Tour de France Winners Archive Screensaver

The Tour de France began in 1903, organised by the newspaper L'Auto, and Maurice Garin of France won the first edition. That race ran from 1 to 19 July over six stages and 2,428 kilometres, and the longest stage, Nantes to Ville-d'Avray, was 471 kilometres. The race is decided by general classification, the lowest cumulative time across the stages. The leader has worn the yellow jersey since 1919; in 1903 the leader wore a green armband.

Gaps in the list are real: there was no Tour from 1915 to 1918 or from 1940 to 1946, and the first race after the Second World War was in 1947. Some years carry asterisks. In 2012 the UCI accepted the US Anti-Doping Agency's sanctions against Lance Armstrong, disqualified his results from 1 August 1998 onward, including seven Tour titles, and decided not to award those wins to any other rider. Floyd Landis was stripped of the 2006 title, and Oscar Pereiro was declared the winner. How an archive treats these years is worth checking against official records.

The routes, team sizes and rules have changed a great deal. The earliest editions had very long stages, whereas today's peloton is organised around support teams. Comparing champions across eras means comparing very different races.