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132-465: Stage races Single-day races and Classics Tyler Hamilton (born March 1, 1971) is an American former professional road bicycle racer . He is the only American rider to win one of the five Monuments of cycling , taking Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 2003. Hamilton became a professional cyclist in 1995 with the US Postal Service cycling team . He was a teammate of Lance Armstrong during

264-523: A "double" blood transfusion planned by Fuentes. The evidence presented by El País also implicated Hamilton's wife in facilitating Hamilton's doping. Fuentes was arrested with team director Manolo Saiz in May 2006 as part of the Operación Puerto investigation. On June 26, 2006, Hamilton stated on his website: "I was very upset to read the accusations against me and to see my name associated with

396-487: A España . The race was first organized in 1903 to increase sales for the newspaper L'Auto (which was an ancestor of L'Équipe ). and has been held annually since, except when it was not held from 1915 to 1918 and 1940 to 1946 due to the two World Wars . As the Tour gained prominence and popularity, the race was lengthened and gained more international participation. The Tour is a UCI World Tour event, which means that

528-738: A book The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs , which details his doping practices and experience in the world of cycling. On August 10, 2012 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped Hamilton of his 2004 gold medal. Hamilton was raised in Marblehead, Massachusetts , and attended Holderness School in Plymouth, New Hampshire , where he started cycling. After graduating in 1990, he attended

660-402: A breakaway (as described below). Occasionally, the distinction between medium mountain and mountain in stage classification, decided by race officials, can be controversial. The Giro d'Italia has had a reputation of labeling selective, very difficult stages as merely medium mountain. Lastly, a handful of stages each year are known as being "good for a breakaway"—when one or a few riders attacks

792-426: A call from federal investigator Jeff Novitzky , who wanted to talk to him. He refused and was served a subpoena , whereupon he decided to tell everything. Some former teammates of Lance Armstrong and other witnesses appeared, until the federal government dropped the charges. The USADA took over the investigation under civil law, and Armstrong was ultimately stripped of all his titles from August 1998 onward. Armstrong

924-410: A couple of minutes, to cross the finish line. Riders who crash within the last three kilometres of the stage are credited with the finishing time of the group that they were with when they crashed, if that is better than the time in which they actually finish. This avoids sprinters being penalized for accidents that do not accurately reflect their performance on the stage as a whole given that crashes in

1056-403: A few seconds of improvement to their finishing time. There is a rule that if one rider finishes less than three seconds behind another then he is credited with the same finishing time as the first. This operates transitively, so when the peloton finishes together every rider in it gets the time of the rider at the front of the peloton, even though the peloton takes tens of seconds, and possibly even

1188-582: A first offense. On May 18, 2005, he appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport but, after allowing Hamilton to gather evidence, the court dismissed his appeal. Hamilton claimed the UCI-sanctioned test was insufficiently validated (and may have returned a false positive result) and that some of the agencies involved had concealed documents that would support his case. He also maintained that, even if foreign cells were present, they were natural and not

1320-405: A group known as the "bus" or "autobus" and ride at a steady pace to the finish. Their only goal is to cross the line within a certain limit—usually the stage winner's time plus 15% – or else they'll be disqualified from the race (at the discretion of the officials; on rare occasions a lead breakaway becomes so large that the entire peloton falls that far back and would normally be allowed to remain in

1452-399: A jersey, he wears the yellow one, since the general classification is the most important one in the race. Between 1905 and 1912 inclusive, in response to concerns about rider cheating in the 1904 race , the general classification was awarded according to a point-based system based on their placings in each stage, and the rider with the lowest total of points after the Tour's conclusion was

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1584-457: A newspaper magnate whose sole condition was that his sports editor, Félix Lévitan , should join Goddet for the Tour. The two worked together—with Goddet running the sporting side, and Lévitan the financial. On the Tour's return, the format of the race settled on between 20 and 25 stages. Most stages would last one day, but the scheduling of 'split' stages continued well into the 1980s. 1953 saw

1716-662: A one/two day race ( La Course by Le Tour de France ) was held between 2014 and 2021. The first Tour de France Femmes was held in 2022 . The Tour de France was created in 1903. The roots of the Tour de France trace back to the emergence of two rival sports newspapers in the country. On one hand was Le Vélo , the first and the largest daily sports newspaper in France, on the other was L'Auto , which had been set up by journalists and businesspeople including Comte Jules-Albert de Dion , Adolphe Clément , and Édouard Michelin in 1899. The rival paper emerged following disagreements over

1848-426: A proliferation of sprint finishes on flat stages. Until 1930 , Desgrange demanded that riders mend their bicycles without help and that they use the same bicycle from start to end. Exchanging a damaged bicycle for another was allowed only in 1923 . Desgrange stood against the use of multiple gears, and for many years insisted riders use wooden rims, fearing the heat of braking while coming down mountains would melt

1980-443: A request to move forward with disciplinary action." USA Cycling referred the case to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. On April 30, 2007, La Gazzetta dello Sport published allegations that Spanish authorities had completed a second dossier on Operation Puerto, 6000 pages long and naming 49 cyclists. Hamilton was again named, with the detail that he was #11 on Dr. Fuentes's coded list of clients. Hamilton did not admit any wrongdoing at

2112-512: A result, the UCI decided that each of Armstrong's seven wins would be revoked. This decision cleared the names of many people, including lesser-known riders, reporters, team medical staff, and even the wife of a rider who had their reputations tarnished or had been forced from the sport due to pressure from Armstrong and his support staff. Much of this only became possible after Floyd Landis came forward to USADA . Also around this time, an investigation by

2244-510: A rider if the score exceeds 133. This sample also showed someone else's blood was in his bloodstream. However, neither piece of evidence in isolation constituted a positive drug test (and the test for a mixed cell population had not yet been adopted), so no action was taken. On April 18, 2005 Hamilton was sanctioned by the United States Anti-Doping Agency and received a two-year suspension, the maximum sentence for

