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Tour de France: Brian Robinson, the first Briton to both compete and win a stage, has died aged 91

Brian Robinson competed in the Tour de France for the first time in 1955 and won stages in 1958 and 1959; Yorkshireman was also an ambassador for the Grand Depart of the Tour de France in his home county in 2014

Wednesday 26 October 2022 11:52, UK

Brian Robinson, the first Briton to win a stage of the Tour de France, has died at the age of 91.

Robinson won stages of the Tour in both 1958 and 1959, and was also the first British rider to complete cycling's most famous race in 1955.

A pioneer for Britons racing on the continent, he also won the prestigious Criterium du Dauphine stage race in 1961 and was the first Briton to stand on the podium of one of cycling's Monuments, Milan-Sanremo, finishing third in 1957.

The Yorkshireman's death was announced by his grandson and fellow cyclist Jake Womersley, who wrote on Twitter: "It's with great sadness the family of Brian Robinson have to announce his passing yesterday."

It's with great sadness the family of Brian Robinson have to announce his passing yesterday. Funeral detail to follow. pic.twitter.com/3rQL1aAMdK — Jake womersley (@Jake_womersley) October 26, 2022

Born in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, Robinson joined his local cycling club as a teenager and later took up racing in between working for the family building company.

He competed for Britain at the 1952 Olympics before turning professional, riding the Tour de France for the first time in 1955 when he finished 29th overall.

Pioneer. Trailblazer. Legend. Today we join the cycling community in sending our heartfelt condolences to the family of Brian Robinson – the first British rider to complete and win a stage at @LeTour , and member of the British Cycling Hall of Fame. pic.twitter.com/oimk7DzQff — British Cycling (@BritishCycling) October 26, 2022

In 1958 he took Britain's first stage win, on stage seven from Saint-Brieuc to Brest, though he did not get to raise his arms in victory that day, only learning he had won later in the evening when news came through that Italian Arigo Padovan, first across the line, had been disqualified.

He made up for that a year later when he won stage 20 of the 1959 Tour, from Annecy to Chalon-sur-Saone, by a full 20 minutes.

At a time when many professional cyclists lived hand to mouth, Robinson retired at the age of 33 to return to the UK with his family, still riding his bike in relative anonymity until he became an ambassador for the Grand Depart of the Tour de France in Yorkshire in 2014.

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Brian Robinson, first Briton to win a Tour de France stage, dies aged 91

• Yorkshireman won stages of Tour in 1958 and 1959
• Robinson was ambassador for Grand Depart in Yorkshire

Brian Robinson, the first Briton to win a stage of the Tour de France , has died at the age of 91. Robinson won stages of the Tour in 1958 and 1959 and was also the first British rider to complete cycling’s most famous race in 1955.

A pioneer for Britons racing on the continent, he won the prestigious Criterium du Dauphine stage race in 1961 and was the first Briton to stand on the podium of one of cycling’s Monuments, Milan-Sanremo, finishing third in 1957.

The Yorkshireman’s death was announced by his grandson and fellow cyclist Jake Womersley, who wrote on Twitter: “It’s with great sadness the family of Brian Robinson have to announce his passing yesterday.”

Born in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, Robinson joined his local cycling club as a teenager and later took up racing in between working for the family building company. He competed for Britain at the 1952 Olympics before turning professional, riding the Tour de France for the first time in 1955 when he finished 29th.

In 1958, he took Britain’s first stage win, on stage seven from Saint-Brieuc to Brest, though he did not get to raise his arms in victory that day, only learning he had won later in the evening when news came through that Arigo Padovan, first across the line, had been disqualified.

He made up for that a year later when he won stage 20 of the Tour, from Annecy to Chalon-sur-Saone, by 20 minutes.

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At a time when many professional cyclists lived hand to mouth, Robinson retired at the age of 33 to return to the UK with his family, still riding his bike in relative anonymity until he became an ambassador for the Grand Depart of the Tour de France in Yorkshire in 2014.

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Tour de France winners

Every winner of the Tour de France from 1903 onwards

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The roll-call of Tour de France winners contains the names of many of the world's best bike riders through time.

The most illustrious of the three Grand Tours, the Tour de France  has been taking place on an annual bases since 1903 - with two breaks in its history, one for each of the World Wars.

The most prolific winner would have been Lance Armstrong, who wore the yellow jersey in Paris for seven consecutive years between 1999 and 2005. However, he was stripped of all of his titles in 2012 following investigation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

Next in line, we have a prolific quartet of Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. All four have five titles to their names, Anquitel was the first to do it but Mercx is still the only person to have won the general, points and king of the mountains classifications in the same Tour - a feat he accomplished in 1969.

Chris Froome (now Israel Start-Up Nation) has four wins to his name - he won in in 2013 and then consecutively from 2015 to 2017 but hasn't managed to equal the record of five overall victories yet.

Tour de France titles won between 1999-2005 were formerly allocated to Lance Armstrong (USA) but stripped after he was found guilty of doping. No alternative winner has been announced for these years.

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How do you win the Tour de France?

In the first ever edition of the race, the winner of the General Classification earned their place based on overall riding time. However, following the disqualification of its 1904 victor, Maurice Garin, the organisers introduced a points based system.

Then, in 1912 they reverted back to awarding the win based on time. This remains the case today - the rider with the lowest overall accumulated time leads the General Classification and whoever holds that position once the peloton arrives in Paris is crowned the winner.

Youngest ever Tour de France winner

Henri Cornet, 19-years-old

Oldest ever Tour de France winner

Firmin Lambot, 36-years-old

First Tour de France winner

The first ever win went to a rider from the race's home country - Maurice Garin, in 1903.

First ever Tour de France GC disqualification

Also Garin. The Frenchman also won in 1904, however he was disqualified for allegedly using means of transport outside of the bicycle (car, rail).

The result was that Henri Cornet took his place, and at 19-years-old he will no doubt remain the youngest ever for a long time, if not indefinitely.

There have been quite a few disqualifications since, mostly for doping (Armstrong, 1999-2005, Floyd Landis, 2006, Alberto Contador, 2010).

First non-French Tour de France winner

The winner's list for the early years of the race is dominated by Frenchman. The first winner from outside the country of origin was 1909 leader François Faber of Luxembourg.

Britain took a while to catch up - the first British rider of the men's Tour de France race was Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) in 2012. GB now have five overall victories to their name thanks to Wiggins and Froome.

Smallest ever winning margin

In 1989, American Greg LeMond won over Laurent Fignon by just eight seconds.

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Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!

I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.

It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.

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MILANO-SANREMO 1957: Brian Robinson An Englishman Podiums

The best of ed.

Sadly Brian Robinson passed away in October 2022. Brian was a pioneer for the ‘British Legion’ of professional cyclist who followed him across the English Channel to try their hand in the continental peloton. Brian stood on the 3rd step of the 1957 Milan-Sanremo, Ed Hood spoke to Brian about ‘la Classicissima’ .

“I’m never happier than when I’m writing.” ~ Ed Hood, as spoken to Martin Williamson from the passenger seat, driving along a stage route at the Tour de France.

Dear Readers – Our beloved colleague and friend Ed Hood suffered a serious stroke in February.  We don’t expect Ed will make it back into our bunch, so we’ve started a GoFundMe page to help Ed with his future.  Read the full post here – and please consider donating.

** Click this link to donate to the GoFundMe page to help Ed **

We’ll be posting a selection of Ed’s work from the past 16 years, because great story-telling never gets old.

“If there had been the Poggio back then, they wouldn’t have seen me until the finish!” So says Brian Robinson, who in 1957, became the first English-speaker to stand on the podium of the Primavera. But for the cycling politics of the time, Robinson might well have pre-dated Tom Simpson as the first Englishman to win this legendary race, but let’s go back to ’57 and hear it from Brian.

“I was 27 and riding for St. Raphael-Gemiani, that was the team I rode with for my whole career, albeit we had different bike sponsors. I had just ridden Paris-Nice, which is good training for Milan-San Remo and whilst I can’t remember my exact placings, I think I got second on a stage and was in the top ten overall. In other words, I was going as well as I ever had. Before the start, our manager said that he was tying to poach the Spanish sprinter, Miguel Poblet away from the team he was with at the time – Ignis and we should help Poblet if we could; he was even on a Geminiani bike.”

I asked who was designated team leader for the race: “The squad wasn’t structured like that, whoever was going best on the day was the protected rider, that was one of the things I liked about the team. I wasn’t really a classics man, but that was a race that suited me; nearly 300 kilometres and hilly. The parcours for the finale was very similar back then, but the Poggio wasn’t added until later.”

“I attacked on the Capo Berta (one of the coastal climbs which helps mould the final result) and opened a gap. I was about 50 yards clear and behind me I heard Poblet yelling at me to wait. I did, and he got up to me, coming in to the finale there were three of us, the Belgian, Fred De Bruyne, who had won the Primavera in 1956 (De Bruyne was a very successful roadman-sprinter, he also won Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Tours) had come across to us.”

“I was friendly with Poblet and asked him how we should play the sprint; he said that he wanted me to lead-out. That’s what I did, Poblet won and De Bruyne got round me too, so I was third – I wasn’t unhappy with that.”

I asked if he had any regrets, it certainly sounded as if he had the legs to do better; “I sometimes think that I should have played my own cards instead of playing them for someone else. If there had been a Poggio back then I would definitely have cleared-off and they wouldn’t have seen me again until the finish. But there were team orders at the time and you can’t turn the clock back, ironically though, the negotiations to get Poblet to join our squad came to nothing, so I should have ridden my own race!”

I enquired about the bikes of the day; “My bike weighed 28 pounds – I wish I had the bike I ride now, back then. We always had good equipment so I was on Campag gears and chainset, 46/52 I think, top gear was 52 x 14, only Anquetil rode a 53 ring. The team tyres were French Dourdognes, but I rode Clement 50’s for special races. I used to stock-up on them when I visited Italy, you could buy them cheaper there.”

I wondered if there were any souvenirs of that great day; “No, that’s one regret I do have, we didn’t bother to keep trophies and mementos back then.” And, did I say that the morning I interviewed Brian, he had just done three hours on the bike? Sixty plus years-on and he’s still turning those pedals; it’s just a shame that there was no Poggio in 1957.

