Le Tour en chiffres

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)
  • 3: Philippe Thys (Bel)>
  • 3: Louison Bobet (Fra)>
  • 3: Greg LeMond (Usa)>
  • 3: Alberto Contador (Esp)>

…of days in yellow

  • 111: Eddy Merckx (Bel)
  • 83: Lance Armstrong (Usa)
  • 79: Bernard Hinault (Fra)
  • 20: Mark Cavendish (Gbr)

…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)

…of podiums

  • 8: Raymond Poulidor (Fra)
  • 8: Lance Armstrong (Usa)

…of participations

  • 16: Joop Zoetemelk (Ned)

…of green jerseys

  • 6: Erik Zabel (Ger)

…polka-dotted jerseys

  • 7: Richard Virenque

…of white jerseys

  • 3: Jan Ullrich (Ger)

Number of wins per nation

  • 36: France
  • 18: Belgium
  • 13: Spain
  • 10: United States
  • 9: Italy
  • 4: Luxembourg
  • 2: Netherlands and Switzerland
  • 1: Germany, Australia, 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 2011 tour, Cadel Evans (Aus), was 34 years old.

Spectators

  • 12 to 15 million spectators
  • 70 % men and 30 % women
  • 80 % of spectators French and 20 % non-French
  • 6 hours of presence at the roadside on average

Medias*

  • 100 TV channels, 70 radios, 400 newspapers and press agencies, 70 websites, that is to say 2,300 journalists representing 35 nationalities.
  • Broadcasting in 190 countries of which 60 transmit live coverage
  • Website: 14 million unique visitors

* 2011 figures

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2011 edition of the historical guide (french version)

Integral version of the document(185 pages, .pdf, 14.5 Mo)

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