Tour de France Stats
Historical stats
– The Tour de France was created in 1903, the inaugural edition being won by Maurice Garin
– Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain and Eddy Merckx share the record for the most overall wins, five
– The nation standings is led by France (36), followed by Belgium (18) and Spain (12)
– As expected, France has the most stage wins – 684
– Peugeot is the team with the most victories in the overall classification, 9
– 60 cyclists have won the Tour de France at least once
– Eddy Merckx holds the record for the most days spent in the yellow jersey (96), as well as the one for the most stage victories (34)
– The Belgian also has the most stage wins in the yellow jersey at one edition: 7 in 1970
– Charles Pélissier, Freddy Maertens and Eddy Merckx share the record for the most stage wins at a single edition: 8
– Fabian Cancellara is the cyclist with the most yellow jerseys ever for someone who has not won the Tour: 28
– Richard Virenque has the most polka dot jerseys: 7
– In the points classification, Germany’s Erik Zabel leads, with six victories
– Andy Schleck and Jan Ullrich are the only riders who have won the white jersey three times
– Raymond Poulidor has the most overall podiums: 8
– François Faber is the only cyclist who took five stages in a row (1909)
– George Hincapie, Stuart O’Grady and Jens Voigt hold the record for the most starts: 17
– Joop Zoetemelk is the rider with the most completed editions: 16
– Youngest ever winner of the Grande Boucle is Henri Cornet (19 years and 355 days in 1904), while the oldest one is Firmin Lambot (36 years and 131 days in 1922)
– Italy’s Fabio Battestini is the youngest ever stage winner (19 years and 133 days in 1931); Pino Cerami is the oldest one (41 years and 95 days in 1963)
– Only two cyclists from outside of Europe have won the trophy: Cadel Evans (Australia) and Greg LeMond (U.S.A.)
– 14 riders were forced to retire while leading the general classification
– Lucien Aimar, Firmon Lambot, Greg LeMond, Gastone Nencini, Oscar Pereiro and Roger Walkowiak have all won the overall standings without nabbing a stage victory
– Albert Bourlon went down into the history books as the rider with the longest winning escape – 253 kilometers, in 1947
– Up until this point, 23 nations gave a leader of the general classification
– André Darrigade holds the record for the most consecutive editions in which he scored at least a stage victory
– Australia, Canada, Columbia, South Africa and the U.S.A. are the five countries from outside Europe who had a cyclist in the yellow jersey
– Bernard Hinault is the only rider who wore the yellow jersey at eight editions
– Laurent Fignon, Vincenzo Nibali and Joop Zoetemelk are the three cyclists who got to win on three summit finishes at one edition
– Smallest winning margin was recorded in 1989, when Greg LeMond defeated Laurent Fignon for just 8 seconds
– In 1903, Maurice Garin put two hours, 59 minutes and 21 seconds between him and the second places cyclist, Lucien Pothier, which stands as the biggest ever winning gap
– 11 cyclists have won the Tour de France at their debut in the race, while four riders took the GC at their last presence here
– Ottavio Bottecchia, Maurice Garin, Nicolas Frantz, Romain Maes and Philippe Thys have lead the event from the first until the last stage
– Pierre Brambilla, Laurent Fignon and Hermann Van Springel have lost the lead in the last day
– Jan Janssen, Greg LeMond and Jean Robic are the three cyclists who took the final win in the last day of the race
– Louison Bobet, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Greg Lemond have all won the race while wearing the rainbow jersey
– Andy and Frank Schleck are the only brothers to have finished the Tour de France on the podium
– The most successful jersey number in the history is 1 (worn by 24 champions)
– The highest jersey number worn by a Tour de France winner was 171 (Pedro Delgado in 1988)
– The second running (1904) saw the shortest edition (2420 kilometers); the longest one took place in 1926 (5745 kilometers)
– The longest stage in line ever witnessed had 482 kilometers; the shortest one had 19,6 kilometers
– Lowest average speed of an edition was in 1924 – 23,972 km/h; highest average speed was recorded in 2006: 40,789 km/h
– Throughout history, only three stages were neutralised, in 1978, 1995 and 1998