2376-507: A rider will be given the honor of leading the rest of the peloton onto the circuit finish in their final Tour, as was the case for Jens Voigt and Sylvain Chavanel , among others. From the late 1970s and into the early 1980s, the Tour was dominated by Frenchman Bernard Hinault , who would become the third rider to win five times. Hinault was defeated by Joop Zoetemelk in 1980 when he withdrew, and only once in his Tour de France career

2508-402: A serious problem, culminating in the death of Tom Simpson in 1967 , after which riders went on strike, although the organisers suspected sponsors provoked them. The Union Cycliste Internationale introduced limits to daily and overall distances, imposed rest days, and tests were introduced for riders. It was then impossible to follow the frontiers, and the Tour increasingly zig-zagged across

2640-525: A six-day race of the sort popular on the track but all around France. Long-distance cycle races were a popular means to sell more newspapers, but nothing of the length that Lefèvre suggested had been attempted. The first Tour de France was staged in 1903. The plan was a five-stage race from 31 May to 5 July, starting in Paris and stopping in Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, and Nantes before returning to Paris. Toulouse

2772-401: A team to ride the Tour once more, but Armstrong refused because Landis was a convicted doper. Landis joined OUCH , an American continental team, and not long after this initiated contact with USADA to discuss Armstrong. In 2011 , Cadel Evans became the first Australian to win the Tour after coming up just short several times in the previous few editions. The 2012 Tour de France was won by

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2904-529: A year. That attracted between 60 and 80 entrants – the higher number may have included serious inquiries and some who dropped out – among them not just professionals but amateurs, some unemployed, and some simply adventurous. The first Tour de France started almost outside the Café Reveil-Matin at the junction of the Melun and Corbeil roads in the village of Montgeron . It was waved away by

3036-489: A yellow flag. The top-10 finishers in each of the first two stages are awarded bonus championship points. The points earned are added to a driver/owner's regular season points total, while the winner of the stage receives an additional point that can be carried into the NASCAR playoffs . The stage lengths vary by track, but the first two stages usually combine to equal about half of the race. The final stage (which still pays out

3168-588: Is a top ranked race (UCI 2.HC ). In August 2008 he won the US National Road Race Championship. On April 17, 2009 it was revealed that Tyler had failed an out-of-competition drug test; this time for a banned steroid ( DHEA ), which he claimed to be taking for anti-depression purposes despite knowing that it is on the World Anti-Doping Agency banned list. He announced his decision to retire. In June 2009, Hamilton

3300-419: Is the second-oldest jersey awarding classification in the Tour de France. The mountains classification was added to the Tour de France in the 1933 edition and was first won by Vicente Trueba . Prizes for the classification were first awarded in 1934 . During stages of the race containing climbs, points are awarded to the first riders to reach the top of each categorized climb, with points available for up to

3432-533: The 2002 Tour de France , riding in support of Carlos Sastre and finished 15th overall. In 2003, Hamilton became the first American rider to win Liège–Bastogne–Liège , breaking away from a select group of riders around four kilometers from the line in wet conditions. He later won the Tour de Romandie that year, as he prepared to race the Tour de France . In the 2003 Tour de France he broke his collarbone on

3564-540: The 2004 Vuelta a España , Hamilton was suspended for two years from the sport. Hamilton came back after his suspension and became national road race champion in 2008. In 2009, Hamilton failed a doping test again, and was banned for eight years, which effectively caused him to retire. In July 2010, he was subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury for the use of performance-enhancing drugs in cycling. In May 2011, Hamilton admitted that he had used banned substances in competition, and returned his gold medal. In 2012, he co-authored

3696-462: The 2024 Summer Olympics ) a finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. The modern editions of the Tour de France consist of 21 day-long stages over a 23 or 24 day period and cover approximately 3,500 kilometres (2,200 mi) total. The race alternates between clockwise and counterclockwise circuits. Twenty to twenty-two teams of eight riders usually compete. All of the stages are timed to

3828-530: The Dreyfus Affair . De Dion, Clément and Michelin were particularly concerned with Le Vélo —which reported more than cycling—because its financial backer was one of their commercial rivals, the Darracq company. De Dion believed Le Vélo gave Darracq too much attention and him too little. De Dion was rich and could afford to indulge his whims. The new newspaper appointed Henri Desgrange as the editor. He

3960-628: The General Classification five times, the Mountains Classification twice, the Points Classification three times and held the record for the most stage victories (34) until overtaken by Mark Cavendish in 2024. Merckx's dominating style earned him the nickname "The Cannibal". In 1969 , he already had a commanding lead when he launched a long-distance solo attack in the mountains which none of

4092-554: The Pyrenees ) appeared in 1910 . Early tours had long multi-day stages, with the format settling on 15 stages from 1910 until 1924 . After this, stages were gradually shortened, such that by 1936 there were as many as three stages in a single day. Desgrange initially preferred to see the Tour as a race of individuals. The first Tours were open to whoever wanted to compete. Most riders were in teams that looked after them. The private entrants were called touriste-routiers— tourists of

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4224-431: The U.S. Postal Service cycling team and raced for them in the 1997 , 1998 , 1999 , 2000 and 2001 Tour de France . Hamilton protected Lance Armstrong in the mountains, and was on Armstrong's first three Tour de France winning Postal squads and quickly grew to stardom. Hamilton acted as a scout in individual time trials , riding as hard as possible to provide time-split comparisons for Armstrong. During this time he won

4356-659: The University of Colorado at Boulder as a ski racer but never finished the final semester of his BA degree course in economics. A back injury (two broken vertebrae while mountain bike training on ski jump) at the University of Colorado developmental ski team in September 1991 ended his skiing, and he switched to cycling. He turned pro in 1995 for the Montgomery Bell Cycling team which later became

4488-638: The Volvo Ocean Race , Velux 5 Oceans Race , Clipper Round the World Yacht Race and Global Challenge . Tour de France The Tour de France ( French pronunciation: [tuʁ də fʁɑ̃s] ) is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race held primarily in France. It is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tours , which include the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta

4620-583: The Vuelta a España to an alleged homologous blood transfusion. Despite admitting throughout the work that he very regularly used EPO, testosterone pills and patches, and autologous blood transfusions (all banned practices), Hamilton staunchly opposed the sanction, since he had never used the blood of another person. It was speculated that Fuentes and his assistant had mixed the blood of another rider with his. His career in shambles, he raced for lesser teams after his suspension, tested positive for DHEA (in an OTC herbal anti-depressant) and retired. He later received

4752-419: The 1999 Danmark Rundt and the 2000 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré , winning stages 4 and 5. In 2001, Hamilton left U.S. Postal for Team CSC . He was made a leader under manager Bjarne Riis . Hamilton fractured a shoulder in a crash in the 2002 Giro d'Italia but still managed to win stage 14 and finish second overall, under 2 minutes behind race winner Paolo Savoldelli . Later that year, he participated in

4884-484: The 1999, 2000 and 2001 Tours de France, where Armstrong won the general classification . He was a key asset for Armstrong, being a very good climber as well as time-trialist. Hamilton appeared at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics . In 2004, he won a gold medal at the individual time trial. The first doping test after his Olympic victory gave a positive result, but because the backup sample was frozen, no doping offence could be proven. After he failed further doping tests at

5016-542: The 2003 season. The racing program correlates with Hamilton's races in 2003, according to Politiken. The calendar includes two blood transfusions during the Tour de France . “The first time before the three stages in the Alps and the second before the 12th stage – a 47 km individual time trial,” write the reporters. The article stated that such an ambitious program would have required assistance – “at least four or five people,” according to Damsgaard. The next day, August 20, 2006,

5148-580: The 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens , Hamilton won the gold medal in the men's individual time trial . That medal was placed in doubt on September 20, 2004, after he failed a test for blood doping (receiving blood transfusions to boost performance) at the Olympics. Two days after the announcement of his positive test at Athens, the IOC announced Hamilton would keep his medal because results could not be obtained from

5280-450: The 2012 William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. In the book, he details his career and his relationship with Lance Armstrong , for whom he was a teammate and a confidant. It also details some of the doping practices he and Armstrong were using on the U.S. Postal Service team, such as EPO injections and blood transfusions. They parted ways when Hamilton went riding for CSC. This decision

5412-556: The Belgian Dutch language Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper published more details of Hamilton's doping diary. Among many allegations, the article claims he took EPO 30 times between December 2002 and February 2003 while riding for Team CSC . In 2003, claimed Het Laatste Nieuws, Hamilton used doping on 114 of his 200 racing days. On September 14, 2006, USA Cycling announced information from the UCI "regarding Tyler Hamilton and his alleged involvement in 'Operación Puerto' along with

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5544-477: The French government into doping in cycling revealed that way back during the 1998 Tour, close to 90% of the riders who were tested, retroactively tested positive for EPO. The result of these doping scandals being that in the case of Landis in 2006, and Contador in 2010, new winners were declared in Óscar Pereiro and Andy Schleck , respectively; however, in the case of the seven Tours revoked from Armstrong, there

5676-541: The Lion , the name of the cheese maker that sponsored the award), as the most daring racer of the stage. He finished the 2003 Tour de France 4th overall and returned home nationally recognized. In 2004, Hamilton left Team CSC and joined the Phonak Hearing Systems . He assembled a team of good, well-known riders and prepared for racing in the upcoming Tour de France, winning the 2004 Tour of Romandie for

5808-573: The Madrid daily El País alleged that the Spanish civil guard investigation of doping in Spanish professional sport, " Operación Puerto ", had found that Hamilton paid more than US$ 50,000 to Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes between 2002 and 2004 to plan and administer his use of performance-enhancing erythropoietin (EPO), growth hormone treatment , blood doping, and masking agents. El País charged that Hamilton's 2003 win of Liège–Bastogne–Liège came days after

5940-544: The Mediterranean coast on 16 August 1940. The race was taken over by his deputy, Jacques Goddet . The Tour was again disrupted by War after 1939, and did not return until 1947 . In 1944, L'Auto was closed—its doors nailed shut—and its belongings, including the Tour, sequestrated by the state for publishing articles too close to the Germans. Rights to the Tour were therefore owned by the government. Jacques Goddet

6072-594: The Operación Puerto investigation in Spain. I have not been treated by Dr. Fuentes. I have not done what the article alleges. In addition, I have never been contacted by authorities in Spain regarding these allegations. Therefore, it is impossible to comment on a situation I have no knowledge of." The Copenhagen daily, Politiken , published further charges stemming from Operación Puerto on August 19, 2006. The article summarizes Hamilton's alleged doping program during 2003. It quotes Danish doping researcher Rasmus Damsgaard on

6204-514: The Tour among other events—replaced Leblanc in 2007, having been assistant director for three years. In 1993 ownership of L'Équipe moved to the Amaury Group , which formed Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) to oversee its sports operations, although the Tour itself is operated by its subsidiary the Société du Tour de France. 1988 onward was arguably the beginning of what can be referred to as

6336-474: The Tour de France using banned substances, and he was no longer considered the winner by the Tour's organizers. In July 2008, the Tour reconfirmed his victory but with an asterisk label to indicate his doping offences. In 2013 Jan Ullrich , the first German rider to win the Tour (in 1997 ), admitted to blood doping. During the 1998 Tour de France , a doping scandal known as the Festina Affair shook

6468-427: The Tour de France, and cycling in general. Roche was the first winner from Ireland; however, in the years leading up to his victory, cyclists from numerous other countries began joining the ranks of the peloton. In 1982 , Sean Kelly of Ireland (points) and Phil Anderson of Australia (young rider) became the first winners of any Tour classifications from outside cycling's Continental Europe heartlands, while Lévitan

6600-491: The Tour from teams, insisting competitors enter in national teams rather than trade teams and that competitors ride plain yellow bicycles that he would provide, without a maker's name. There was no place for individuals in the post-1930s teams, and so Desgrange created regional teams, generally from France, to take in riders who would not otherwise have qualified. The original touriste-routiers mostly disappeared, but some were absorbed into regional teams. Desgrange died at home on

