{"id":2019929,"date":"2026-06-30T08:48:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T05:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2019929"},"modified":"2026-06-30T08:48:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T05:48:00","slug":"club-des-cinq-how-anquetil-merckx-hinault-and-indurain-won-their-fifth-tour-de-france-and-the-history-that-tadej-pogacar-seeks-to-emulate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2019929","title":{"rendered":"Club des Cinq: How Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault and Indurain won their fifth Tour de France, and the history that Tadej Poga\u010dar seeks to emulate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-2500-80.jpg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article class=\"m-0 box-border flex flex-row items-center pr-2.5 gap-[15px] w-[278px] h-20 flex-none upnext-article-divider\" role=\"listitem\" aria-label=\"Recommended article 1 of 3\">\n<div class=\"relative flex-none w-20 h-20\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/xYehNdGJyBUwNetTFTfRVL-160-80.jpg.webp 160w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/xYehNdGJyBUwNetTFTfRVL-80-80.jpg.webp 80w\" sizes=\"80px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"flex items-center justify-center absolute w-4 h-6 left-0 top-0 bg-white\/90 flex-none z-[1]\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><span class=\"font-normal text-base leading-[17px] tracking-[1.3px] uppercase text-black flex-none\">1<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"flex flex-col items-center justify-center gap-1.5 w-[173px] h-20 flex-none\">\n<p class=\"font-article-heading font-medium text-base leading-[21px] text-gray-800 w-[173px] line-clamp-3 group-hover:underline\">\n                                    Tour de France team-by-team guide \u2013 Line-up, leaders and ambitions for every squad on the start list\n                                <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<article class=\"m-0 box-border flex flex-row items-center pr-2.5 gap-[15px] w-[278px] h-20 flex-none upnext-article-divider\" role=\"listitem\" aria-label=\"Recommended article 2 of 3\">\n<div class=\"relative flex-none w-20 h-20\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/WHEfA8PfrwjRikdcTccTK-160-80.png.webp 160w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/WHEfA8PfrwjRikdcTccTK-80-80.png.webp 80w\" sizes=\"80px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"flex items-center justify-center absolute w-[18px] h-6 left-0 top-0 bg-white\/90 flex-none z-[1]\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><span class=\"font-normal text-base leading-[17px] tracking-[1.3px] uppercase text-black flex-none\">2<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"flex flex-col items-center justify-center gap-1.5 w-[173px] h-20 flex-none\">\n<p class=\"font-article-heading font-medium text-base leading-[21px] text-gray-800 w-[173px] line-clamp-3 group-hover:underline\">\n                                    Who will win the Tour de France 2026? Our definitive ranking of the favourites for the yellow jersey\n                                <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<article class=\"m-0 box-border flex flex-row items-center pr-2.5 gap-[15px] w-[278px] h-20 flex-none\" role=\"listitem\" aria-label=\"Recommended article 3 of 3\">\n<div class=\"relative flex-none w-20 h-20\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-160-80.jpg.webp 160w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-80-80.jpg.webp 80w\" sizes=\"80px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"flex items-center justify-center absolute w-[18px] h-6 left-0 top-0 bg-white\/90 flex-none z-[1]\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><span class=\"font-normal text-base leading-[17px] tracking-[1.3px] uppercase text-black flex-none\">3<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"flex flex-col items-center justify-center gap-1.5 w-[173px] h-20 flex-none\">\n<p class=\"font-article-heading font-medium text-base leading-[21px] text-gray-800 w-[173px] line-clamp-3 group-hover:underline\">\n                                    &#8216;Tadej keeps on surprising us&#8217; \u2013 The inside view on how UAE Team Emirates-XRG have constructed Tadej Poga\u010dar&#8217;s assault on a fifth Tour de France\n                                <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<article class=\"page-content-onecol flex-1\nnews-article article\n\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"widget-area-group widget-area-group-2col flex flex-wrap box-border\">\n<div id=\"widgetArea16\" class=\"widget-area basis-full md:basis-2\/3 widget-area-g-md-vp-2-3 widget-area-g-lg-vp-2-3 widget-area-g-xl-vp-2-3 page-widget-area-16\">\n<div data-widget-type=\"hero\" id=\"hero\" class=\"clear-both widget widget-hero widget-hero widget-hero-hero widget-hero widget-hero-fter-news\">\n<div class=\"news-article\">\n<header data-component-name=\"Article:Hero\">\n<nav