Each Tour de Ski has consisted of six to nine stages, held during late December and early January in the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland.

The skier with the lowest aggregate time at the end of each day wears the gold bib, representing the leader of the overall standings.

[1][2] Their idea was to create a stage competition consisting of different events which they expected would lead to several days of continuous excitement before the most complete skiers would become Tour de Ski champions.

[3] A week before the Tour was due to start, FIS announced that snow conditions in Nové Město were not good enough, and cancelled the two races there.

The first Tour de Ski therefore opened with a sprint race in Munich on 31 December 2006, and was won by Christoph Eigenmann (SUI).

[12] Newspaper comments were divided: in Expressen's opinion, the finish was the "most enjoyable competition seen in years,"[13] while Roland Wiedemann in Der Spiegel said this "should be the future of cross-country skiing".

[14] Critical commentaries appeared in Göteborgs-Posten, criticising the fact that sprinters didn't have a chance in the overall standings,[15] and Wiesbaden Kurier, describing it as a reality show and a skiing circus.

In 2017–18, the year Cologna won his record fourth overall Tour, Alex Harvey of Canada became the first non-European to achieve a podium spot in the overall standings.

Russian Alexander Bolshunov won in 2021 after reaching podium in all eight stages and with the biggest ever margin over runner-up Maurice Manificat, 3 minutes 23.9 seconds.