6732-466: The Tour or the Giro, there is a secondary competition on points (e.g. Points classification in the Tour de France ), which tends to be contested by sprinters. Riders collect points for being one of the first to finish the stage and also for being one of the first three to finish an "intermediate" sprint. Sprinters also can get time bonuses, meaning that good sprinters may lead the general classification during

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6864-514: The Tour was not held in July. This saw the first of two successive victories for Tadej Pogačar of UAE Team Emirates , who was the first Slovenian winner, and the second youngest (at 21) after Henri Cornet in 1904. He also won the mountain and youth classifications, becoming the first rider since Eddy Merckx in 1972 to win three jerseys in a single Tour. Pogačar repeated this triple in 2021 . On stage 13 of this Tour, sprinter Mark Cavendish tied

6996-423: The Tour were built on an exceptional ability to ride alone against the clock in individual time trial stages, which lent him the name "Monsieur Chrono" . Anquetil enjoyed a rivalry with Raymond Poulidor , who was known as " The Eternal Second ", because he never won the Tour, despite finishing in second place three times, and in third place five times (including his final Tour at the age of 40). Doping had become

7128-418: The aforementioned classifications wears a distinctive jersey, with riders leading multiple classifications wearing the jersey of the most prestigious that he leads. In addition to these four classifications, there are several minor and discontinued classifications that are competed for during the race. The oldest and most sought-after classification in the Tour de France is the general classification. All of

7260-416: The age of 26 (white jersey), and the team classification , based on the first three finishers from each team on each stage. Achieving a stage win also provides prestige, often accomplished by a team's sprint specialist or a rider taking part in a breakaway. A similar race for women was held under various names between 1984 and 2009. Following criticism by campaigners and the professional women's peloton,

7392-478: The all-time stage wins record in the Tour. The oldest and main competition in the Tour de France is known as the "general classification", for which the yellow jersey is awarded; the winner of this is said to have won the race. A few riders from each team aim to win overall, but there are three further competitions to draw riders of all specialties: points, mountains, and a classification for young riders with general classification aspirations. The leader of each of

7524-509: The chance he worked so hard for with a stunning and improbable solo breakaway on Stage 17 in which he set himself up to win the Tour in the final time trial, which he then did. Not long after the Tour was over, however, Landis was accused of doping and had his Tour win revoked. Over the next few years, a new star in Alberto Contador came onto the scene; however, during the 2007 edition, a veteran Danish rider, Michael Rasmussen ,

7656-533: The col du Grand Bois, outside St-Étienne. The leading riders, including the winner Maurice Garin, were disqualified, though it took the Union Vélocipèdique de France until 30 November to make the decision. McGann says the UVF waited so long "...well aware of the passions aroused by the race." Desgrange's opinion of the fighting and cheating showed in the headline of his reaction in L'Auto : THE END. By

7788-505: The competition to avoid having only a small field still in competition). Meanwhile, the lighter climbers hurl themselves up the slopes at a much higher speed. Usually, the General Classification riders try to stay near the front group, and also try to keep a few teammates with them. These teammates are there to drive the pace—and hopefully "drop" the opposition riders—and to provide moral support to their leader. Typically,

7920-572: The confession in an email to friends and family after a taping of the TV news show 60 Minutes , during which he also implicated Lance Armstrong in the doping scandal. Hamilton then voluntarily surrendered the gold medal he won at the 2004 Summer Olympics to the United States Anti-Doping Agency , which said it would continue its joint investigative work with the IOC. On August 10, 2012, the IOC officially stripped Hamilton of his 2004 Olympic gold medal and ordered that it be returned to them. On June 18, 2006,

8052-408: The country, sometimes with unconnected days' races linked by train, while still maintaining some sort of loop. The Tour returned to national teams for 1967 and 1968 as "an experiment". The Tour returned to trade teams in 1969 with a suggestion that national teams could come back every few years, but this has not happened since. In the early 1970s, the race was dominated by Eddy Merckx , who won

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8184-450: The doping era. A new drug, erythropoietin (EPO), began to be used; it could not be detected by drug tests of the time. Pedro Delgado won the 1988 Tour de France by a considerable margin, and in 1989 and 1990 Lemond returned from injury and won back-to-back Tours, with the 1989 edition still standing as the closest two-way battle in TDF history, with Lemond claiming an 8-second victory on

8316-466: The doping fiasco of the previous year. Initially it seemed to be a Cinderella story when cancer survivor Lance Armstrong stole the show on Sestriere and kept on riding to the first of his astonishing seven consecutive Tour de France victories; however, in retrospect, 1999 was just the beginning of the doping problem getting much, much worse. Following Armstrong's retirement in 2005 , the 2006 edition saw his former teammate Floyd Landis finally get

8448-420: The extra effort to keep the jersey for as long as possible in order to get more publicity for the team and its sponsors. Eddy Merckx wore the yellow jersey for 96 stages, which is more than any other rider in the history of the Tour. Four riders have won the general classification five times in their career: Jacques Anquetil , Eddy Merckx , Bernard Hinault , and Miguel Induráin . The mountains classification

8580-564: The face of Operation Puerto rumors. However, on May 9, with rumors circulating about Hamilton's role in the April 30 dossier, the team dropped him for the 2007 Giro d'Italia . In September 2007, Tyler competed at the US national championship in Greenville, SC , coming sixth in the time trial and 12th in the road race. In December, Rock Racing said Hamilton would ride for them in 2008. Rock Racing

8712-475: The final three kilometre can be huge pileups that are hard to avoid for a rider farther back in the peloton. A crashed sprinter inside the final three kilometres will not win the sprint, but avoids being penalised in the overall classification. Ordinary stages can be further classified as "sprinters' stages" or "climbers' stages". The former tend to be raced on relatively flat terrain, which makes it difficult for small groups or individual cyclists to break away from

