The Tour de France is an annual road bicycle race held over 23 days in July.

[1] The race usually covers approximately 3,500 kilometres (2,200 mi), passing through France and neighbouring countries such as Belgium.

[3] The rider with the lowest aggregate time at the end of each day wears the yellow jersey, representing the leader of the general classification.

[4] Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Indurain, have won the most Tours with five each.

[14] Merckx looked to be heading for a record sixth Tour victory in 1975, but Bernard Thévenet beat him, becoming the first French winner in seven years.

Hinault won the Tour at his first attempt in 1978; becoming one of 11 cyclists (including Anquetil, Merckx, Hugo Koblet and Fausto Coppi) managed to do so.

[22] He was later stripped of his titles in October 2012, when it emerged he had used performance-enhancing drugs throughout much of his career, including the Tour de France victories.

[9] Floyd Landis won the Tour in 2006, but was later stripped of his title, after a drug-control test demonstrated the presence of a skewed testosterone/epitestosterone ratio.

The 2007 Tour was also marred by doping scandals, thus Contador was unable to defend his title in 2008, as his Astana team was banned for its part in the controversy.

[30] He was unsuccessful in his attempts to win a fourth Tour in succession in 2018 edition, Froome's teammate, Geraint Thomas, was the winner instead.

[32] The 2020 Tour was postponed to commence on 29 August, following the French government's extension of a ban on mass gatherings after the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak.

[33] This was the first time since the end of World War II that the Tour de France was not held in the month of July.

[34] It was won by Tadej Pogačar, who became the first Slovenian rider to win the race as well as one of the youngest winners in Tour history.

[35] Pogačar regained the general classification in 2024 and became the first person to win the Giro and Tour in the same year since Pantani in 1998.

[D] Lance Armstrong was removed from the head of the list after having all seven of his Tour victories stripped when he was found guilty of repeated doping offences.