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Fausto Coppi celebrating his Tour de France victory in 1949

24 July 1949 Fausto Coppi’s first Giro-Tour double.

When the 36th Tour de France finished in Paris on 24th July 1949, it wasn’t only Fausto Coppi’s first Tour de France victory, but also the first ever Giro-Tour double was accomplished. In June, Coppi won his 3rd Giro d’Italia (after 1940 and 1947). But he never rode Tour de France before 1949. It was a quite complicated situation to have Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi in the same team, but Alfredo Binda, the team manager of the Italian team managed to find the right way to threat these two cyclists superstars. In 1952, Coppi repeated his success to win Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the same year. Read the list of riders,… Read More »24 July 1949 Fausto Coppi’s first Giro-Tour double.

Tadej Pogacar celebrating his white jersey in Paris at the Tour de France 2023

23 July 2023 Tadej Pogacar’s last day in white jersey

Tadej Pogacar won the white jersey competition at Tour de France in every year since he attended the race first in 2020. He jumped into the first position after the 4th stage (Sisteron-Orcières-Merlette) in 2020 for the first time. And he wore it on the last stage of Tour de France 2023 for the last time. Belive, or not, time goes by and next year Tadej Pogacar, born in 1998,will be too old for the white jersey competition.  

5-time Tour de France winner Bernard Hinault celebrating his first victory in 1978

23 July 1978 Bernard Hinault wins his first Tour de France

The 65th edition of Tour de France was held between 29 June and 23 July in 1978. With his performance on the mountain stages (especially on the Puy de Dôme), Joop Zoetemelk seemed to be the slightly bigger favourite of the race. He led the general classification before the 20 stage, a 75 km long individual time trial. Bernard Hinault was a better time trialist, he was already the fastest on the 59 km long 8th stage. He also won the 20th stage, took over the lead and won the Tour de France. It was Bernard Hinault’s first Tour de France thriumph. In the subsequent half decade he won the race another four times. (1979,… Read More »23 July 1978 Bernard Hinault wins his first Tour de France

Jonas Vingegaard inyellow jersey at the Tour de Framce 2023

General classification of Tour de France 2023 before the final week

Winner of the last year’s edition, Jonas Vingegaard leads the general classification of Tour de France 2023 after 15 stages. There are only 6 stages left . GENERAL CLASSIFICATION  1 1 VINGEGAARD Jonas TJV DEN 62h34’17” +00 2 11 *POGACAR Tadej UAD SLO 62h34’27” +10″ 3 27 *RODRIGUEZ CANO Carlos IGD ESP 62h39’38” +5’21” 4 19 YATES Adam UAD GBR 62h39’57” +5’40” 5 71 HINDLEY Jai BOH AUS 62h40’55” +6’38” 6 4 KUSS Sepp TJV USA 62h43’33” +9’16” 7 65 BILBAO LOPEZ Pello TBV ESP 62h44’28” +10’11” 8 161 YATES Simon JAY GBR 62h45’05” +10’48” 9 31 GAUDU David GFC FRA 62h48’24” +14’07” 10 121 MARTIN Guillaume COF FRA 62h48’35” +14’18” 11 95 *GALL Felix… Read More »General classification of Tour de France 2023 before the final week

Bernard Thévenet and Eddy Merckx on Mont Ventoux at Tour de France 1972

13 July 1972 Bernard Thévenet’s victory on Mont Ventoux

1972 was the second year when Bernard Thevenet rode Tour de France.  His debut in previous year was a little bit of a surprise performance, when he finished fourth in the general classification. Unfortunatelyi a crash in the 7th stage  prevented him to repeat or even surpass his result from previous year. He lost more than six minutes that day and had to go to the hospital for a health check. Luckily, he was able to continue the race. The 11th stage led up to the top of Mont Ventoux.  Eddy Merckx’s team pushed it very hard, and many rider dropped, including Thévenet.  Luis Ocaña attacked several times, but Merckx was able to chase him… Read More »13 July 1972 Bernard Thévenet’s victory on Mont Ventoux

Stephen Roche and Pedro Felgado fighting on the Vol de Joux Plane at Tour de France 1987

Col de Joux Plane at the Tour de France

Col de Joux Plane was introduced to Tour de France in 1978.  Since then the race returned to the climb several times.No stage ended at the top, the cyclists always had to ride down, right into Morzine.1978 Christian Seznec (FRA)1980 Mariano Martínez (FRA)1981 Robert Alban (FRA)1982 Peter Winnen (NLD)1983 Jacques Michaud (FRA)1984 Ángel Arroyo (ESP)1987 Eduardo Chozas (ESP)1991 Thierry Claveyrolat (FRA)1997 Marco Pantani (ITA)2000 Richard Virenque (FRA)2006 Floyd Landis (USA) 2016 Jarlinson Pantano (COL)(Leadpicture: Stephen Roche and Pedro Delgado on Col du Joux Plane in 1987) 

For the first time in Tour de France history Col du Galibier is climbed in the 5th stage at Tour de France 1911

10 July 1911 The first mountain stage in the Alps at Tour de France

After the introduction of the Pyrenees to the race in 1910, the next big challenge of Tour de France was how to include the “giants of the Alps” into the program.  The story behind using Galibier, Thelegraphe, Aravis, and Lautarer was far less dramatic than the organizers’ first encounter with Col du Tourmalet. Nevertheless, the 5th stage of Tour de France 1911 between Chamonix and Grenoble was 366 km long and it took 13 hours and 35 minutes for stage winner Émile Georget to finish it. Paul Duboc was 15 minutes, Gustave Garrigou, the leader of the general classification 26 minutes behind him. (Please note, this was the time, between 1905 and 1912, when the… Read More »10 July 1911 The first mountain stage in the Alps at Tour de France

Fausto Coppi Gino Bartali Tour de France 1949

9 July 1949 First time a Tour de France stage finished in Spain

It was the  228 km long 9th stage between Bordeaux and San Sebastian on the 9th July 1949. Louis Caput was the winner of the stage. Tour de France used to visit neighbour countries  during the early years of its history already. Read more about when Tour de France went abroad before 1914. Tour de France in 1949 considered one of the greatest of every TDF editions. Read more about the rivalry of Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali during Tour de France 1949. Fun fact: 1949 was the  first year, when someone – Fausto Coppi – managed to win both the Giro d’Italia and a Tour de France in the same year.  Also, read more about… Read More »9 July 1949 First time a Tour de France stage finished in Spain