1957 Milano-Sanremo Result: 1. Miguel Poblet (Spa) Ignis-Doniselli in 6:55:51 2. Alfred de Bruyne (Bel) Carpano 3. Brian Robinson (GB) St.Raphael-Geminiani 4. Julien Schepens (Bel) Mercier-Hutchinson 5. Joseph Planckaert (Bel) Peugeot-BP-Dunlop 6. Nicolas Barone (Fra) St.Raphael-Geminiani 7. Nino Defilippis (Ita) Bianchi-Pirelli at 0:24 8. Rik Van Steenbergen (Bel) Peugeot-BP-Dunlop 9. Guido Messina (Ita) Asborno-Frejus 10. Dino Bruni (Ita) Bianchi-Pirelli.

* Read Ed Hood’s conversation with Brian Robinson on his Dauphine Libere win here . *

# Thanks to all the unknown photographers. #

It was November 2005 when Ed Hood first penned a piece for PEZ, on US legend Mike Neel. Since then he's covered all of the Grand Tours and Monuments for PEZ and has an article count in excess of 2,150 in the archive. He was a Scottish champion cyclist himself - many years and kilograms ago - and still owns a Klein Attitude, Dura Ace carbon Giant and a Fixie. He and fellow Scot and PEZ contributor Martin Williamson run the Scottish site www.veloveritas.co.uk where more of his musings on our sport can be found.

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1903 - The first Tour

Struggling publication, L'Auto , decides to hold a race around France as a publicity stunt to boost their readership. The Tour of France, would consist of six days riding, with a rest day in between each stage.

The idea of the tour was suggested by journalist, Geo Lefevre, although the magazine's editor, and subsequent tour organiser, Henri Desgrange, was at first unsure about the idea. He remained as organiser until 1936.

The colour yellow became synonymous with the tour as L'Auto was printed on yellow paper.

The first Tour de France was won by Maurice Garin.

Click here to read more on the first Tour de France

1904 - Almost the end

The second tour was blighted by cheating, prompting Desgrange to consider never holding it again.

The top four finishers were all disqualified for cheating. Maurice Garin, who finished first was found to have caught a train mid-race and took illegal feeds from race officials.

Riders were towed or took lifts from cars. One popular tactic was to tie a cord to a wing mirror, attached to a cork, held between the teeth.

Fans of rival riders would attack cyclists as they went past and leave nails in the road.

The tour was eventually awarded to 19 year-old, Henri Cornet. He remains the youngest ever winner.

Henri Paret was, and remains, the oldest ever rider, age 50 and 215 days old.

1910 - Assassins!

The first high mountain stage was across the Pyrenees.

The race was divided into 15 stages, and once again, Desgrange was unconvinced. He couldn't bare to watch the stage.

Upon conquering the mountains, rider Octave Lapize labelled the organisers as "assassins" for the gruelling task they had set.

The Broom Wagon was introduced, which would trundle behind, sweeping up those who couldn't handle the pace.

1911 - Over the top

The Tour crosses the Alps for the first time.

1914 - I'm sure it won't affect us...

The 1914 Tour started on the same day that Austria-Hungary's archduke, Franz Ferdinand was assassinated - the event that would light the touch paper for World War I.

The Tour concluded two days before the war started, and would be suspended for the next five years.

1919 - They call me mellow yellow

The yellow jersey is introduced for the first time.

Riders had previously worn a yellow armband.

Eugene Cristophe became the first to don the iconic jersey.

Click here to read more about the jersey classifications

1920 - Third time's the charm

Philippe Thys becomes the first triple winner. His feat would not be repeated until 1955 by Louison Bobet.

1921 - Packhorses

Riders are allowed to carry supplies for the first time. People rode with their spare tyres around their necks.

1922 - Isn't sir a little old for this?

The Tour's oldest winner is Firmin Lambot at 36 years-old.

1924 - "We were on dynamite!"

The Pelissier brothers, Henri and Francis reveal they were doping.

They rubbed cocaine in their eyes, chloroform on their gums and ointment on their knees.

1926 - I only signed up for a quick bike ride...

The longest ever race came in at 5,745 km (3569 miles)

1928 - This still isn't what I signed up for!

The largest ever number of dropouts from a Tour. Of 161 riders, only 41 finished.

1930 - National pride

Trade teams booted out of the competition - they didn't return until 1962.

Riders rode on generic yellow bikes, competing under their national flags.

The publicity caravan was created to fill the funding gap.

1933 - I told you so...

L'Auto's circulation has increased to around 854,000. Looks like Lefevre was right...

1935 - Tragedy strikes

Spain's Francisco Cepeda becomes the first rider to die on the Tour, following a crash on a descent. He would not be the last.

1936 - Passing the baton

Ill health forces Henri Desgrange to hand over running of the Tour to his deputy, Jacques Goddet.

1944 - Out with the old

L'Auto is shut down for continuing to publish during the German occupation of France.

L'Equipe is founded and bids to relaunch the Tour.

1947 - No hard feelings

The Tour restarts, although Germany are banned from entering for the next decade.

1951 - That was close!

Wim Van Est falls into a ravine but survives. Lucky boy.

1954 - Gelato!

Spaniard, Federico Bahamontes lead the pack up the Col de Romeyere, then decided he would stop for an ice cream while the rest caught up. His team mates thought he had gone mad.

1955 - Third time's the charm, again

Brian Robinson is the first Briton to finish the Tour de France. The Mirfield born rider was the first Englishman to win a stage in 1958.

Louison Bobet becomes the second man to win the Tour three times, winning in consecutive years.

1962 - We're back!

Trade teams reintroduced again.

The highest altitude in any race reached on the road between Bonnette-Restefond at 2,802 metres. The Tour revisited it again in 1964, 1993 and 2008.

1964 - Third time's the charm, until you get five

Frenchman, Jacques Anquetil becomes the first rider to win five Tours.

1965 - Maybe this will work?

In a bid to curb the superhuman athletes now dominating the Tour, France introduced the National Anti-Doping Law. It didn't work.

1966 - Brothers in arms

The first drugs test was carried out.

The entire peloton walked out in protest, leading to a stage being scrapped.

1967 - A nation mourns

Britain's 1965 Road Race champion, Tom Simpson, dies on Mont Ventoux.

The Durham rider collapsed one mile from the mountain's summit after collapsing and being helped back on his bike.

His official cause of death was heart failure due to dehydration and heat exhaustion.

1969 - King of the road

Belgian, Eddie Merckx cements his place in cycling folklore by holding all of the available jerseys at once.

His nickname was 'The Cannibal'.

1970 - A vision in white

The white jersey is introduced, awarded to the best young rider.

Click here to find out more about the jersey classifications

1971 - That's better...

The tour is shortened to its more familiar format of between 3,300 km and 3,600 km.

1974 - The Cannibal reigns

Eddie Merckx wins his fifth tour. He is one of only four men to do so.

1975 - Mountain King

The polka dot , or King of the Mountains, jersey is introduced for the first time.

Every tour since has finished on the Champs-Elysees.

1980 - The final hurdle

Joop Zoetemelk finally wins the Tour after finishing second in 1970, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1978 and again in 1982.

Zoetmelk also holds the record for most Tours entered, at 16.

1985 - Vive la France...

Bernard Hinault becomes the last French winner of the Tour, claiming his fifth title.

He is the only rider to have won three Grand Tours (France, Italy and Spain) at least twice.

1986 - The Americans have arrived

American, Greg LeMond becomes the first non-European to win the Tour.

The most entries ever in a Tour, with 210 participants.

1987 - Quelle est la craic?

Ireland's Stephen Roche became the first Irish cyclist to win the Tour.

He also won the Giro and the world championships, only the second cyclist to win all three in one year.

1989 - Photo finish?

Greg LeMond beats Laurent Fignon to the title by eight seconds, the closest ever.

1993 - False start

The (now) most notorious man in cycling, Lance Armstrong, competes in his first Tour, although he failed to complete it.

1995 - The Tour mourns again

Fabio Casartelli dies after a crash where he fractured his skull.

Crash helmets become mandatory on the majority of stages afterwards.

Spain's Miquel Indurain wins his fifth successive Tour.

1997 - Made it

Jan Ullrich wins the tour after finishing as runner up in 1997.

He would finish second again in 1998, 2000, 2001 and 2003.

1998 - No fiestas here sir

Team Festina are banned from the Tour over doping allegations.

A search of a car turned up EPO, banned steroids, syringes and other doping-related products and paraphernalia.

1999 - World domination

Lance Armstrong wins the first of his seven consecutive tours. The American would later be stripped of all of them in the biggest scandal to ever hit cycling.

2005 - Blink and you'll miss it

The quickest overall Tour - 3,608 km covered at an average of 41.193 km/ph.

Lance Armstrong retires for the first time after winning seven consecutive Tours.

2006 - The doping years

Nine riders are kicked off the Tour before it began.

The eventual winner, American, Floyd Landis is stripped of his title the following year after doping allegations.

2007 - He's a dead cert to win...

Dane, Michael Rasmussen, is sacked mid-way through the Tour, despite being race leader, amid doping allegations.

2008 - It's an achievement...sort of?

Belgian, Wim Vansevenant becomes the only man to finish the Tour last three times in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

2009 - Comeback kid

Lance Armstrong returns from retirement, finishing third overall.

2010 - Chaingate

On stage 15 of the Tour, Luxembourg's Andy Schleck was riding in the yellow jersey when his chain came off.

As he struggled to get it back on, his closest rival, Alberto Contador overtook him and went on to win the yellow jersey, and the Tour.

The incident has become one of the most analysed in modern cycling, as in the unwritten rules among cyclists, the leader's rivals shouldn't attack him while he is suffering from mechanical failure.

Opinion remains split on wether Contador should have waited for Schleck.

2011 - I come from a land down under...

Australian, Cadel Evans, becomes only the second non-European to legitimately win the Tour.

Highest finishing point of any Tour on Col du Galibier in the Alps at 2,645 metres.

2012 - British invasion

Team Sky rider, Bradley Wiggins becomes the first ever British winner of the Tour. He gets a knighthood for his troubles.

Mark Cavendish becomes the only man to ever win the closing stage on the Champs-Elysees four times.

2013 - The fall of an icon

Lance Armstrong admits to taking banned substances to aid him in his record seven Tour de France titles.

