Fastest. Closest. Greatest - Tour de France records to remember

In what is considered by many to be the greatest edition of the Tour de France in 1989, Greg LeMond overturned a 50-second deficit from Laurent Fignon in the final day individual time trial to win the Tour by a mere eight seconds. Over 3,285km of racing, the Tour was decided by a handful of seconds. 

On the other side of the scale, the largest winning margin in Tour de France history was in the 1903 Tour, the inaugural edition of the race, where Frenchman Maurice Garin won the race in a time of 94 hours, 33 minutes and 14 seconds. Fellow Frenchman Lucien Pothier finished 2 hours, 59 minutes, and 31 seconds behind Garin.

It's fair to say that the race has evolved since its very first edition, and the biggest winning margin is likely to forever be the biggest gap in Tour history.

Mark Cavendish holds the record for the most stage wins in Tour de France history with 35. The Manx Missile was tied with Eddy Merckx on 34 wins apiece until stage 5 of the 2024 Tour, where Cavendish was victorious in Saint-Vulbas.

The record for the most stage victories in a single Tour de France stands at 8, a feat achieved by only three riders in history. French sprinter Charles Pélissier first set this record with eight stage wins in the 1930 Tour. This feat was later matched by Belgian legend Eddy Merckx, who won eight stages in 1970 and again in 1974, and by another Belgian, Freddy Maertens, who took eight stages in the 1976 Tour. No rider has ever exceeded eight stage wins in one edition, making this trio of riders the co-holders of a historic Tour record.

8 stage wins in a single Tour de France: 

• Eddy Merckx (1970, 1974)
• Charles Pélissier (1930)
• Freddy Maertens (1976)

Fabio Battesini of Italy has held the record for being the youngest stage winner of the Tour de France for almost a century, when he won stage 3 back in 1931. He was only 19 years and 133 days old when he accomplished the feat, and it would remain the only Tour stage win of his career. Battesini would add three stages of his home Grand Tour, the Giro d'Italia, to his collection.

Herni Cornet sits second on the list for his exploits in the 1904 Tour, where he claimed not only a stage but also the general classification, which makes him the youngest winner of the Tour de France to this day. Cornet was 19 years and 344 days old at the time of his stage win,

The youngest active stage winner of the Tour is unsurprisingly Tadej Pogačar, who was 21 years and 351 days old on stage 9 when he claimed the first of three stage wins in the 2020 edition, which he would also go on to win overall.

Belgium rider Pino Cerami holds the record for being the oldest stage winner in Tour de France history, when he was victorious on stage 9 in the 1963 edition. The Italian-born rider was 41 years and 64 days old when he accomplished this feat.

Cerami had a distinguished career, as a winner of Paris-Roubaix and La Flèche-Wallonne in 1960, but in terms of the history books, Cerami's stage win at the Tour stands out because nobody within a two-year age gap has come close to toppling this record. 

When Mark Cavendish wrote his own history in 2024, by becoming the greatest stage winner in the history of the Tour with his 35th victory, he also became the second oldest stage winner at 39 years and 43 days old, still over two years younger than Cerami.

Despite sitting fifth in the most appearances at the Tour list, Dutch rider Joop Zoetemelk holds the record for the most distance completed in Tour de France history.

In his 16 participations at the Tour, Zoetemelk was able to finish every single edition, including winning the race in 1980. This ties him level with French rider Sylvain Chavanel for the record of 16 Tour finishes. However, based on the distance of the duo's 16 Tours, Zoetemelk holds the record for the most distance ridden in Tour de France history at 62,885 kilometres or 39,075 miles.

Making it to the Tour de France year after year is an accomplishment on its own, but some riders rack up many Tours without ever tasting a stage victory. The rider who holds the record for most Tour de France participations without winning a stage is Haimar Zubeldia of Spain. 

Zubeldia started the Tour 16 times in his career, racing through the late 1990s and 2000s with teams like Euskaltel-Euskadi and Trek, yet he never won an individual stage. Despite this, Zubeldia was a consistently strong performer – he achieved five top-ten finishes in the Tour’s general classification – but a stage win always eluded him. 

This makes his case unique, as most riders with that many Tours have at least one stage win. For comparison, the all-time leader in Tour participations is Sylvain Chavanel with 18 starts, but Chavanel managed to win multiple stages in his career. Other riders like Stuart O’Grady and George Hincapie (17 Tour starts each) also won a stage. Zubeldia’s 16-Tour, 0-stage-win record stands out as a testament to perseverance without glory. Historically, there are also earlier examples such as France’s Jules Deloffre, who rode 14 Tours from 1908–1928 without a stage win.

