The Tour began on 2 July with a 7.2 km (4.5 mi) prologue around the French city Lille.

Chris Boardman was the first rider to wear the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification after winning the opening prologue.

Flavio Vanzella took the lead away from Museeuw the next day as the Tour made its way into Great Britain.

[3] The Jolly Componibili–Cage team of Zenon Jaskuła, who had finished in third place in the 1993 Tour de France, was not selected.

The highest point of elevation in the race was 2,275 m (7,464 ft) at the summit of the Val Thorens climb on stage 17.

[8][9] The 1994 edition of the Tour de France began with a brief 7.2 km (4.5 mi) prologue around the city of Lille.

[13] Englishman Chris Boardman set a blistering pace on the course en route to winning the stage by fifteen seconds over the second-place finisher Miguel Induráin.

[13] Djamolidine Abdoujaparov ultimately won the stage while Jalabert and Nelissen were forced to drop out of the race due to the injuries they had sustained.

Amazingly a young Lance Armstrong was able to hold onto a top 10 placing through Stage 10, but other than Rominger no one was in a position to threaten Indurain's lead.

In the final time trial in Stage 19 Ugrumov won the stage with Pantani coming in second both riders gaining considerable time on Indurain, but by the end of the day it was too little too late for both riders as Indurain's 4th consecutive Tour de France victory was all but secure as he held a commanding lead of 5:39 over the now 2nd place Ugrumov.

The cyclist with the most points lead the classification, and wore a white jersey with red polka dots.