8844-413: The final time trial to best Laurent Fignon. The early 1990s was dominated by Spaniard Miguel Induráin , who won five Tours from 1991 to 1995 , the fourth, and last, to win five times, and the only five-time winner to achieve those victories consecutively. He wore the race leader's yellow jersey in the Tour de France for 60 days. He holds the record for the most consecutive Tour de France wins and shares

8976-518: The finish and the riders' times are compounded with their previous stage times. The rider with the lowest cumulative time is the leader of the race and wears the yellow jersey. While the general classification attracts the most attention, there are other contests held within the Tour: the points classification for the sprinters (green jersey), the mountains classification for the climbers (polka dot jersey), young rider classification for riders under

9108-417: The first 10 riders, depending on the classification of the climb. Climbs are classified according to the steepness and length of that particular hill, with more points available for harder climbs. The classification was preceded by the meilleur grimpeur (English: best climber ) which was awarded by the organising newspaper L'Auto to a cyclist who completed each race. The classification awarded no jersey to

9240-498: The first British rider to ever win the Tour, Bradley Wiggins , while finishing on the podium just behind him was Chris Froome , who along with Contador became the next big stars to attempt to contest the giants of Anquetil , Merckx, Hinault, Indurain and Armstrong. Overshadowing the entire sport at this time, however, was the Lance Armstrong doping case , which finally revealed much of the truth about doping in cycling. As

9372-535: The first few stages of a big multi-day event. In NASCAR racing, starting with the 2017 season, races in the top three national touring series are completed in three stages, four in the case of the NASCAR Cup Series's longest race, the Coca-Cola 600 . A stage consists of normal green flag racing followed by a stoppage on a designated lap signified by the waving of a green and white checkered flag, then

9504-465: The first rider to win the Tour in three successive years, 1953 , 1954 and 1955 . Jacques Anquetil became the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times, in 1957 and from 1961 to 1964 . He stated before the 1961 Tour that he would gain the yellow jersey on day one and wear it all through the tour, a tall order with two previous winners in the field— Charly Gaul and Federico Bahamontes —but he did it. His victories in stage races such as

9636-495: The first stage in a pile-up. Instead of withdrawing from the race, he stayed to finish the tour, and exceeded everyone's expectations when he was able to follow and attack Armstrong up Alpe d'Huez on stage 8. Later, he rode one of the Tour's most memorable feats, winning stage 16 with a 142 km solo breakaway, gaining two minutes over the field. For his stage win, Hamilton was awarded the Coeur de Lion prize ( French for Heart of

9768-441: The following spring, Desgrange was planning a longer Tour, with 11 stages rather than 6—and this time all in daylight to make any cheating more obvious. Stages in 1905 began between 3 am and 7:30 am. The race captured the imagination. The Tour returned after its suspension during World War I and continued to grow. Desgrange and his Tour invented bicycle stage racing . Desgrange experimented with different ways of judging

9900-477: The glue that held the tires on metal rims (however, they were finally allowed in 1937 ). By the end of the 1920s, Desgrange believed he could not beat what he believed were the underhand tactics of bike factories. When in 1929 the Alcyon team contrived to get Maurice De Waele to win even though he was sick, he said, "My race has been won by a corpse". In 1930 , Desgrange again attempted to take control of

10032-631: The initial stages, as the physical effort the tour required was just too much. Only a mere 24 entrants remained at the end of the fourth stage. The race finished on the edge of Paris at Ville d'Avray, outside the Restaurant du Père Auto, before a ceremonial ride into Paris and several laps of the Parc des Princes. Garin dominated the race, winning the first and last two stages, at 25.68 kilometres per hour (15.96 mph). The last rider, Arsène Millocheau , finished 64h 47m 22s behind him. L'Auto 's mission

10164-464: The introduction of the Green Jersey 'Points' competition. National teams contested the Tour until 1961 . The teams were of different sizes. Some nations had more than one team, and some were mixed in with others to make up the number. National teams caught the public imagination but had a snag: that riders might normally have been in rival trade teams the rest of the season. The loyalty of riders

10296-542: The leader until the 1975 Tour de France , when the organizers decided to award a distinctive white jersey with red dots to the leader. This is colloquially referred to in English as the "polka dot" jersey. The climbers' jersey is worn by the rider who, at the start of each stage, has the largest number of climbing points. If the race leader is also leading the Mountains classification, the polka dot jersey will be worn by

10428-448: The leader will attack very hard when there are only a few kilometres to go, trying to put time into his main rivals. Gaps of two and even three minutes can be created over just a few kilometres by hard attacks. In larger stage races, some stages may be designated as "medium mountain", "hilly" or "intermediate" stages. These stages are more difficult than flat stages, but not as difficult as the mountain stages. They are often well-suited for

10560-476: The length to 19 days, changed the dates to 1 to 19 July, and offered a daily allowance to those who averaged at least 20 kilometres per hour (12 mph) on all the stages, equivalent to what a rider would have expected to earn each day had he worked in a factory. He also cut the entry fee from 20 to 10 francs and set the first prize at 12,000 francs and the prize for each day's winner at 3,000 francs. The winner would thereby win six times what most workers earned in

10692-414: The line—200 metres away is about the maximum—the sprinter launches himself around his final lead-out man in an all-out effort for the line. Top speeds can be in excess of 72 km/h (about 45 mph). Sprint stages rarely result in big time differences between riders (see above), but contenders for the General Classification tend to stay near the front of the peloton to avoid crashes. Mountain stages, on

10824-524: The most championship points) usually equals the other half. The first driver to win a National Series race under the stage race format was GMS Racing Camping World Truck Series driver Kaz Grala who won the season opener at Daytona International Speedway in February 2017 after holding off Austin Wayne Self . Round-the-world sailing races are sometimes held over stages. Notable examples are

10956-422: The next eligible rider in the Mountains standings. At the end of the Tour, the rider holding the most climbing points wins the classification. Some riders may race with the aim of winning this particular competition, while others who gain points early on may shift their focus to the classification during the race. The Tour has five categories for ranking the mountains the race covers. The scale ranges from category 4,