In terms of road stages, and excluding time trials/prologues, the fastest recorded stage in Tour de France history remains from the 20th century. Stage 4 of the 1999 edition, a 194.5 kilometre route from Laval to Blois, is the fastest recorded stage in Tour history, clocking an average speed of 50.36km/h (31.29 miles per hour). 

The stage ended in a sprint finish and was won by Italian sprinter Mario Cipollini, the first of four consecutive stages he would win in the 1999 edition. It is the only road stage in Tour history with an average speed over 50 kilometres per hour, up to and including the 2024 edition.

The fastest time trial in Tour de France history was set by Rohan Dennis on the opening stage of the 2015 race, which started in Utrecht, Netherlands. The Australian clocked a speed of 55.446km/h. The fastest team time trial in Tour de France history was set by the Australian team Orica GreenEDGE (now Jayco AlUla) in 2013. The team completed the 25-kilometre time-trial at 57.7 km/h or 35.85 miles per hour.

The fastest Tour de France on record, in terms of overall average speed, was the 2022 edition. Jonas Vingegaard was victorious in that edition, which covered 3,350km and was completed in 79 hours, 33 minutes and 20 seconds by the Dane, which equates to an average speed of 42.031kph or 26.2 mph.

Throughout the early decades of the Tour, large solo breakaways often produced enormous time gaps. The largest winning margin for a single stage occurred in 1976 when Spain’s José Luis Viejo won from the breakaway by a staggering 22 minutes 50 seconds ahead of the next rider.

Viejo’s exploit came on the Montgenèvre–Manosque stage and remains the greatest stage-winning gap ever recorded. For comparison, the longest solo break in Tour history was by Albert Bourlon in 1947 – he rode alone for 253 km and finished 16 minutes 30 seconds ahead in Luchon. Impressive, but still several minutes shy of Viejo’s record-breaking margin. 

Unsurprisingly, the capital city of Paris is the most visited location in the Tour de France, appearing in the race 148 times. The Tour has finished in Paris in every edition since its inception, with the exception of 2024, when Nice hosted the finish due to the Summer Olympics taking place in the capital. Since 1975, the Tour de France has finished on the Champs-Élysées, the iconic and well-recognised finish that the race is known for today.

Outside of Paris, Bordeaux is the second most visited location, featuring on 81 occasions, making its debut in the inaugural edition alongside the capital. The city has seen many famous riders claim victory at the Tour, such as Freddy Maertens, Eddy Merckx and Mark Cavendish.

Overlooking the Pyrenees, the city of Pau is the third most visited location in Tour history, and is always a reliable place for the race organisers to feature in tough Pyrenean stages.

Only three riders have ever won a stage in all three major specialities (mountain, sprint, time-trial) in a single edition of the Tour de France. Eddy Merckx was the first to complete the feat in 1974, before 'The Cannibal' was joined 5 years later by 'The Badger', Bernard Hinault, in 1979.

In the current peloton, Wout van Aert was able to complete the set in 2021, when he won stage 11, which featured two ascents of Mont Ventoux, stage 20's individual time-trial, before rounding out with a sprint win on the Champs-Élysées. This feat takes the meaning of well-rounded to a whole new level.

Riders winning a time-trial, mountain and sprint stage in the same Tour de France:

• Eddy Merckx - 1974
• Bernard Hinault - 1979
• Wout van Aert - 2021

The edition of the Tour de France with the most participants was in 1986. In that edition, a record 210 riders took to the start line for the opening prologue in Boulogne-Billancourt, won by French rider Thierry Marie. 

Out of the 210 riders who started, only 132 made it to Paris, where Greg LeMond won his first of three Tour de France titles.

The smallest number of finishers in an edition of the Tour was 10 in 1919, although there were only 67 starters. Belgian rider Firmin Lambot won the first of two Tours in this edition.

The largest number of withdrawals during a single edition of the Tour was back in 1998, when 93 out of 189 starters crossed the finish line in Paris, where Marco Pantani was victorious. That edition, however, is remembered as one of the darkest in Tour de France history, marred by widespread doping scandals and police raids, most notably the Festina affair, which shook the sport to its core.

Read all about Tour de France winner records in this article.