class=\"breadcrumb\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumbs\">\n<ol>\n<li>\nPro Cycling\n<\/li>\n<li>\nRacing\n<\/li>\n<li>\nRoad\n<\/li>\n<li>\nTour de France\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/nav>\n<h1>Club des Cinq: How Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault and Indurain won their fifth Tour de France, and the history that Tadej Poga\u010dar seeks to emulate<\/h1>\n<div class=\"byline-social\">\n<div class=\"byline font-ui-heading text-[12px]\">\nFeatures<\/p>\n<div><span><br \/>\nBy<br \/>\nAlasdair Fotheringham <\/span><span><br \/>\npublished<br \/>\n<time data-component-name=\"UI:DateTime\" datetime=\"2026-06-30T08:48:00Z\" class=\"relative-date\"><br \/>\n30 June 2026<br \/>\n<\/time><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"strapline\">Alasdair Fotheringham takes a look back into the history books to explore how the famed fifth Tours were won, what they meant for their winners, and how the record has evolved<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"text-gray-700 mx-auto mb-4 flex items-center justify-start mx-0 my-5 p-0\" id=\"affiliate-disclaimer\" data-component-name=\"AffiliateDisclaimer\" data-hawk-message=\"Affiliate disclaimer removed because hawk deemed there are no affiliate links on this page\">\n<p class=\"text-[var(--affiliate-disclaimer--text-color,inherit))] mb-2 text-[length:var(--affiliate-disclaimer--font-size,0.75rem)] leading-[18px] md:text-[13px] [&amp;&gt;a]:text-inherit [&amp;&gt;a]:underline\">\nWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here\u2019s how it works.\n<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-widget-type=\"contentparsed\" id=\"content\" class=\"clear-both widget widget-contentparsed widget-content widget-contentparsed-content widget-content-parsed widget-content-parsed-content_document \">\n<div class=\"wcp-item-content\">\n<section class=\"content-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"box less-space hero-image-wrapper\">\n<figure class=\"mb-0\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-1600-80.jpg.webp 1600w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-750-80.jpg.webp 750w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><figcaption class=\"font-article-copy text-(--image--text--color) font-article-copy mt-2\"><span class=\"caption-text font-article-copy\">Bernard Hinault was the last French man to win the Tour, when he won his fifth<\/span><span class=\"credit font-article-copy\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\" class=\"text-copy bodyCopy auto paywall-locker\">\n<div data-analytics-id=\"utility-bar\" id=\"utility-bar\" class=\"font-ui-heading flex justify-between items-center py-2 border-t border-b border-gray-300 border-solid mb-5 mx-auto\" data-component-name=\"UtilityBar\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"utility-bar\">\n<div class=\"flex gap-2 text-[#333] subcontainer\">\n<div class=\"relative tooltip-container\" role=\"tooltip\">\n<div data-component-name=\"Social:Dropdown\" role=\"menu\" id=\"utilitybar__dropdown--share\" aria-labelledby=\"utilitybar__button--share\" class=\"absolute left-0 top-full w-44 bg-white rounded-md shadow-md border border-neutral-200 z-[9996] list-none m-0 py-2 px-3 border-solid\">\n<ul class=\"m-0!\">\n<li class=\"!p-0 !m-0 list-none border-b border-gray-200 border-solid\">\n<li class=\"!p-0 !m-0 list-none border-b border-gray-200 border-solid\">\n<p>Facebook<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"!p-0 !m-0 list-none border-b border-gray-200 border-solid\">\n<p>X<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"!p-0 !m-0 list-none border-b border-gray-200 border-solid\">\n<p>Pinterest<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"!p-0 !m-0 list-none border-b border-gray-200 border-solid\">\n<p>Email<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-ui-heading max-sm:hidden tooltip absolute left-1\/2 bg-gray-900 text-white text-xs leading-none px-3 py-1.5 rounded-md z-[10001] whitespace-nowrap\" id=\"tooltip-share-this-article\" role=\"tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\nShare this article\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"relative tooltip-container\" role=\"tooltip\"><span class=\"ml-1 inline-flex h-5 px-2 shrink-0 items-center justify-center self-center overflow-hidden whitespace-nowrap rounded-[10px] bg-primary-500 text-[11px] leading-none font-ui-heading font-semibold text-white\">4<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"font-ui-heading max-sm:hidden tooltip absolute left-1\/2 bg-gray-900 text-white text-xs leading-none px-3 py-1.5 rounded-md z-[10001] whitespace-nowrap\" id=\"tooltip-join-the-conversation\" role=\"tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\nJoin the conversation\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"flex gap-2 text-[#333] subcontainer\">\n<div class=\"relative tooltip-container\" role=\"tooltip\">\n<p>Follow us<\/p>\n<div class=\"font-ui-heading max-sm:hidden tooltip absolute