11088-563: The organization Hamilton's program would have required. It cites Bjarne Riis , Hamilton's directeur sportif in 2003, denying knowledge of Hamilton's doping. And the article states that the reporters attempted to contact Hamilton on numerous occasions but were unable to reach him. The article's allegations are based on the rider's doping and racing calendar obtained by the paper. The calendar was seized in Operación Puerto. The doping calendar indicates use of EPO, growth hormone, testosterone, blood doping, and insulin on 114 days over seven months during

11220-457: The other elite riders could answer, resulting in an eventual winning margin of nearly eighteen minutes. In 1973 he did not win because he did not enter the Tour; instead, his great rival Luis Ocaña won. Merckx's winning streak came to an end when he finished 2nd to Bernard Thévenet in 1975 . During this era, race director Felix Lévitan began to recruit additional sponsors, sometimes accepting prizes in kind if he could not get cash. In 1975 ,

11352-524: The other hand, often do cause big "splits" in the finishing times, especially when the stage actually ends at the top of a mountain. (If the stage ends at the bottom of a mountain that has just been climbed, riders have the chance to descend aggressively and catch up to anyone who may have beaten them to the summit.) For this reason, the mountain stages are considered the deciding factor in most Tours, and are often attended by hundreds of thousands of spectators. Mountains cause big splits in finishing times due to

11484-423: The peloton and beats it to the finish line. Typically these stages are somewhere between flat and mountainous. Breakaway stages are where the rouleurs, the hard-working, all-around riders who make up the majority of most teams, get their chance to grab a moment in the spotlight. (The climbers will want to save their energy for the mountains, and the sprinters are not built for hills.) In the big multi-day events like

11616-450: The peloton—there are no big hills to slow it down. So more often than not, the entire peloton approaches the finish line en masse. Some teams are organized around a single specialized sprinter, and in the final kilometres of a sprint stage, these teams jockey for position at the front of the peloton. In the final few hundred metres, a succession of riders "lead out" their sprinter, riding very hard while he stays in their slipstream. Just before

11748-400: The perimeter of France. Cycling was an endurance sport, and the organisers realised the sales they would achieve by creating supermen of the competitors. Night riding was dropped after the second Tour in 1904, when there had been persistent cheating when judges could not see riders. That reduced the daily and overall distance, but the emphasis remained on endurance. The first mountain stages (in

11880-421: The podium. Pogačar won six stages, including five of the last eight stages. With his win, he became only the eighth rider, and the first since Marco Pantani in 1998 , to win the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France in the same calendar year. On stage 5 of the race, sprinter Mark Cavendish won his 35th overall Tour stage win, breaking the tie between him and Eddy Merckx , who held the record for 49 years, for

12012-454: The polka-dot jersey was introduced for the winner of the Mountains Classification . This same year Levitan also introduced the finish of the Tour at the Avenue des Champs-Élysées . Since then, this stage has been largely ceremonial and is generally only contested as a prestigious sprinters' stage. (See 'Notable Stages' below for examples of non-ceremonial finishes to this stage.) Occasionally,

12144-497: The race six days later, citing stomach problems. As winner of the stage, he was subjected to a doping test. He was told by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) on September 13, 2004 that his two samples from two days earlier showed a "foreign blood population." After supporting Hamilton, Phonak team managers withdrew their support after a second member of the team, Santiago Pérez , was found positive for

12276-409: The record for most wins with Jacques Anquetil , Bernard Hinault and Eddy Merckx . Induráin was a strong time trialist , gaining on rivals and riding defensively in the climbing stages. Induráin won only two Tour stages that were not individual time trials : mountain stages to Cauterets (1989) and Luz Ardiden (1990) in the Pyrenees . These superior abilities in the discipline fit perfectly with

12408-446: The record of Eddy Merckx for all time stage wins with 34. Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard , second in 2021, won in both 2022 and 2023 , with Pogačar coming second both times. The 2022 race was followed by the Tour de France Femmes , the first official Tour de France for women since 1989. In 2024 , Pogačar took back the Tour title, winning by more than six minutes over Vingegaard while Tour debutant, Remco Evenepoel , rounded out

12540-473: The result of a transfusion. Hamilton was banned until September 22, 2006, two years from the date his "B" sample in the Vuelta a España was found positive. In 2010, Hamilton was subpoenaed by a federal grand jury to testify in their doping investigation of Lance Armstrong. Hamilton admitted in his testimony that he took banned performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career. On May 20, 2011, he also made

12672-477: The road—from 1923 and were allowed to take part provided they make no demands on the organisers. Some of the Tour's most colourful characters have been touriste-routiers. One finished each day's race and then performed acrobatic tricks in the street to raise the price of a hotel. Until 1925, Desgrange forbade team members from pacing each other. The 1927 and 1928 Tours, however, consisted mainly of team time-trials , an unsuccessful experiment which sought to avoid

12804-529: The running of the race. Lévitan launched the Tour of America as a precursor to his plans to take the Tour de France to the US. The Tour of America lost much money, and it appeared to have been cross-financed by the Tour de France. In the years before 1987, Lévitan's position had always been protected by Émilien Amaury , the then owner of ASO , but Émilien Amaury would soon retire and leave son Philippe Amaury responsible. When Lévitan arrived at his office on 17 March 1987, he found that his doors were locked and he

12936-421: The same offense at the 2004 Vuelta a España. The positive sample at the Olympics, and the positive test at the Vuelta were not the only indications that Hamilton was manipulating his hematocrit level. In April 2004 his blood was found to have a high ratio of hemoglobin to reticulocytes (young red blood cells), indicative of EPO or blood doping. His score was 132.9; a clean athlete would score 90. The UCI suspends

13068-490: The second sample. The Athens lab had frozen the backup, which made it impossible to repeat the test. The Russian Olympic Committee appealed to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport to give Hamilton's medal to Russian silver medalist Viatcheslav Ekimov . However, on June 27, 2006, the court rejected the request. In the Vuelta a España , he won the stage 9 time trial on September 11, 2004, but left