The Tour finally visits Corsica. It was the only French region never to host a stage of the Tour.

Chris Froome becomes the second Briton to win the Tour as Sir Bradley Wiggins is unable to defend his title due to injury.

23 year-old Colombian, Nairo Quintana, won the white and polka dot jerseys , finishing second in the overall classification.

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Brian Robinson: First Briton to win Tour de France stage dies at age of 91

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Brian Robinson, the first Briton to win a stage of the Tour de France , has died at the age of 91.

Robinson won stages of the Tour in both 1958 and 1959, and was also the first British rider to complete cycling’s most famous race in 1955.

A pioneer for Britons racing on the continent, he also won the prestigious Criterium du Dauphine stage race in 1961 and was the first Briton to stand on the podium of one of cycling’s Monuments, Milan-Sanremo, finishing third in 1957.

The Yorkshireman’s death was announced by his grandson and fellow cyclist Jake Womersley, who wrote on Twitter: “It’s with great sadness the family of Brian Robinson have to announce his passing yesterday.”

Born in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, Robinson joined his local cycling club as a teenager and later took up racing in between working for the family building company.

He competed for Britain at the 1952 Olympics before turning professional, riding the Tour de France for the first time in 1955 when he finished 29th overall.

In 1958 he took Britain’s first stage win, on stage seven from Saint-Brieuc to Brest, though he did not get to raise his arms in victory that day, only learning he had won later in the evening when news came through that Italian Arigo Padovan, first across the line, had been disqualified.

He made up for that a year later when he won stage 20 of the 1959 Tour, from Annecy to Chalon-sur-Saone, by a full 20 minutes.

At a time when many professional cyclists lived hand to mouth, Robinson retired at the age of 33 to return to the UK with his family, still riding his bike in relative anonymity until he became an ambassador for the Grand Depart of the Tour de France in Yorkshire in 2014.

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Wiggins Becomes First Briton to Win Tour

By Jon Brand

• July 22, 2012

PARIS — It was an occasion to smile, but Bradley Wiggins walked through a hotel lobby in Toulouse, France, on Friday morning with pursed lips and steely eyes. Though the final mountain stage of the Tour de France had ended the night before — and Wiggins, with a substantial lead on his closest rival, Vincenzo Nibali, was in all likelihood the race winner — he was not ready to let his guard down.

On Sunday, he could finally drop the businesslike facade. Before riding into Paris as the first British champion of the Tour de France, Wiggins sat on his bike at the start in Rambouillet, southwest of Paris, joking with other riders. It was the culmination of a strong and measured performance in this grueling three-week, 2,173-mile race, which began on June 30 in Liège, Belgium.

Wiggins, 32, controlled the Tour from the end of the first week on with the help of his teammates on the talented Team Sky squad, most notably the fellow Briton Christopher Froome, a Kenyan-born 27-year-old who finished second over all. Froome, along with third-place Vincenzo Nibali, an Italian with Liquigas- Cannondale, also stood atop the podium on the Champs-Élysées Sunday. But it was Wiggins who was the most elated.

“Going back as a child, watching the Tour on telly from the age of 10, 11, 12, all through the Indurain years, dreaming that one day you would win the Tour,” he said at a news conference on Saturday night. “But you never really think it’s possible. What chance does a kid growing up in central London ever have to win the Tour?”

Since 1986, when the American Greg LeMond became the first rider from an English-speaking country to win the Tour, there have been others — including Lance Armstrong and the Australian Cadel Evans of BMC Racing, who fell short of defending his title this year.

While Britain has dominated in track cycling, the discipline in which Wiggins started his racing career and won multiple Olympic medals, it has historically struggled on the road, particularly at the Tour.

The first British rider to wear the yellow jersey was Tom Simpson, who died while climbing Mont Ventoux during a stage of the 1967 Tour.

Though Barry Hoban and Robert Millar found success in the 1970s and ’80s, respectively, the sport was hardly popular among Britons — or any other English speakers.

“My first Tour in’84, not one person from start to finish cheered for me,” said Allan Peiper, an Australian who rode with Millar and is now a sport director for Garmin-Sharp. “The Tour was not like it is now. We were a band of 10 foreigners riding in a mostly European or French race.”

The Tour’s popularity has steadily increased across the Channel since. The Union Jack was a staple along the racecourse this year, from the narrow, windy roads of Belgium to the hot and sunny Pyrenees.

But the flags would likely not be there, nor would Wiggins be Tour champion, without the support of Team Sky, a British squad founded in 2009 by Dave Brailsford, also the performance director of Britain’s national cycling team.

Wiggins was recruited to Sky from Team Garmin-Slipstream after a fourth-place Tour finish in 2009 — matching Robert Millar, who finished fourth in 1984, for the best-ever finish by a Briton to that point. Despite the prerace hype that Wiggins would win that Tour, he finished a disappointing 23rd over all.

After dedicating himself to a rigorous training regime in 2011, with the help of Tim Kerrison, the former coach of the Australian national swimming team, Wiggins returned to the Tour determined to succeed. But in the seventh stage, he crashed, breaking a collar bone, and was left watching Evans win the title on television.

Everything finally came together this year. Wiggins won three major stage races this spring, becoming the third rider to capture both Paris-Nice and the Critérium du Dauphiné in the same year. (Like Wiggins, the other two — cycling legends Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx — also went on to win the Tour in July.)

In those victories, he combined methodical mountain rides with explosive time trial performances — a formula that he and Team Sky replicated this Tour, grinding away rivals like Evans, Nibali and the Belgian Jurgen Van Den Broeck of Lotto-Belisol throughout the three weeks.

With three time trials totaling about 60 miles, this year’s course was considered to be less advantageous for climbers than in previous races.

Indeed, Wiggins — whose specialty is the time trial — padded his advantage by winning the two lengthy individual races against the clock, including the final time trial Saturday in Chartres.

But the mountains remained crucial. With his teammate Froome leading the way, Wiggins used the first mountain stage on July 7, which finished atop La Planche des Belles Filles, to take the yellow jersey from Fabian Cancellara, who had worn it since the race’s outset. Four days later, on Stage 11, he knocked Evans out of contention on the final climb to La Toussuire in the French Alps.

The BMC Racing captain, who had attacked earlier in the day, was unable to keep up with Froome and Wiggins as they sped up on the ascent. Evans was able to avoid total catastrophe, however, thanks to his 23-year-old American teammate Tejay van Garderen, who helped pace him up the climb.

Van Garderen, from Bozeman, Mont., had a phenomenal showing in his second Tour, finishing fifth overall and winning the white jersey as the race’s highest-placed rider under 25.

“It’s a nice little treat,” he said. “If you told me at the beginning of the Tour that I would get fifth place, I would have said you’re crazy.”

When the race visited the Pyrenees, which hosted the concluding mountain stages earlier this week, Vincenzo Nibali was the last remaining challenger. But even he was not strong enough to stay with Wiggins and Froome on Stage 17, the Tour’s last mountain test. As the duo steadily ascended to Peyragudes, a ski station near the France-Spain border, Nibali dropped back.

Toward the end of the climb, Froome showed that he had fresher legs than Wiggins, riding ahead of his team captain twice and gesturing for him to go faster. It was reminiscent of the scene on La Toussuire, when Froome had left Wiggins behind before being ordered back by team director Sean Yates.

Though Froome, who finished second to Wiggins’s third in the Vuelta a España last autumn, said during the race that it was a “very, very great sacrifice” for him to not challenge Wiggins for the title, the tension did not undercut the team’s goal: keeping yellow all the way to Paris.

Neither did the presence of sprinter Mark Cavendish, the world champion who rode this year’s race with a reduced lead-out train. Though Cavendish won just a single stage in the race’s sprint and crash-heavy first week, which saw many riders drop out, he made up for it following the mountains.

Mark Cavendish followed his win on Friday’s Stage 18 with a stellar finish Sunday on the Champs-Élysées, where he has won four years in a row. He positioned himself perfectly on the final turn toward the Champs-Élysées and comfortably cruised to the victory.

“I am very happy, it’s fantastic,” Cavendish said, in his best French, on television. “It’s the most beautiful boulevard in the world, especially for me.”

In recent years, the weather for the final stage of the Tour has been spectacular; Sunday was no exception. Under a bright blue sky, riders like Peter Sagan — the young Slovak phenom who won three stages and the green jersey for best sprinter — stepped up to the podium to receive their awards.

Thomas Voeckler, the race’s best climber, and the riders of RadioShack- Nissan-Trek, also took to the podium, but allegations of doping have been following them all race. Before the start, it was announced that Voeckler’s Europcar team was being investigated for the alleged use of corticosteroids during last year’s Tour; last Tuesday in Pau, Radioshack-Nissan-Trek rider Frank Schleck was pulled from the race after testing positive for a banned diuretic.

It was not the only doping news. On the eve of the Tour, the United States Anti-Doping Agency announced that it was charging Lance Armstrong and a number of associates with running a doping conspiracy during Armstrong’s run to seven straight Tour titles. During the race, it was revealed that a number of his former teammates were poised to testify against him, including Team BMC Racing’s George Hincapie, who completed his 17th and final Tour de France on Sunday. And on the first rest day, July 10, the Cofidis rider Rémy Di Gregorio was arrested by French police near Mâcon and was later charged for possessing doping-related material.

As the face of professional cycling during its biggest event, Wiggins was often asked about performance-enhancing drugs this Tour. On one occasion, he launched a profanity-laced tirade at a journalist who asked him about rumors that he was doping.

On Sunday, Wiggins was free, for the moment, from probing questions. With the Arc de Triomphe behind him, he grabbed a microphone to address the crowd and let loose.

“Some dreams do come true,” he said to roaring cheers. “And my mother over there, her son has won the Tour de France. Cheers, have a good trip home and don’t get too drunk.”

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Tour de France: the non-European winners, from LeMond to Bernal

The first time a non-European wore the yellow jersey of Tour de France leader was on the podium after the fifth stage of the 1981 edition in Saint-Lary-Soulan in the Pyrenees. The 23-year-old Australian Phil Anderson – who was born in London – wrote a page in the history books on the final climb of Pla d’Adet, finishing behind the legendary Bernard Hinault, 27 seconds after the winner, Lucien Van Impe, to become the new leader of the race. He lost the yellow jersey the following day. The next year Anderson won the long second stage to Nancy, and kept the leadership for nine days, finishing the Tour in sixth place and as the best young rider. He had blazed a new trail.

