Fignon

The Tour de France 2026 will be remembered first for Tadej Pogačar winning a fifth yellow jersey, but reducing the race to that one...

The Tour de France has never been a simple test of who can climb fastest or time trial hardest. It rewards dominance, but it...

Bernard Hinault is usually remembered as a force of nature. The glare, the stubbornness, the attacks, the refusal to accept a race being ridden...

French cycling and the Tour de France are almost impossible to separate. The race began as a French newspaper project in 1903, travelled first...

The history of the Tour de France Femmes is not a straight line. It is a story of beginnings, disappearances, legal arguments, underfunded survival,...

Alpe d’Huez has never needed to be the steepest climb in the Tour de France to feel like the hardest. It simply has to...

Bernard Hinault has delivered a stark and uncompromising verdict on France’s 40-year wait for a Tour de France winner, stating bluntly that no French...

La Classicicissima is another old old bike race, starting up in 1907 (and an amateur 2-day version in 1906). The soon to be 2-time Tour de France winner Lucien Petit-Breton won the first race. The 1920s were dominated by Costante Girardengo who won the race 6 times and had 5 further podium places. The Italian dominance continued into the 1940s with heavyweights like Alfredo Binda, Gino Bartali & Fausto Coppi all winning the race.

The 'Hell of the North' is one of cycling oldest still active race - the first edition taking place in 1896. The owners of Roubaix's new velodrome were looking for ways to increase business so began the race with Paris newspaper Le Vélo.