13200-650: The second year in a row. Furthermore, he placed 2nd in the 2004 Dauphine Libere , beating Armstrong up the Mont Ventoux time trial which promoted him to one of the Tour de France favorites. However, in the 2004 Tour de France he dropped out on stage 13, after back pain mostly due to a crash on stage 6. In 2021 he married his long time girlfriend Kristina Hamilton and they welcomed a baby boy together. In 2019, Hamilton joined Black Swift Group, LLC, an investment advisor and money manager based in Boulder, Colorado. At

13332-424: The simple laws of physics. Firstly, the slower speeds mean that the aerodynamic advantage gained by slipstreaming is much smaller. Furthermore, lighter riders generate more power per kilogram than heavier riders; thus, the sprinters and the rouleurs (all-around good cyclists), who tend to be a bit bigger, suffer on the climbs and lose much time—40 minutes over a long stage is not unheard-of. Generally, these riders form

13464-409: The sport to its core when it became apparent that there was systematic doping going on in the sport. Numerous riders and a handful of teams were either thrown out of the race, or left of their own free will, and in the end Marco Pantani survived to win his lone Tour in a decimated main field. The 1999 Tour de France was billed as the ‘Tour of Renewal’ as the sport tried to clean up its image following

13596-412: The stages are timed to the finish. The riders' times are compounded with their previous stage times; so the rider with the lowest aggregate time is the leader of the race. The leader is determined after each stage's conclusion: he gains the privilege to wear the yellow jersey, presented on a podium in the stage's finishing town, for the next stage. If he is leading more than one classification that awards

13728-460: The starter, Georges Abran, at 3:16 p.m. on 1 July 1903. L'Auto hadn't featured the race on its front page that morning. Among the competitors were the eventual winner, Maurice Garin , his well-built rival Hippolyte Aucouturier , the German favourite Josef Fischer , and a collection of adventurers, including one competing as "Samson". Many riders dropped out of the race after completing

13860-473: The strenuous position at the front of the group. The majority of riders form a single large group, the "pack" (in French , the " peloton "), with attacking groups ahead of it and the occasional struggling rider dropping behind. In mountainous stages the peloton is likely to become fragmented, but in flat stages a split is rare. Where a group of riders reach the finish line together, they do not race each other for

13992-449: The teams that compete in the race are mostly UCI WorldTeams , with the exception of the teams that the organizers invite. Traditionally, the bulk of the race is held in July. While the route changes each year, the format of the race stays the same, and includes time trials, passage through the mountain's chains of the Pyrenees and the Alps , and (except in 2024 due to preparations for

14124-431: The time trial heavy Tours of the era, with many featuring between 150 and 200 km of time trialling vs the more common 50–80 km today. The influx of more international riders continued through this period, as in 1996 the race was won for the first time by a rider from Denmark, Bjarne Riis , who ended Miguel Induráin's reign with an attack on Hautacam . On 25 May 2007, Bjarne Riis admitted that he placed first in

14256-625: The time, and his defense was based on personal integrity. As US cyclist Bobby Julich who finished third in the Athens time trial that Hamilton won noted: Ironically, Julich confessed in 2012 that he doped during his career. The same year, Hamilton published a book, The Secret Race , where he admits he was the client "4142" in Fuentes' documents. Beginning in spring 2007, Hamilton began cycling again, having completed his two-year ban. He rode briefly for Tinkoff Credit Systems . It supported Hamilton in

14388-435: The whole race. Judging the race by points removed over-influential time differences but discouraged competitors from riding hard. It made no difference whether they finished fast or slow or separated by seconds or hours, so they were inclined to ride together at a relaxed pace until close to the line, only then disputing the final placings that would give them points. The format changed over time. The Tour originally ran around

14520-400: The winner. The leader in the first Tour de France was awarded a green armband. The yellow jersey (the color was chosen as the newspaper that created the Tour, L'Auto , was printed on yellow paper), was added to the race in the 1919 edition and it has since become a symbol of the Tour de France. The first rider to wear the yellow jersey was Eugène Christophe . Riders usually try to make

14652-452: The winner. Initially he used total accumulated time (as used in the modern Tour de France) but from 1906 to 1912 by points for placings each day. Desgrange saw problems in judging both by time and by points. By time, a rider coping with a mechanical problem—which the rules insisted he repair alone—could lose so much time that it cost him the race. Equally, riders could finish so separated that time gained or lost on one or two days could decide

14784-536: Was a professional team on the US circuit. Hamilton did not ride in the team's season-opening Tour of California because of that race's rules against riders involved in doping investigations. Wearing his Rock Racing gear, Tyler Hamilton finished second of approximately 60 category one and two riders March 9, 2008 at a collegiate criterium in Denver's City Park. In July 2008 he won the Tour of Qinghai Lake in China which

14916-462: Was a prominent cyclist and owner with Victor Goddet of the velodrome at the Parc des Princes . L'Auto sales were lower than the rival it was intended to surpass, leading to a crisis meeting on 20 November 1902 on the middle floor of L'Auto ' s office at 10 Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, Paris. The last to speak was the chief cycling journalist, a 26-year-old named Géo Lefèvre . Lefèvre suggested

15048-412: Was a risk, the trade said, that the industry would die if factories were not allowed the publicity of the Tour de France. The Tour returned to trade teams in 1962. In the same year, Émilion Amaury, owner of le Parisien Libéré , became financially involved in the Tour. He made Félix Lévitan co-organizer of the Tour, and it was decided that Levitan would focus on the financial issues, while Jacques Goddet

15180-423: Was accomplished, as circulation of the publication doubled throughout the race, making the race something much larger than Desgrange had ever hoped for. Such was the passion that the first Tour created in spectators and riders that Desgrange said the 1904 Tour de France would be the last. Cheating was rife, and riders were beaten up by rival fans as they neared the top of the col de la République, sometimes called