For almost 80 years, the Tour de France had remained a battleground reserved for European riders, since the first edition won by Maurice Garin – born in Italy and a naturalised Frenchman – and including the first ‘foreigner’, the Luxembourger (on his father’s side, although he was born in France) François Faber, whose victory came in 1909. But it was from the 1980s that the Tour became an increasingly international event, demonstrated once again in the last edition, won by Egan Bernal from Colombia.

Two years after Anderson’s long stay in yellow, a 23-year-old from Lakewood, California, became the first non-European rider to make the final podium of the Grande Boucle. The American Greg LeMond finished third, just 1’14” behind Bernard Hinault, and 11’46” behind his captain – and the tyrant of that edition – Laurent Fignon, who won five stages and doubled up on his win of the previous year.

LeMond became Hinault’s team-mate and finished the 1985 Tour de France just behind him, in second position. There were two other non-European protagonists the same year: the Colombian climbers Fabio Parra and Luis Herrera, who won one and two stages respectively. LeMond’s gradual development was completed in 1986 when he triumphed at the Tour ahead of his former captain, Hinault, who returned the favour of the previous year, helping his young team-mate. Greg went on to win the French race twice more, with an iconic 8-second advantage in 1989 and again in 1990.

The exciting 2011 Tour de France general classification battle started as early as the first stage with incredibly high calibre riders fighting it out on the tough 191.5km between Passage du Gois La Barre-de-Monts and Mont des Alouettes Les Herbiers. The winner was the Belgian Philippe Gilbert, but the second place went to one of the GC hunters, the Australian Cadel Evans.

The BMC Racing Team captain won the demanding fourth stage atop the steep Mûr-de-Bretagne. In the Alps, Luxembourg’s Schleck brothers started their show with Andy finishing first and Frank second on the Galibier, then claiming first and second positions in the general ranking the next day on the Alpe D'Huez stage won by Pierre Rolland – with just two stages remaining to Paris. Everything would be decided against the clock on the 42.5km circuit around Grenoble.

Cadel Evans put in an incredible performance, finishing just six seconds behind the specialist Tony Martin of Germany, and putting 2’31” into Andy Schleck, who lost the yellow jersey he had just won in the mountains. Evans became the first Tour de France winner from Oceania, after two second places in 2007 and 2008 behind the Spaniards Alberto Contador and Carlos Sastre.

The first South American winner is also the most recent champion: climber Egan Bernal from Bogotà, Colombia, who wrote another page of cycling’s history books, becoming the third youngest winner of the Tour ever. It was 112 years after the victory of Lucien Petit-Breton, who lived in Argentina from the ages of 6 to 20, that Bernal started his attack on the yellow jersey on the 18th stage won by his compatriot Nairo Quintana. Bernal gained 32 seconds on his rivals, including his Team Ineos colleague, the defending champion Geraint Thomas from Great Britain.

He assumed the general classification (GC) lead the following day, when the jury decided to stop the race due to dangerous conditions on the road, and take the times for the general classification at the summit of the Col de l'Iseran. He kept the yellow jersey until the end.

The Tour de France is still awaiting a winner from Asia. But victory in cycling’s biggest stage race for the world’s largest continent would close the circle of a story that began in the early editions when riders such as the pioneering Kisso Kawamuro from Japan competed as a ‘touriste-routier’ (without a team) but pulled out in 1926 and again in 1927.

There is already a rider born on African soil who has won the Tour and he is of course Chris Froome, with his first of four victories coming in 2013. Born in Nairobi, he switched from a Kenyan to a British licence in 2008, the year after his time as a trainee at the UCI World Cycling Centre in Aigle, Switzerland. The first African-born riders competing in the race were Raphaël Galiero, Emile Godard and Frédéric Vaillant in 1910. All three were from Algeria, but they had French nationality since at that moment the country was a department of France. It is therefore Ali Neffati from Tunisia who is recognised as the first African rider in the Tour de France, in 1913. Meanwhile, another former UCI World Cycling Centre trainee Daniel Teklehaimanot (Eritrea) made headlines in 2015 when he became the first Sub-Saharan African to wear the polka dot climber’s jersey in the Tour de France.

After South African Louis Meintjes’ 8th place in the GC in both 2016 and 2017, who will be the first rider born in Africa and with an African licence to win the Tour de France?

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Results have arrived, tour de france explained: how you win & how it really works.

What do the yellow, green, and polka-dot jerseys mean? How do you win? How do teams work? Who are the favorites? We explain bike racing in this guide to the Tour de France.

Written by: Spencer Powlison & Bruce Lin

Published on: Jun 22, 2023

Posted in: Features

Did you just get bitten by the  road bike  bug? Did you watch Tour de France: Unchained and feel hungry for more? Or have you always been puzzled by the daily deluge of Tour de France news? Then this beginner’s guide is for you.

We’ll cover the fundamentals of how this “game” is played. Also, we’ll delve into cycling’s paradoxical balance between being simultaneously a team sport and an individual sport, and many ways riders and teams play to win. 

If you’re a seasoned cycling fan, please feel free to share this with your curious in-laws who always email you questions about pelotons, yellow jerseys, and more. We’ve all been there before!

[button] Shop road bikes [/button]

How The Tour de France Works

The tour de france: infographic.

What is the Tour de France

• The Tour de France is the world's most prestigious bike race which has been running for over 100 years. 
• The Tour takes riders all across France, through the Alps and the Pyranees, and finishes in Paris. 
• This year it will take place: July 1 - July 23, 2023
• The total race distance this year: 3,404 Km / 2,115 Mi 
• The Grand Départ - The Tour de France often starts somewhere outside of France so other cities and countries can experience the excitement of the Tour. This year, the Tour will start in Bilbao, Spain. 

Key Details 

• 22 pro cycling teams will compete with 8 riders each ( 176 riders total )
• The race is split into 21 stages
• Riders race 1 stage per day
• Each stage has a stage winner. Winning a single stage at the Tour is a big deal. 
• On average, racers will ride over 100 miles per stage .
• Riders will get 2 rest days , one after the first week, and another after the second week.  
• The overall winner of the Tour de France is the rider with the fastest time after all 21 stages . 

How To Win The Tour de France - Yellow Jersey

The winner of the Tour de France is the rider who has the fastest time after all 21 stages. Every stage is timed from start to finish, and every second counts toward the race's General Classification (GC). Every day, the current leader of the race will wear the yellow jersey so they are easy to spot. The rider wearing the yellow jersey when the race reaches the last stage Paris is the winner . 

Riders to watch:  2022 winner Jonas Vingegaard, 2020 & 2021 winner Tadej Pogačar, David Gaudu, Romain Bardet.

[newsletter]

Other Ways to "Win" at the Tour de France

The Yellow Jersey is the biggest prize, but there are multiple secondary prizes on offer too. Some teams and riders don’t even bother racing for the yellow jersey and instead focus on these prizes . 

Just like the yellow jersey, each day, the current leader in each classification wears a special jersey color so they're easy to spot.

Points Classification - Green Jersey

Also known as the sprinter’s jersey , this award goes to the rider who scores the most points throughout the race. Points are earned by finishing in the top-15 in a stage.

This classification favors “pure” sprinters (riders who don't compete on mountain stages), and more points are offered for winning flat stages. Riders can also earn points in mid-stage sprints that are usually stationed in towns to please the fans.

Riders to watch:  Wout van Aert, Fabio Jakobsen, Jasper Philipsen, Mads Pedersen, and Dylan Groenewegen.

King Of The Mountains Classification - Polka-Dot Jersey

The Tour gives the polka-dot “ King of the Mountains ” jersey to the rider who collects the most points over the course of the race by reaching the summit of categorized climbs first.

The climb categorization system is opaque and subjective. What you need to know is that there are five climb categories. From easiest to hardest they are: category 4,  category 3,  category 2,  category 1, and hors category (HC - French for “beyond categorization”). Riders get more points on harder climbs. Riders also get more points on mountaintop stage finishes, especially if they win.

Riders to watch:  This one is tough to call until you reach the high mountains. Often anyone who’s in contention for the yellow jersey is a good bet.

Other Prizes

Best Young Rider Classification - White Jersey

This classification works the same way as the yellow jersey but is awarded to the highest-placed rider under 26 years of age. On rare occasions, a phenomenal young rider will win both the yellow and white jerseys. 

Riders to watch: Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard.

Best Team Classification - Yellow Helmets

Like the yellow or white jerseys, this award is given based on overall time in the race and the team with the lowest overall time wins this prize . Each team tabulates the finish times of its three best riders on every stage. The team leading this classification usually wears yellow helmets, helping them stand out in the bunch.

Most Aggressive Rider - Red Number

Also known as the Combativity Award , this is likely the most mysterious prize in the Tour. In every stage (except time trials), a jury decides which rider in the race was most aggressive — usually, that means attacking a lot or gambling on a breakaway. Late in the broadcast, the announcers usually note which rider was given the combativity prize. If you spot a rider with a red number on their jersey, then he was named most aggressive the stage prior. At the end of the Tour, one rider gets the Super Combativity award.

How Cycling Is Actually a Team Sport... Sort Of

Why are there teams if only one rider can win the Tour de France? Professional road cycling has a curious tension between the team and the individual. The key thing to remember is this: If a cyclist wins a stage or holds one of the leader’s jersey for a single stage, it is viewed as a team success . 

So if only one rider “wins,” what do the other seven riders on the team do to contribute to this elusive concept of teamwork? Here are some ways a group of individual cyclists comes together as a team to support their leader:

• Getting into breakaways (small groups that attack off the front of the main group) — that way his team doesn’t have to work to chase the breakaway down.
• Chasing down breakaways — to give the leader a chance to win or place well.
• Retrieving food and water for the leader or other key riders — bottle service on the road … what could be more luxurious!
• Pacing the leader up key climbs — although drafting isn’t as crucial, it can be a psychological advantage to have a teammate at your side.
• Pacing the leader back to the peloton in the event of a crash, mechanical, or split in the group — without teammates to draft, it might be nearly impossible to rejoin the peloton on some fast-paced stages.
• Giving the leader their bike or a wheel in the event of a mechanical — this can often be quicker than waiting for a team car or neutral support to show up with a spare.

