79: Bernard Hinault (Fra)
Greatest number of stage wins
- 34: Eddy Merckx (Bel)
- 28: Bernard Hinault (Fra)
- 25: André Leducq (Fra)
on one tour
- 8: Charles Pélissier (Fra, 1930))
- 8: Eddy Merckx (Bel, 1970 et 1974)
- 8: Freddy Maertens (Bel, 1976)
- 6: Mark Cavendish (Gbr, 2009, records de sprints victorieux)
Greatest number of podiums
- 8: Raymond Poulidor (Fra)
- 8: Lance Armstrong (Usa)
Greatest number of participations
Greatest number of green jerseys
Greatest number polka-dotted jerseys
Greatest number of white jerseys
Number of wins per nation
- 36: France
- 18: Belgium
- 12: Spain
- 10: United States
- 9: Italy
- 4: Luxembourg
- 2: Netherlands and Switzerland
- 1: Germany, Denmark and Ireland
Gap between the yellow jersey holder and the runner up
- Biggest: 2h 49’45’’ in 1903 between Maurice Garin (Fra) and Lucien Pothier (Fra)
- Smallest: 8’’ in 1989 between Greg Lemond (Usa) and Laurent Fignon (Fra)
The oldest and the youngest winner
- 36 years Firmin Lambot (Bel) in 1922
- 20 years Henri Cornet (Fra) in 1904
The winner of the 2009 tour, Alberto Contador (Spa), was 26 years old.
Spectators
- 12 to 15 million spectators
- 70 % men and 30 % women
- 85 % of spectators French and 15 % non-French
- 130 km travelled on average to come and see the Tour
- 6 hours of presence at the roadside on average
Medias*
- 118 TV channels, 75 radios, 398 newspapers, 61 Internet sites, representing 41 nationalities, i.e. 2 477 journalists.
- TV coverage in 186 countries including live coverage in 60.
- Internet: 155 million pages viewed and 11,6 million visits.
*stats 2009
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2009 edition of the historical guide (french version)
Introduction(4 pages, .pdf, 310 ko)
History: 1903-1929(14 pages, .pdf, 2,5 Mo)
History: 1930-1960(12 pages, .pdf, 2,5 Mo)
History: 1961-1990(15 pages, .pdf, 2,9 Mo)
History: 1991-2009(10 pages, .pdf, 2,7 Mo)
Statistics(12 pages, .pdf, 1,4 Mo)
Winners of stages and the stop-over towns(28 pages, .pdf, 3,1 Mo)
The Tour summits(13 pages, .pdf, 1,1 Mo)
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