15312-463: Was added later to break the long haul across southern France from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Stages would go through the night and finish next afternoon, with rest days before riders set off again. But this proved too daunting and the costs too great for most and only 15 competitors had entered. Desgrange had never been wholly convinced and he came close to dropping the idea. Instead, he cut

15444-422: Was allowed to publish another daily sports paper, L'Équipe , but there was a rival candidate to run the Tour: a consortium of Sports and Miroir Sprint . Each organised a candidate race. L'Équipe and Le Parisien Libéré had La Course du Tour de France, while Sports and Miroir Sprint had La Ronde de France. Both were five stages, the longest the government would allow because of shortages. L'Équipe 's race

15576-405: Was also banned from bicycle racing and triathlon competition. Race stage In an ordinary stage of road bicycle racing , all riders start simultaneously and share the road. Riders are permitted to touch and to shelter behind each other. Riding in each other's slipstreams is crucial to race tactics: a lone rider has little chance of outracing a small group of riders who can take turns in

15708-402: Was better organised and appealed more to the public because it featured national teams that had been successful before the war, when French cycling was at a high. L'Équipe was given the right to organise the 1947 Tour de France . However, L'Équipe ' s finances were never sound, and Goddet accepted an advance by Émilion Amaury, who had supported his bid to run the postwar Tour. Amaury was

15840-560: Was fired. The organisation of the 1987 Tour de France was taken over by Jean-François Naquet-Radiguet. He was not successful in acquiring more funds, and was fired within one year. Months before the start of the 1988 Tour, director Jean-François Naquet-Radiguet was replaced by Xavier Louy. In 1988, the Tour was organised by Jean-Pierre Courcol , the director of L'Équipe , then in 1989 by Jean-Pierre Carenso and then by Jean-Marie Leblanc , who in 1989 had been race director. The former television presenter Christian Prudhomme —he commentated on

15972-425: Was given an eight-year ban after testing positive for a banned anti-depressant. Since September 2009, Hamilton has been providing private training services to other cyclists. On September 5, 2012, Random House ( Bantam Books ) published Hamilton's memoir The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs , coauthored with American writer Daniel Coyle. It won

16104-399: Was he soundly defeated, and this was by Laurent Fignon in 1984 . In 1986 , Hinault, who had won the year before with American rider Greg LeMond supporting him, publicly pledged to ride in support of LeMond. Several attacks during the race cast doubt on the sincerity of his promise, leading to a rift between the two riders and the entire La Vie Claire team, before LeMond prevailed. It

16236-573: Was highly competitive, and the lead changed hands eight times before Stephen Roche won. When Roche won the World Championship Road Race later in the season, he became only the second rider (after Merckx) to win cycling's Triple Crown , which meant winning the Giro d'Italia , the Tour and the Road World Cycling Championship in one calendar year. Lévitan helped drive an internationalization of

16368-404: Was in the maillot jaune late in the Tour, in position to win, when his own team sacked him for a possible doping infraction; this allowed the rising star Contador to ride mistake-free for the remaining stages to win his first. 2008 saw a Tour where so many riders were doping that, when it went ten days without a single doping incident, it became news. It was during this Tour that a UCI official

16500-549: Was influential in facilitating the participation in the 1983 Tour by amateur riders from the Eastern Bloc and Colombia. In 1984, for the first time, the Société du Tour de France organized the Tour de France Féminin , a version for women. It was run in the same weeks as the men's version, and it was won by Marianne Martin . While the global awareness and popularity of the Tour grew during this time, its finances became stretched. Goddet and Lévitan continued to clash over

16632-527: Was motivated by the fact that Armstrong had become cold and vindictive toward him. Hamilton then recounts the 2 years spent riding for Bjarne Riis , his sympathy for the former rider and how Riis introduced him to Eufemiano Fuentes, a Spanish doctor who would be later investigated in the Operacion Puerto doping affair. He then recounts his years on the Phonak Team when he tested positive during

16764-476: Was no alternate winner named. Team Sky dominated the event for several years, with wins for Bradley Wiggins , Chris Froome (four times) and Geraint Thomas before Egan Bernal became the first Colombian winner in 2019. The streak was interrupted only by Vincenzo Nibali 's 2014 win. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the 2020 Tour started in late August, the first time since the end of World War II that

16896-404: Was put in charge of sporting issues. The Tour de France was meant for professional cyclists, but in 1961 the organisation started the Tour de l'Avenir , the amateur version. Twice, in 1949 and 1952 , Italian rider Fausto Coppi won the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France in the same year, the first rider to do so. Louison Bobet was the first great French rider of the post-war period and

17028-484: Was quoted as saying, "These guys are crazy, and the sooner they start learning, the better." Roger Legeay , a Directeur Sportif for one of the teams noted how riders were secretly and anonymously buying doping products on the internet. Like Greg LeMond at the beginning of the EPO era, 2008 winner Carlos Sastre was a rider who went his entire career without a single doping incident and between approximately 1994 and 2011 this

17160-441: Was sometimes questionable, within and between teams. Sponsors were always unhappy about releasing their riders into anonymity for the biggest race of the year, as riders in national teams wore the colours of their country and a small cloth panel on their chest that named the team for which they normally rode. The situation became critical at the start of the 1960s. Sales of bicycles had fallen, and bicycle factories were closing. There

17292-405: Was the first ever victory for a rider from outside of Europe. The 1986 Tour is widely considered to be one of the most memorable in the history of the sport due to the battle between LeMond and Hinault. The 1987 edition was more uncertain than past editions, as previous winners Hinault and Zoetemelk had retired, LeMond was absent, and Fignon was suffering from a lingering injury. As such, the race

17424-534: Was the only Tour to have a winner with a clear biological passport. 2009 saw the return of Lance Armstrong and, strangely, after Contador was able to defeat his teammate, the Danish National Anthem was mistakenly played. No Danish rider was in contention in 2009, and Rasmussen, the only Danish rider capable of winning the Tour during this era, was not even in the race. Another rider absent was Floyd Landis, who had asked Armstrong to get him back on

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