What Types of Riders Make Up a Team? 

GC (general classification) riders - These are the riders vying for the Tour de France overall win. They need to be solid all-rounders who are good climbers and time trialists. They are usually the team leader and the rest of the team works to support them. 

Sprinters - Sprinters don’t contend for the overall win, and are more interested in winning individual stages. They often wait to attack at intermediate sprints and the finish line of each stage. Some teams are built entirely around a sprinter and focus on winning stages or the green jersey. 

Climbers - Climbing specialists excel at going uphill. Climbers compete for stage wins on the tough mountain stages or work to support their GC leader in the mountains. 

Domestiques - Most riders on the team will work as “domestiques” to support their team leader. They allow their leader to draft behind them to conserve energy, pace them up climbs, carry food and water, and provide support in case of crashes or mechanicals. 

Time Trialists - Some riders specialize in time trialing. They can compete for wins on time trial stages or work as powerful domestiques on flat and hilly stages  

What Types of Stages Are in the Tour?

The Tour de France route is different every year. Each stage is unique and offers different challenges to the riders. Here are the types of stages riders will contend with over three weeks:

Flat Stages - Flat stages are the ideal hunting ground for sprinters. Teams with sprinters will often work to keep the peloton together on flat stages, to ensure it ends in a bunch sprint where their sprinter has the best chance of winning. 

Hilly Stages - Hilly stages mix it up with rolling hills that make it more difficult for the peloton to stay together. These types of stages can be won by sprinters, climbers, or breakaway specialists. 

Mountain Stages - This is often where the Tour de France is won and lost. Mountain stages climb up into the high mountains in the Alps and the Pyrenees and it's where GC contenders will fight to gain time on their rivals.  

Time Trials - The Tour de France always features at least a couple of time trial stages. Riders set off individually to set the fastest time on a set course. With no riders to draft, it’s less about race tactics and more about pure speed and power.

Strategies and tactics

So we just covered some team dynamics, rider types, and stage types. How does it all fit together? Teams often settle on strategies prior to the race. They assess their strengths and weaknesses and find ways to succeed — whether that means winning the yellow jersey or simply wearing a King of the Mountains jersey for just one stage. Here are some examples of how teams might set their strategies, and how they might execute them with the right tactics:

Team with a top GC rider: Naturally, they’ll try to win the yellow jersey. This means surviving inconsequential flat and rolling stages to conserve energy for key mountain stages and individual time trials. The leader’s teammates will try to get into breakaways so that their team won’t spend energy chasing all day. They’ll also set up the team leader to attack on key climbs or at least follow his rivals to defend his position.

Team with top sprinter: To win the green jersey, they’ll target the flat stages. This means controlling the peloton and chasing down breakaways to set up a sprint finish. Like the GC team, they might also put a rider in the breakaway to ease the burden on the team, forcing rival sprint teams to chase. On mountain stages, the team might have to call riders back from the peloton to help pace their sprinter to the finish so he doesn’t get time-cut.

Team with top climber: Winning the King of the Mountains (KOM) classification is often less of an obvious team effort. These pretenders to the throne tend to be opportunistic. However, it is advantageous to have a teammate in the breakaway on a key mountain stage when points are up for grabs. Also, when defending the polka-dot jersey, teammates can contest the climbs and finish ahead of KOM rivals to spoil their attempt to take over the classification lead by scoring points.

Smaller team without top leader: These are the teams that always try to put a rider in the day’s breakaway. This could earn them the Combativity Prize, or if they play their cards right, a stint in a leader’s jersey or even a stage win. This strategy requires constant attacking in the early kilometers of the race — something most fans rarely see on the broadcast. It is a hectic, painful part of the stage, but it’s crucial in establishing a break. Meanwhile, a breakaway rider’s teammates might patrol the front of the peloton to disrupt the chase.

Three Tips To Watch Like A Pro

Now that you understand the basics of how the Tour de France is raced, what do you, the new cycling fan do? There are daily stages for three weeks. That’s a lot of cycling!

Even if you don't have a way to watch the TV broadcast, it's easy to find highlights and extended highlights on YouTube. Fortunately, you don’t have to put your life on hold to watch the Tour de France. There are some reliably important stages you can focus on to catch the key action.

Can’t watch daily? Pick the key mountain stages. There are usually about 5-8 key mountain stages when the overall race is won and lost. Most of them are summit finishes, and they’re split between France’s two key mountain ranges: the Alps and Pyrenees. The first few ordinarily come in stages 6-9 before the first rest day, and the second round is often scheduled for the final week of racing. Occasionally, another summit finish, such as Mont Ventoux in Provence, will be on the list of important stages.

Watching daily? Tune in when things really heat up. On most flat stages, you can wait until the final 20 kilometers to tune in and see the sprinters fight it out. Some rolling stages might be entertaining in the final 50-60 kilometers if late breakaways occur. On mountain stages, it’s best to start watching as early as possible because sometimes, crazy things happen on the day’s first climbs.

Watching a LOT of TDF? Look for the nuances. If you’re going to have the race on all day, every day, you’ll need to dig a little deeper to enjoy the subtleties of the race. Try keeping track of riders who are often making the breakaway. Watch the sprint teams work together — or not — to chase an escape. Who looks to have strength in numbers, and who is not present at the front of the race? Are the GC riders staying out of trouble or tail-gunning at the dangerous back of the peloton? Usually, at any given time in the race, any given rider is positioned where they are for a specific reason. Look for clues to sort out what is happening.

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[button] Our Best and Worst Moments of the 2022 Tour [/button]

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Jonas Vingegaard wins Tour de France for first time

• Associated Press

PARIS -- King of the mountains. Champion on the Champs-Elysees.

Jonas Vingegaard blossomed from a talented rookie to a dominant leader in his own right over three weeks of epic racing to win his first Tour de France title on Sunday.

The former fish factory worker from Denmark dethroned defending champion Tadej Pogacar with memorable performances in the mountains in cycling's biggest race.

The 25-year-old Vingegaard, who was runner-up to Pogacar in his first Tour last year, excelled in the scorching heat that enveloped France this month and came out on top of a thrilling duel with Pogacar, the big favorite at the start of the race.

Jasper Philipsen won Sunday's last stage -- a mainly processional ride around Paris to the Champs-Elysees -- in a sprint ahead of Dylan Groenewegen and Alexander Kristoff.

Vingegaard competed last year as a replacement for Tom Dumoulin in the Jumbo-Visma squad. It was a revelation for Vingegaard as he realized that he could fight for the overall title after dropping Pogacar in the famed Mont Ventoux climb, but his Slovenian rival was at the top of his game and largely untouchable.

A year later, Vingegaard stood on top of the podium after building his triumph with two phenomenal rides in the Alps and the Pyrenees.

The official overall margin of victory was 2 minutes, 43 seconds, but Vingegaard slowed down toward the end of the stage to celebrate with teammates, crossing well after Pogacar. Geraint Thomas, the 2018 Tour champion, was 7:22 off the pace in third.

Three weeks ago in Copenhagen, the Jumbo-Visma team started the race with two leaders -- Vingegaard and three-time Spanish Vuelta winner Primoz Roglic. But Roglic's challenge took a blow when he suffered a dislocated shoulder and lost more than two minutes to Pogacar on the cobbled fifth stage of the race, leaving Vingegaard in a sole leader's role.

Vingegaard more than exceeded expectations from that moment.

He made his intentions clear in the first big mountain stage up the Col du Granon to seize the race leader's yellow jersey from Pogacar, who fell more than two minutes behind that day. Having claimed the famed tunic during a stage featuring three monster Alpine climbs, Vingegaard kept it until the end.

With the help of teammates including the versatile Wout Van Aert, Vingegaard responded to the relentless attacks launched by Pogacar day in, day out. His supremacy in the mountains was such that, in addition to his overall win, Vingegaard also claimed the jersey for king of the mountains -- not bad for a rider who comes from a country whose highest point is barely 170 meters above sea level.

Vingegaard and Pogacar were clearly in a class of their own this year as their closest rival, Thomas, was reduced to being a mere spectator in the leaders' fight.

Vingegaard delivered his decisive blow in the Pyrenees, posting a second stage win at the Hautacam ski resort. There the Dane responded to a series of attacks from Pogacar and ultimately dropped the Slovenian in the last big mountain stage of this year's race to increase his overall lead to more than three minutes.

Pogacar cracked about four kilometers (2 1/2 miles) from the finish in the final ascent, with his hopes of winning a third consecutive title all but over. He fought until the very end, but Vingegaard was again the strongest in Saturday's individual time trial to effectively secure the title.

"The battle between me and Jonas for the yellow jersey has been very special," Pogacar said. "I think we have some very interesting next two or three years ahead of us. Jonas has stepped up his game this year."

The light-framed Vingegaard is not perhaps as naturally gifted as Pogacar, who has shown over the past couple of years that he is capable of winning Grand Tours and the most prestigious one-day classics as well.

But Vingegaard surely learns fast.

Vingegaard did not experience his first ascent before he was already 16. His climbing skills would not remain unnoticed for long, though.

After he posted a record time on the Coll de Rates climb during a training camp in Spain with his former team ColoQuick, he joined Jumbo-Visma in 2019 and rapidly improved. In his first Tour last year, he showed proper leadership skills after Roglic crashed out of the race, and followed up with a cold-blooded ride to victory this summer.

The growing rivalry between Pogacar and Vingegaard has brought new race scenarios that have delighted fans.

Both men were equipped with strong teams capable of controlling the race in the mountains, an essential element that was a trademark of the mighty Ineos teams in the past decade. But on many occasions, both Pogacar and Vingegaard were left just relying on themselves in high altitude, fighting each other on equal terms.

Pogacar also brought a sense of old-fashioned romanticism with his long-range attacks. At 23, the UAE-Emirates Team has a bright future.

Vingegaard became the first Dane to win the Tour since Bjarne Riis achieved the feat in 1996 during a time when doping was widespread in cycling.

Following his retirement from cycling, Riis admitted in 2007 to using the blood-booster EPO from 1993-98, including during his Tour victory.

Asked whether his team should be trusted, Vingegaard said he and his teammates "are totally clean, every one of us."

"No one of us is taking anything illegal," he added. "I think why we're so good is the preparation that we do. We take altitude camps to the next step."

