By Tom Kando
When my knees became too creaky to run marathons, I switched to road biking. As a child growing up in France, I was an avid road biker. The Tour de France was the greatest annual sport event, and I not only followed it fervently every year, but I saw it live many times, as the racers approached Paris on their last stage and rode through the small suburban town where we lived.
In the early 21st century, I picked up biking again both as a participant and as a spectator. I spent some time researching the Tour de France on some websites. http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2012/us/history/
“La Grande Boucle” may be the most grueling sport event in the world. Amazingly, some men manage to repeat a dozen or more times. They must be genetically different from the rest of us (or do a lot of doping, haha).
In the table below, I list 24 of the most prominent riders, ranked by how many times they did the race. Actually, there are about hundred men who have done 7 or more Tours, since its inception in 1903. But I selected the 28 whose names meant the most to me.
This ranking does not indicate the racers’ greatness, only their durability. For example, the Belgian Edy Merckx is seen by many as the greatest bicycler of all times. He is 79th because he “only” participated in seven tours, whereas many other racers did more than that (some without ever winning). Unlike Lance Armstrong, who concentrated on winning the Tour, Merckx has raced in (and won) nearly every single race there is.
A sad question is whether the continuing allegations of doping against Armstrong, recently again revived by the US Anti-Doping Agency, will succeed in destroying the most fantastic cycling career in history. It is safe to bet that Armstrong’s 7 victories will never be surpassed. However, the record may be invalidated, if the allegations stand.
My feelings? You are innocent until proven guilty. I have always been a great admirer of Armstrong, and I will only stop being that if he is proven guilty.
All-time Most Frequent Tour the France Participants, with first, second and third finishes
Name of Athlete | Country | No. raced | When | No. won | No. 2nd | No. 3rd |
1. Joop Zoetemelk | Netherlands | 16 | ‘70-86 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
2. Lucien Van Impe | Belgium | 15 | ‘69-85 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
3. Raymond. Poulidor | France | 14 | ‘62-76 | 2 | 5 | |
4. Andre Darrigade | France | 14 | ‘53-66 | |||
5. Erik Zabel | Germany | 14 | ‘94-‘07 | |||
6. Lance Armstrong | US | 13 | ‘93-‘10 | 7 | 1 | |
7. Joaquim Agostinho | Portugal | 13 | ‘69-83 | 2 | ||
8. Hennie.Kuiper | Netherlands | 12 | ‘75-88 | 2 | ||
9. Raphael Geminiani | France | 12 | ‘47-59 | 1 | 1 | |
10. Richard Virenque | France | 12 | ‘92-04 | 1 | 1 | |
11. Bernard Thevenet | France | 11 | ‘70-81 | 1 | 1 | |
12. Pedro. Delgado | Spain | 11 | ‘83-93 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
13. Jean Alavoine | France | 11 | ‘09-25 | 2 | 2 | |
14. Laurent Jalabert | France | 11 | ‘91-02 | |||
15. Louison Bobet | France | 10 | ‘47-59 | 3 | 1 | |
16. Philippe Thys | Belgium | 10 | ‘12-25 | 3 | ||
18. Laurent Fignon | France | 10 | ‘83-93 | 2 | 1 | |
20. Fred Bahamontes | Spain | 10 | ‘54-62 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
21. Charly Gaul | Luxembourg | 10 | ‘53-63 | 1 | 2 | |
22. Stephen.Roche | Ireland | 10 | ‘83-93 | 1 | 1 | |
24. Jean Robic | France | 10 | ‘47-59 | 1 | ||
25. Didier Rous | France | 10 | ‘94-03 | |||
31. Miguel.Indurain | Spain | 9 | ‘88-96 | 5 | ||
37. Bjarne Riis | Denmark | 9 | ‘88-98 | 1 | 1 | |
49. Bernard Hinault | France | 8 | ‘78-86 | 5 | 2 | |
50. Jacques.Anquetil | France | 8 | ‘57-66 | 5 | 1 | |
51. Greg.Lemond | US | 8 | ‘84-94 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
79. Eddy Merckx | Belgium | 7 | ‘69-77 | 5 | 1 |
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