In honor of the Maastricht Treaty, which created the European Union, the Tour visited a record seven countries: France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and Italy.

[4] The yellow jersey, worn by the leader in the general classification, changed owner again after the third stage, when a group of ten cyclists stayed away.

[4] The GC riders were largely content to let the breakaways go during the first two weeks, knowing the race would be decided in the ITT's and mountains of stages thirteen and fourteen.

[13] Former champs Roche and Delgado, who each had teammates placed higher than them in Chiappucci and Induráin, as well as Andy Hampsten, who came into the race targeting a top 5 finish,[14] were beyond Fignon and LeMond.

Stage six began in Roubaix and the riders had to deal with the cobbles, as well as bad weather as it had been raining steadily by the time they crossed into Belgium.

They were joined by Brian Holm and Laurent Jalabert and by the time they approached the finish line under the Atomium in Brussels they had built a gap of about ninety seconds.

The press swarmed LeMond after the stage to the point he had to hide under a truck trailer for a few minutes to change before dealing with them, as there were not yet team buses for the riders to utilize.

Roche was considered a contender and on stage seven, as the race crossed into the Netherlands, he got involved in an escape and finished with the same time as winner Gilles Delion, gaining over a minute on Induráin in the process.

Jan Nevens won the following day as the Tour entered Germany and riders such as Heppner, Skibby, Ledanois and Alberto Leanizbarrutia found themselves in the top 10.

The time trial was ridden in Luxembourg and the closest rider to Induráin was Armand de Las Cuevas who finished three minutes behind.

Stage ten was won by Jean-Paul van Poppel who defeated defending green jersey champion Djamolidine Abdoujaparov and Laurent Jalabert in the sprint.

In stage twelve Museeuw wrestled the green jersey back from Jalabert as Swiss rider Rolf Järmann beat Pedro Delgado to the line by three seconds.

All total the stage was just over 250 km long and by the time he crossed the finish line Chiappucci had ridden nearly half of it on a solo attack and collected an enormous amount of King of the Mountains points, a classification he would win.

[22] Stage fourteen was another day of grueling climbing; beginning at Sestriere and moving back into France for the final time finishing at the mountaintop resort of Alpe d'Huez.

For the second day in a row Andy Hampsten and Franco Vona were at the front of the race with or ahead of the GC contenders.

As far as the yellow jersey was concerned Bugno lost considerable time and dropped to 5th below Lino, who rode well enough to maintain 4th place.

In stage seventeen Maassen, Sergeant, Louviot, Nulens and Jean-Claude Colotti were at the front of an escape group that finished more than +15:00 ahead of the peloton.

Everyone else was beyond +2:00 and the most important changes included Chiappucci now being +4:35 behind locking up 2nd place overall, and being as Bugno had a considerably better ride than Hampsten and Lino, he jumped both of them in the standings and took over the final podium position.

On the final stage, which finished on the Champs-Élysées, the sprint was fought over by Frankie Andreu, Søren Lilholt, Laurent Jalabert, Johan Museeuw, Jean-Paul van Poppel and Olaf Ludwig with Ludwig winning the day and taking his second career Tour de France stage victory.

[24] The final podiums included Laurent Jalabert in the green jersey, Claudio Chiappucci as the king of the mountains winner as well as the Most Combative Rider.

Miguel Induráin won his second consecutive Tour and joined the elite group of Coppi, Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault and Roche as the only riders to complete the Giro-Tour double.