Who Won the 2023 Tour de France?

A stage-by-stage guide to the leader of the General Classification of the men’s Tour.

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Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) won the yellow jersey as the overall winner of the 2023 Tour de France. The 26-year-old won the Tour for the second straight season, becoming the 21st rider in history to win the race multiple times. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), another two-time TdF winner, finished second for the second straight season, 7 minutes, 29 seconds behind Vingegaard. Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates teammate Adam Yates was third overall, 10 minutes, 56 seconds behind the winner, to round out the podium of the Tour de France.

Here’s a look at how the General Classification played out in every stage of the 2023 Tour de France.

2023 Tour de France Champion - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) officially won the 2023 Tour de France after safely finishing Stage 21 on Sunday, July 23. For the second straight year, Vingegaard was the top General Classification rider at the Tour. This time, he beat second place Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) by 7:29, the largest margin of victory in the GC since Vincenzo Nibali won by 7:37 in 2014.

Vingegaard first claimed the yellow jersey after Stage 6 and never relinquished it. He led by 25 seconds over Pogačar at that point, but Pogačar slowly but surely cut into that advantage. That is, until Stage 16, when Vingegaard rode a brilliant time trial to drive his lead over Pogačar to 1:48. The next day on Stage 17, Vingegaard further solidified his lead after Pogačar cracked in the high mountains, driving Vingegaard’s lead well past seven minutes. He held that lead through the finish in Paris on Sunday. Pogačar, meanwhile, won the white jersey as the best young rider (25 years or younger) in the Tour de France. He wins white for a record-breaking fourth time.

Pogačar wasn’t the only UAE Team Emirates rider on the podium. Adam Yates, who held the yellow jersey from Stage 2 through Stage 5, finished third overall, 10:56 behind the leader. His twin brother, Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla), finished fourth overall, 12:23 back. Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) was fifth, 13:17 back.

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninick) won the green jersey as the winner of the points classification. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) won the polka jersey, winning the King of the Mountains classification. Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma team won the team classification, with the best time of their team’s top three riders.

Final General Classification Standings

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 82:05:42
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): -7:29
• Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): -10:56
• Simon Yates (Jayco–AlUla): -12:23
• Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers): -13:17

Points Classification Winner

• Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck): 377 points

Mountain Classification Winner

Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek): 106 points

Best Young Rider Classification Winner

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 82:13:11 (+5:48)

Stage 20 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) will wear the yellow jersey on the Champs-Élysées on Sunday as the leader of the 2023 Tour de France. Vingegaard is set to win his second straight Tour de France—barring diaster or as he said, “anything stupid—on the 21st and final stage.

Vingegaard finished second on Saturday’s Stage 20 with the same time as his top rival Tadej Pogačar. Pogačar claimed the stage win, but will have to settle for second to Vingegaard for a second straight year. This year, Vingegaard holds a 7 minute, 35 second advantage on Pogačar.

Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) remains in third overall, 10:56 back of the yellow jersey to get the final podium spot. His twin brother Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) moved up a spot to fourth on Saturday. He’s 12:23 back of the lead. Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) rounds out the top five, losing a spot on Stage 20 after crashing early in the stage. He’s 12:57 behind the leader.

General Classification Standings

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 79:16:38
• Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers): -12:57

Points Classification Leader

Mountain Classification Leader

• Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek): 105 points

Best Young Rider Classification Leader

• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 79:24:07 (+5:28)

Stage 19 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) leads the 2023 Tour de France through 19 stages. Stage 19 was packed with a lot of exciting drama up front, but the General Classification contenders stayed well behind the action well over 13 minutes behind the stage winner.

Vingegaard continues to lead Tadej Pogačar (Team UAE Emirates) by 7:35. Adam Yates (also from UAE Team Emirates) is in third place overall, 10:45 back of the lead.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 75:49:24
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): -7:35
• Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): -10:45
• Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers): -12:01
• Simon Yates (Jayco–AlUla): -12:19
• Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek): 88 points
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 75:56:59 (+4:26)

Stage 18 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) remains in the lead of the 2023 Tour de France after Stage 18. Thursday’s stage was a day for the sprinters (even though the breakaway managed to barely survive), so there were no changes as far as the GC situation. Stage 18 comes a day after Vingegaard solidified his spot atop the yellow jersey standings.

Vingegaard leads second place Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) by 7:35. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) is in third, 10:45 behind the leader, and Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) is in fourth, 12:01 behind. With three stages to go, Vingegaard surely can taste his second straight Tour victory.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 72:04:39
• Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck): 323 points
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 72:12:14 (+4:26)

Stage 17 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) leads the 2023 Tour de France, furthering his advantage on Stage 17. Vingegaard now leads second place Tadej Pogačar by 7 minutes, 37 seconds after leading by just 10 seconds two stages prior. Pogačar cracked in a big way on Wednesday, losing major time, while Vingegaard excelled once again in the mountains to gain massive amounts of time on his closest rival and pre-Tour co-favorite.

Vingegaard made major gains during the Stage 16 individual time trial, and then on Wednesday he delivered a virtual punishing blow to Pogačar’s yellow jersey hopes. It seemed during the Tour’s second week that Pogačar had a slight upperhand on Vingegaard. But it wasn’t to be as the defending champion through down his time trial and then big mountain ride on consecutive days. That changed the Tour from one of the closest of all-time to the largest leading margin since 2014.

There are four stages still remaining, but barring something completely unexpected, Vingegaard will win the Tour de France once again by the end of the day on Sunday.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 67:57:51
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 68:05:26 (+4:26)

Stage 16 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) leads the General Classification of the 2023 Tour de France after Stage 16. Vingegaard extended his hold on the yellow jersey on Tuesday on an individual time trial. The maillot jaune crushed the ITT, winning the stage by 1:38 and extending his GC lead to 1:48 over second place Tadej Pogačar, his top rival.

Vingegaard was magnificent on the time trial, putting time into Pogačar from the start all the way to the finish. It’s the first time this Tour that one of the co-favorites put a major amount of time into the other, as Vingegaard has firmly asserted himself as the one to beat over the remaining five stages.

Elsewhere in the GC battle for the podium, Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) moved up from fourth to third place in the standings. Yates supplanted Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) after the time trial. Yates, Pogačar’s teammate, is 8:52 behind the yellow jersey Vingegaard. Rodriguez is now in fourth place, 8:57 behind Vingegaard. Just five seconds separates Yates and Rodriguez, so it should be an exciting matchup between those two for the third and final podium spot in the GC.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 63:06:53
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): -1:48
• Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): -8:52
• Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers): -8:57
• Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe): -11:15
• Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek): 63 points
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 63:08:41 (+7:09)

Stage 15 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) remains in the yellow jersey after Stage 15 of the 2023 Tour de France. Vingegaard holds a 10-second lead over Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) after another tough mountain stage. Ultimately, the gap between the two GC favorites remained unchanged, as the two riders finished the stage together. The Tour heads into a Monday rest day before the final week begins, and very little has separated Vingegaard and Pogačar.

Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) was able to extend his hold on the third place podium spot after Stage 15. Rodriguez finished the stage ahead of Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe), who he started the day just one second ahead of. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) moved up ahead of Hindley for fourth place overall.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 62:34:17
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): -:10
• Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers): -5:21
• Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): -5:40
• Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe): -6:38
• Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek): 58 points
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 62:34:27 (+5:11)

Stage 14 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) still leads the 2023 Tour de France after a wild Stage 14. Vingegaard now holds a 10-second advantage on Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates). Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) moves up to third place in the GC after winning Stage 14. He’s now 4:43 behind the yellow jersey. Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe) moves to fourth place in the GC, 4:44 back of the lead. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) is in fifth place, 5:20 behind.

Stage 14 only saw a change of one single second among the two leaders, Vingegaard and Pogačar, but that didn’t mean there weren’t plenty of fireworks. Jumbo-Visma pushed the pace to make it hard on Pogačar, but Pogačar looked to be relatively unfazed by it all. The stage proved that the battle for the yellow jersey will go down to the bitter end between Vingegaard and Pogačar.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 57:47:28
• Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers): -4:43
• Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe): -4:44
• Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): -5:20
• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 54 points
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 57:47:38

Stage 13 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) held onto the yellow jersey as the leader of the 2023 Tour de France. But the gap between the defending champion and Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) has narrowed after the Slovenian, winner of the Tour in 2020 and 2021, attacked and then gapped the Dane about 400 meters from the top of the “Beyond Category” Col du Grand Colombier at the end of Stage 14.

Pogačar crossed the line 4 seconds ahead of Vingegaard and in doing so finished third on the stage to take a 4-second time bonus, which cut Vingegaard’s overall advantage to just 9 seconds. With two days in the Alps before Monday’s rest day, expect more fireworks as these two continue their intense fight to win the 2023 Tour de France.

A little less than a minute before the reignition of the Tour’s GC battle, Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski (INEOS Grenadiers) won the stage after spending all day in the breakaway and attacking what was left of it on the lower slopes of the Grand Colombier. A super-domestique with an impressive resume of his own, the 33-year-old proved too strong for UAE Team Emirates to catch, holding-off Belgium’s Maxim Van Gils (Lotto-Soudal) and then Pogačar to take the second Tour de France stage victory of his career.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 53:48:50
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): -:09
• Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe): -2:51
• Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers): -4:48
• Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): -5:03
• Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost): 46 points
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 53:48:59'

Stage 12 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) remained in the yellow jersey after a somewhat stressful Stage 12 of the Tour de France. Despite the stress, the GC picture remained mostly unchanged. Vingegaard remains 17 seconds ahead of second place Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates). Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe) is third overall in the GC, 2:40 back.

Thibaut Pinot made a jump into the top ten of the GC, going from 15th to tenth after gaining time on the other GC contenders in the breakaway on Thursday.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 50:30:23
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): -:17
• Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe): -2:40
• Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers): -4:22
• Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious): -4:34
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 50:30:40 (+4:05)

Stage 11 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) continues to lead the 2023 Tour de France after 11 stages. Stage 11 saw no change to the General Classification on a sprint stage, despite a relatively tricky road into the finish.