– Alpe d’Huez was the host of the first ever summit finish, in 1952, when Fausto Coppi took the victory
– First visit of the peloton outside the borders of France was in 1907, to Metz, who was a German posession at that time
– Paris is the most visited city (145), followed by Bordeaux (134) and Pau (118)
– Most visited venue outside France is Liège (22)
– 1992 was the year in which the race went to the most foreign countries: Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Spain
– The yellow yersey was introduced in 1919, the polka dot one in 1933, the green jersey in 1953 and the white one in 1979
– First passage of the Pyrenees was in 1910, with the Alps making their debut one year later
– Col du Galibier is the highest ever summit finish – 2645 meters, while Col du Tourmalet is the most visited climb (79 times)
2015 stats
– 22 teams will race this edition (17 World Tour, 5 Pro Continental)
– Five of these haven’t scored a World Tour win in 2015: Bora-Argon 18, Bretagne-Séché, Europcar, IAM and LottoNL-Jumbo
– MTN-Qhubeka is the only team which will make its debut in the Grande Boucle
– This 102nd running of the race has 3358,3 kilometers and five summint finishes (Pierre-Saint-Martin, Plateau de Beille, Pra-Loup, La Toussuire, Alpe d’Huez)
– With Galibier out due to landslide, Col d’Allos is now the highest point of this year’s race – 2250 meters
– The 2015 edition will be the one with the fewest individual time trial kilometers ever: 13,8
– It will be for the 21st time that the Grand Depart will take place outside of France
– Three riders who previously have won the race are now at the start: Alberto Contador, Chris Froome and Vincenzo Nibali
– The cyclists who came to Utrecht have won a combined total of 17 Grand Tours, 24 Monuments, 13 world titles and more than 230 Grand Tour stages
– Youngest rider in this years’ race is Merhawi Kudus (21 years and 184 days), while the oldest one is Matteo Tosatto (41 years and 73 days)
– 32 countries will have at least one rider in the race, with France topping the list (41)
– There will be 24 national champions in the Tour de France, MTN-Qhubeka and Movistar being the teams which are lining-up the most, three each
– Europcar is the only team with all nine cyclists coming from the same country (France)
– Matteo Tosatto is the rider with the most Grand Tour starts under his belt, 32 (including this one)
– Adam Hansen is participating in his 12th consecutive Grand Tour
– 44 cyclists will make their debut in the race this year
– Emanuel Buchmann is the only neo-pro to race the 102nd edition
– The Tour de France will visit six new cities: Utrecht, Zelande, Livarot, La Pierre-Saint-Martin, Muret and Sèvres-Grand Paris Seine
Cafe Roubaix 
Hei, I have three topics for you:
1. Lucien Aimar, Firmon Lambot, Greg LeMond, Gastone Nencini, Oscar Pereiro and Roger Walkowiak have all won the overall standings without nabbing a stage victory
I don’t understand how people think. Although I see there are six riders who won the Tour without nabbing a stage victory (including the great LeMond) people are only considering Walkowiak and Pereiro as winners without shining. What is your opinion about this?
The same remark is available for the three cases when the yellow jersey was lost in the last round. Everybody is speaking only about the Fignon-LeMond change, but did not mention at all about the other two cases.
2. Do you know how many countries had at least one participant in the race during its entire history?
3. I see Paris has been visited 145 times. How is this been calculated as there were only 99 editions so far? It’s counted twice if it has been both a start and a finish stage in an edition? How about if the riders just passed by a city, but didn’t stop, is that one counted also?
1 – Easy answer: Walkowiak was a domestique and his victory came as a huge surprise, but also as a huge disappointment to the French media. He was very unpopular, didn’t get any publicity and his win has called an undeserved achievement. As for Pereiro, he won after Landis was disqualified, so that could be the answer.
2 – Have no idea, that’s very difficult to find out.
3 – The starts and the finishes count for the total number, but don’t forget that in the early years of the race it was common practice to have two stages finishing there. And no, when the race is just passing through a city, it’s not going into the history books.