Vingegaard remains 17 seconds ahead of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) for the lead in the yellow jersey competition. Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe) is in third, holding down the final podium spot, 2:40 behind Vingegaard. Tuesday’s flat stage is the last true sprinter’s stage until perhaps Stage 19—or even the final Stage 21 in Paris—so we can expect an eventful next week or so as far as the GC is concerned.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 46:34:27
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 46:34:44 (+4:05)

Stage 10 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) held onto the yellow leader’s jersey after Stage 10 of the 2023 Tour de France, leading Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) by 17 seconds. Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe) remains in third place, 2:40 behind Vingegaard. These standings should stay the same after Stage 11, which will likely favor the sprinters.

Stage 10 didn’t see any major GC moves, but that didn’t mean it was an easy day in the saddle for the yellow jersey hopefuls.The peloton held the breakaway in check throughout the day, never giving them too much time. Ultimately, there weren’t any moves on the stage after the rest day from Vingegaard or Pogačar.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 42:33:13
• Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck): 260 points
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 42:33:30 (+4:05)

Stage 9 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) held onto his lead in the 2023 Tour de France, but lost time to Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) at the end of Sunday’s Stage 9. The stage finished atop the Hors Categorie (“Beyond Category”) Puy de Dôme, an extinct volcano rising above the Massif Central that the Tour hasn’t been climbed by the Tour since 1988.Canada’s Mike Woods (Israel-PremierTech) won the stage.

The former world class distance runner paced himself perfectly from the base of the climb, catching multiple riders left from the day’s big breakaway on the way to his first Tour de France stage victory. France’s Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) finished second, and Slovenia’s Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) finished third. But the battle to win the Tour’s General Classification took place over eight minutes later, as Vingegaard and Pogačar continued their duel on the climb’s upper slopes.

Jumbo-Visma did a terrific job of whittling down to the yellow jersey group, but it was Pogačar who took advantage pulling away from Vingegaard about 1,400meters from the summit finish. Vingegaard only lost 8 seconds to the Slovenian, but heading into the first rest day, he now leads the Tour by just 17 seconds. The race to win the 2023 Tour de France is far from over.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 38:37:46
• Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): -4:39
• Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck): 259 points
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 38:38:03

Stage 8 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

There was once again no change in the overall, as Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) continues to lead the 2023 Tour de France. The defending champion has a 25-second advantage on Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), as the peloton prepares to head into a big mountain stage on Sunday.

Simon Yates (Jayco–AlUla) was the lone GC contender to lose time on Stage 8, crashing with about 6K to go in the stage, outside of the 3K safe zone. Yates went from being 3:14 down from the leader Vingegaard to 4:01 after Saturday.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): -
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): -:25
• Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe): -1:34
• Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers): -3:30
• Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): -3:40
• Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck): 258 points
• Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost): 36 points
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): +3:05

Stage 7 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) enjoyed his first day in the yellow leader’s jersey during Stage 7 at the 2023 Tour de France. It was a relatively easy day—despite some intense heat—for the GC contenders in the peloton on Friday’s stage designed for the sprinters.

Vingegaard continues to hold a 25-second GC lead over Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates). The two riders will likely see a major GC clash again on Sunday’s Stage 9 mountain stage. Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe) is 1:34 behind the yellow jersey Vingegaard in third overall.

• Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla): -3:14
• Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck): 215 points

Stage 6 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) took over the lead of the 2023 Tour de France after an eventful Stage 6 that saw the GC contenders battle it out for the stage win and crucial seconds. Vingegaard will wear the yellow jersey on Friday’s Stage 7. He leads second place Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) by 25 seconds in the overall standings after Pogačar won Stage 6. Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe), who wore the yellow jersey on the day, lost time on Thursday and is now in third place in the GC, 1:34 back of the leader.

After Vingegaard dealt a major blow to Pogačar on Stage 5, Pogačar roared back to capture the stage win and prove that the GC is not over yet. Despite Vingegaard moving into the yellow jersey, Stage 6 was much more defined by Pogačar gaining time on Vingegaard than the changing of the guard in the leader’s jersey. It seemed after Stage 5 that the defending champion Vingegaard was clearly the strongest rider in the peloton once again, but Pogačar, a two-time Tour champion in his own right, showed us that it’s a long way to Paris and it could be a fierce battle all the way to the end.

• Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck): 150 points

Stage 5 Leader - Jai Hindley

Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe) took over the lead of the 2023 Tour de France after a brilliant win on Stage 5. Hindley leads the General Classification by 47 seconds (thanks in part to 18 seconds worth of bonuses picked up on Stage 5) over second place overall Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma). Giulio Ciccone (Lidl–Trek) is 1:03 back in third overall and Emanuel Buchmann (Bora–Hansgrohe) is in fourth overall, 1:11 back.

The yellow jersey holder for the first five stages, Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) lost the lead on Wednesday and is now in fifth overall, 1:34 back of the lead. Tadej Pogačar, the co-prerace favorite along with Vingegaard, lost time on Stage 5 and is now in sixth place overall, 1:40 behind the leader Hindley. Vingegaard is 53 seconds ahead of Pogačar.

Stage 5 saw some major GC shakeups. Hindley, the 2022 winner of the Giro d’Italia, sits in yellow with a solid 47-second advantage over Vingegaard. With a grand tour win already under his belt, Hindley has a chance to stay in yellow for a while. Of course, a lot of that depends on the race tactics of Vingegaard and Pogačar, who may likely spar again on a mountainous Stage 6.

• Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe): -
• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): -:47
• Giulio Ciccone (Lidl–Trek): -1:03
• Emanuel Buchmann (Bora–Hansgrohe): -1:11
• Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): -1:34
• Felix Gall (AG2R Citroën): 28 points
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): +:16

Stage 4 Leader - Adam Yates

There was no change in the General Classification standings of the Tour de France after Stage 4. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) will stay in the yellow jersey another day, holding onto a six second advantage over teammate Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and his twin brother Simon Yates (Jayco–AlUla).

Stage 5 has a good chance to brings some GC fireworks. Pogačar—in second place overall—has an 11-second advantage over Tour de France co-favorite Jonas Vingegaard, who is in sixth place overall. That could change—one way or the other–on Wednesday.

• Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): -
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): -:06
• Simon Yates (Jayco–AlUla): -:06
• Victor Lafay (Cofidis): -:12
• Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma): -:16
• Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost): 18 points

Stage 3 Leader - Adam Yates

Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) continues to lead the 2023 Tour de France. After the first two stages of the Tour de France brought a ton of fireworks and battles between the General Classification contenders, Stage 3 was the first (mostly) flat day for the sprinters.

Yates remains in the lead of the GC still six seconds up over second place Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and third place Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla). There were no significant losses among the contenders on Stage 3.

• Victor Lafay (Cofidis): 80 points

Stage 2 Leader - Adam Yates

Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) maintained his lead of the 2023 Tour de France after Stage 2. Adam Yates finished 21st on the stage, but finished on the same time as the other top finishers of the day. He now holds the yellow jersey by six seconds over second place Tadej Pogačar, Yates’ UAE Team Emirates teammate. Adam Yates’ twin brother Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) is third overall, also six seconds behind.

Pogačar, meanwhile, earned 12 bonus seconds during Stage 2 to widen his lead over GC co-favorite Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), Vingegaard earned five bonus seconds on the day, and currently sits in sixth place in the yellow jersey competition, 17 seconds behind Yates and 11 seconds back of Pogačar. Stage 2 winner Victory Lafay (Cofidis) is now fourth overall in the GC.

• Victor Lafay (Cofidis): 65 points
• Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost): 11 points

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The Masters 2024: Guide to the DP World Tour members in action

A host of current DP World Tour members are teeing it up at the 2024 Masters Tournament , including four debutants while others are chasing further Major Championship honours.

Here’s our guide, including a synopsis of their form so far this year, to the 21 players with status on golf’s Global Tour who are in action at August National Golf Club. We've listed them in alphabetical order.

Ludvig Åberg

• Birthplace: Eslov, Sweden
• Turned Pro: 2023
• Official World Golf Ranking: 9
• Best Masters finish: N/A

After becoming the first player in history to compete in a Ryder Cup before ever playing a Major last September, Ludvig Åberg is making his Major Championship debut at the 88th Masters. Prior to turning professional in June 2023, the Swede was the top ranked amateur on the World Golf Amateur Rankings and made history as the first player to earn direct access to the PGA TOUR via collegiate merit, finishing first on the 2023 PGA TOUR University Ranking while at Texas Tech. He secured his first win as a professional at the Omega European Masters in September on the DP World Tour. He was also part of the winning European Ryder Cup team in Italy in October and earned his first PGA TOUR win at the RSM Classic in November. Finished runner-up in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February and eighth in his debut at The Players Championship in March, rising inside the top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time.

Matt Fitzpatrick

• Birthplace: Sheffield, England
• Turned Pro: 2014
• Official World Golf Ranking: 10
• Best Masters finish: T7 (2016)

The Englishman, who is making his 10th Masters appearance, has finished inside the top 15 in each of the past two years at Augusta National. Like Åberg, he won two global titles in 2023, the first in Hilton Head Island on the PGA TOUR, before winning the Alfred Dunhill Championship at St Andrews in October. He too was part of the winning European Ryder Cup team in Italy. Won the U.S. Open in 2022 to claim his first Major Championship at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, the same course where he won the 2013 U.S. Amateur. Has top-10 finishes in his last two starts worldwide, The Players Championship and most recently at the Valero Texas Open.

Tommy Fleetwood

• Birthplace: Southport, England
• Turned Pro: 2010
• Official World Golf Ranking: 13
• Best Masters finish: T7 (2022)

Fleetwood has finished inside the top 20 in three of the past six years at Augusta National, with this being his eighth Masters appearance. In 2023, he finished runner-up in both the Canadian Open and the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. He recorded top 10s in both the U.S. Open and The Open, along with the clinching point for Team Europe at the 2023 Ryder Cup. The Englishman made a terrific start to 2024, winning the Dubai Invitational in January for his seventh win on the DP World Tour. Two top 10s have since followed on the PGA TOUR, including last week in San Antonio.

• Birthplace: Auckland, New Zealand
• Turned Pro: 2011
• Official World Golf Ranking: 54
• Best Masters finish: T26 (2023)

The New Zealander made his Masters debut last year and ensured a return by maintaining his top-50 ranking at the close of last year. Enjoyed a strong finish to 2023 on the DP World Tour, winning his first Rolex Series title at the BMW PGA Championship and finishing tied second at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on his title defence in Scotland. Those performances helped him earn dual membership status with the PGA TOUR as one of the top 10 finishers not already exempt on the season-long Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex. His best result so far this year is a tie for 14th at the DP World Tour’s Dubai Invitational.

Tyrrell Hatton

• Birthplace: High Wycombe, England
• Official World Golf Ranking: 19
• Best Masters finish: T18 (2021)

The Englishman has made the cut on five of his seven visits to date at Augusta National, since his debut in 2017. Last year, he finished runner-up at both the BMW PGA Championship and THE PLAYERS Championship, prestige events on the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR respectively. He additionally made the cut in all four Majors and represented Europe in his third Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club. Finished in the top 20 in his first two starts of the year on the PGA TOUR, before making the cut in Dubai on the DP World Tour. His most recent victory worldwide came at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in 2021.

Ryo Hisatsune

• Birthplace: Okayama, Japan
• Turned Pro: 2020
• Official World Golf Ranking: 87

The Japanese is making his first Masters appearance and his Major Championship debut after receiving a special invite. Enjoyed a remarkable rookie season on the DP World Tour in 2023, after securing his card at the Qualifying School. Won his first DP World Tour title at the Cazoo Open de France in September, before becoming the first Japanese player to be named the DP World Tour's Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year. He was one of ten players to earn 2024 PGA Tour membership through his performances on the DP World Tour last year. Has two top 20s so far this season on the PGA TOUR, with his best result a tie for 11th at The American Express in January.

Nicolai Højgaard

• Birthplace: Billund, Denmark
• Turned Pro: 2019
• Official World Golf Ranking: 38

The Dane is another first-timer teeing it up this week. Secured his invite to feature in the first men’s Major by breaking into the top 50 of the world with his maiden Rolex Series victory at the DP World Tour Championship at the end of last season, a week after finishing runner-up at the Nedbank Golf Challenge. Finished second at the AT&T Pebble Beach PRO-AM in February, days after finishing in the top 10 at the DP World Tour's Hero Dubai Desert Classic, during an impressive start to his first full season on the PGA TOUR. The three-time DP World Tour winner was a member of the winning European Ryder Cup team last year.

Viktor Hovland

• Birthplace: Oslo, Norway
• Official World Golf Ranking: 6
• Best Masters finish: T7 (2023)

Hovland earned low amateur honours in 2019 as Norway's first Masters participant and has yet to miss a cut at Augusta National in his first four appearances. Last year, he won three times on the PGA TOUR, while he recorded top-20 finishes in each of the four Majors. He also finished in a tie for second at the DP World Tour’s season-ending event in Dubai. Delivered 3.5 points from his five matches at the 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy. His best performance so far in 2024 came at the Genesis Invitational when he finished in a tie for 19th.

Min Woo Lee

• Birthplace: Perth, Australia
• Official World Golf Ranking: 32
• Best Masters finish: T14 (2022)

The Australian is making his third consecutive Masters appearing, having finished in the top 15 on his debut in 2022 after a record-tying 30 on the front nine of his final round. Registered six top 10s, including at The PLAYERS and U.S. Open, along with a victory on the Asian Tour, before getting his 2024 DP World Tour campaign off to a fast start with a title on home soil at the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship. Finished in a tie for second at the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches on the PGA TOUR in March.

Shane Lowry

• Birthplace: Clara, Ireland
• Turned Pro: 2009
• Official World Golf Ranking: 36
• Best Masters finish: T3 (2022)

Boasts an encouraging record at Augusta National, with top 25s in each of the past four years, ahead of his ninth Masters start. His best result of 2023 saw him finish in a tie for third on home ground at the Horizon Irish Open, shortly before he helped Europe regain the Ryder Cup after receiving a Captain’s Pick from Luke Donald. Finished third and then a tie for fourth in back-to-back events on the PGA TOUR in March to climb back into the world’s top 50.

Rory McIlroy

• Birthplace: Holywood, Northern Ireland
• Turned Pro: 2007
• Official World Golf Ranking: 2
• Best Masters finish: 2 (2022)

McIlroy, who is making his 16th Masters appearance, is one win away from joining Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as winners of the career Grand Slam. Has top 10s in seven of the past 10 years at Augusta National, including a second place finished behind Scottie Scheffler in 2022. Successfully defended his title at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in January as he claimed his third Rolex Series title. In 2023, he won in Dubai and Scotland on the DP World Tour as he earned his fifth Harry Vardon Trophy, finished inside the top seven in three majors, and produced a career-best performance to help the European team win the Ryder Cup. Picked up his first top-10 finish of the season on the PGA TOUR at the Valero Texas Open, the week before the Masters.

Adrian Meronk

• Birthplace: Hamburg, Germany
• Turned Pro: 2016
• Official World Golf Ranking: 57
• Best Masters finish: MC (2023)

Missed the cut on his Masters debut 12 months ago as he made history as Poland’s first participant in the tournament. Won twice on the DP World Tour in 2023 to become a four-time winner, and registered three further top-five finishes as he went on to be voted Seve Ballesteros Award after being voted Player of the Year by his peers. He finished runner-up at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in January.

Joaquín Niemann

• Birthplace: Santiago, Chile
• Turned Pro: 2018
• Official World Golf Ranking: 93
• Best Masters finish: T16 (2023)

Registered his best Major performance at Augusta National 12 months ago, one of three occasions has made the cut in his first four appearances. He has top-five finishes in each of his three DP World Tour starts this season, including winning the ISPS HANDA Australian Open in a play-off last December.

Thorbjørn Olesen

• Birthplace: Hareskovby, Denmark
• Turned Pro: 2008
• Official World Golf Ranking: 72
• Best Masters finish: T16 (2013)

Five years on from his last Masters appearance, Olesen returns to Augusta National for a fourth time after receiving a special invite. The Dane is aiming to maintain his record of making the cut on each occasion, with his best finish coming on debut in 2013 when he finished in a tie for sixth. Victory at the Ras Al Khaimah Championship in February made it three DP World Tour titles in as many seasons, after victories in England in 2022 and Thailand in 2023. The 2018 Ryder Cup winner recorded seven additional top-10 finishes last season to earn 2024 PGA Tour membership.

Matthieu Pavon

• Birthplace: Toulouse, France
• Turned Pro: 2013
• Official World Golf Ranking: 25

One of the debutants at Augusta National this week. The Frenchman has enjoyed a life-changing period in world golf, since winning his maiden DP World Tour title in October during a stellar finish to the Race to Dubai Campaign which saw him record three further top-15 finishes, including at the DP World Tour Championship where he made four consecutive birdies, to earn PGA TOUR membership for 2024. Made history as the first French winner on the PGA TOUR since 1907 with victory at the Farmers Insurance Open in January. Two further global top 10s have since followed, most recently in Singapore on the DP World Tour.

• Birthplace: Barrika, Spain
• Official World Golf Ranking: 3
• Best Masters finish: 1 (2023)

The defending champion is making his eighth Masters appearance, having won his second Major with a four-stroke victory over Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson 12 months ago. Prior to his triumph at Augusta National, he had won three PGA TOUR titles earlier in the year and he went on to finish in a tie for second at The Open and register top-5 finishes in both the BMW PGA Championship and DP World Tour Championship. He is a ten-time winner on the DP World Tour, including a record five on the Rolex Series.

Justin Rose

• Birthplace: Johannesburg, South Africa
• Turned Pro: 1998
• Official World Golf Ranking: 58
• Best Masters finish: 2 (2015, 2017)

Boasts an enviable record at the Masters, with top-25 finishes in 14 of his 18 starts. Remarkably, 11 of those come in the past 13 years. Most notably, lost out in a play-off to Sergio Garcia in 2017. In 2023, he won for the 11th time on the PGA TOUR after a four-year wait with victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. His best finish on the DP World Tour last year was a tie for fourth at the Betfred British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo, while he made his sixth Ryder Cup appearance in Italy. He has missed the cut in his last two starts, with his best result so far this coming at Pebble Beach with a tie for 11th in his title defence.

• Birthplace: Adelaide, Australia
• Turned Pro: 2000
• Official World Golf Ranking: 52
• Best Masters finish: 1 (2013)

One of the past champions in the field, following his play-off triumph against Angel Cabrera in 2013. Now, Australia’s first Green Jacket winner is set for his 23rd Masters appearance. He has only missed the cut on two occasions, and not since 2009. Recorded top-10 finishes in his first three starts of the 2024 DP World Tour season and has since added another at the WM Phoenix Open on the PGA TOUR.

Sepp Straka

• Birthplace: Vienna, Austria
• Official World Golf Ranking: 29
• Best Masters finish: T30 (2022)

The Austrian is making his third consecutive appearance at the Masters. He hit his stride in 2023 after finishing in a tie for seventh at the US PGA Championship, and then won his second PGA TOUR title at the John Deere Classic in early July. Later that month he produced his career-best Major performance with a tie for second at The Open, before ending the PGA TOUR campaign at the Tour Championship in a share of sixth place. Part of the European team that regained the Ryder Cup in Italy. Has two top-20 finishes so far this year on the PGA TOUR, including at The PLAYERS Championship.

Erik van Rooyen

• Birthplace: Bellville, South Africa
• Official World Golf Ranking: 63

The South African is making his third Masters appearance, having missed the cut in both 2020 and 2022. Claimed his second PGA TOUR title at the World Wide Technology Championship in November, dedicating his triumph to a close friend, who died shortly afterwards due to terminal cancer. Finished in a tie for second in Palm Beach Gardens in March and also has a top 10 this season in Mexico. His one win on the DP World Tour so far came in Sweden in 2019.

Danny Willett

• Official World Golf Ranking: 245
• Best Masters finish: 1 (2016)

This marks the Englishman’s 10th Masters appearance. His career highlight so far came in 2016 when he shot a final-round 67 to overturn a three-stroke deficit and become England’s first Masters champion since Sir Nick Faldo won his third Green Jacket in 1996. Among his other prestigious victories are evens both the DP World Tour Championship, BMW PGA Championship and Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Struggled for form last year, and he has not played since undergoing shoulder surgery following the BMW PGA Championship in September.

Svensson caps off stunning 12 months with inaugural DP World Tour victory 

Jesper Svensson became a winner on the DP World Tour for the first time at the Porsche Singapore Classic last month, continuing his remarkable rise up the golfing ranks which began on the Challenge Tour in 2023.

DP World Tour Partners