left-1\/2 bg-gray-900 text-white text-xs leading-none px-3 py-1.5 rounded-md z-[10001] whitespace-nowrap\" id=\"tooltip-add-us-as-a-preferred-source-on-google\" role=\"tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\nAdd us as a preferred source on Google\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"relative tooltip-container\" role=\"tooltip\">\n<div class=\"font-ui-heading max-sm:hidden tooltip absolute left-1\/2 bg-gray-900 text-white text-xs leading-none px-3 py-1.5 rounded-md z-[10001] whitespace-nowrap\" id=\"tooltip-subscribe-to-our-newsletter\" role=\"tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\nSubscribe to our newsletter\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"elk-1bd11266-3146-4667-8e4d-4feab8c93d28\">Right now you can&#8217;t go far on any self-respecting sports website without seeing a story about how Tadej Poga\u010dar&#8217;s goal of capturing a fifth Tour de France would see him pull off one of the crowning achievements in the sport. And they&#8217;re all right, of course.<\/p>\n<p>But dig back in history, and it&#8217;s fair to say that a rider joining the <em>Club des Cinq<\/em> \u2013 as the ultra exclusive, four-strong circle of five-time Tour winners is known in France \u2013 wasn&#8217;t always the biggest story of the race. Far from it.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-1bd11266-3146-4667-8e4d-4feab8c93d28-2\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Take the main end-of-race analysis piece of the Tour de France or semi-official newspaper <em>L&#8217;\u00c9quipe<\/em> back in 1974, just when Eddy Merckx was on the point of conquering his fifth title.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Written by race director and leading sports journalist Jacques Goddet, the article had an extremely downbeat headline for one thing: <em>&#8216;Le cyclisme pro: une malade&#8217;<\/em> \u2013 pro cycling is ill. And what made it even odder was right below the headline, there was a half-page photo of the soon-to-be-crowned Tour winner and the undisputed patron of the peloton, Eddy Merckx, in full lone flight towards Orl\u00e9ans. With one day remaining, he&#8217;d dropped the pack in his umpteenth display of panache and power once again, and all this by a point where he was already in complete control of the race. He was certainly not looking <em>malade<\/em> at all.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Bafflingly, there was not a mention in Goddet&#8217;s summing up of the Tour that just a day later, Merckx would win his fifth Tour de France of five starts. Or that Merckx had already moved well ahead of Andr\u00e9 LeDucq&#8217;s record-breaking total of 24 stage wins and would push it up to a new target of 32 by the end of the race. (By the end of the 1975 Tour, it was up to 34, a record that would stand for nearly half a century.) Nor even did it seemingly matter that Merckx was only 29, so in theory at least, he could take even more records in the years to come. Goddet was still unhappy.<\/p>\n<aside data-component-name=\"Recirculation:ArticleRiver\" data-recirculation-type=\"inline\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"Trending Bar\" data-nosnippet class=\"clear-both pt-2 pb-0 mb-4\"><span class=\"\n            flex\n            after:content-[&apos;&apos;] after:flex-1 after:ml-4 after:my-[0.7rem] after:border-t after:border-solid after:border-t-[#ccc]\n            before:content-[&apos;&apos;] before:flex-1 before:mr-4 before:my-[0.7rem] before:border-t before:border-solid before:border-t-[#ccc]\n            font-article-heading pb-0 text-[length:var(--article-river-title--font-size,1em)] uppercase sm:text-[length:var(--article-river-title--font-size,0.875em)] font-bold\n        \"><br \/>\n            You may like<br \/>\n        <\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"flex flex-col gap-0 m-0 max-w-full\">\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none border-b border-solid border-[#ededed] py-2\" data-recirculation-id=\"recirculation-card-1\" id=\"recirculation-inline-1\" data-analytics-id=\"recirculation-inline-1\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"recirculation-inline-1\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-250-80.jpg.webp 250w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-150-80.jpg.webp 150w\" sizes=\"150px\" \/><span class=\"w-full text-base font-[var(--article-river-item--font-weight,500)] font-article-heading line-clamp-3 md:line-clamp-2\">&#8216;Tadej keeps on surprising us&#8217; \u2013 The inside view on how UAE Team Emirates-XRG have constructed Tadej Poga\u010dar&#8217;s assault on a fifth Tour de France<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none border-b border-solid border-[#ededed] py-2\" data-recirculation-id=\"recirculation-card-2\" id=\"recirculation-inline-2\" data-analytics-id=\"recirculation-inline-2\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"recirculation-inline-2\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vqqtZmiJMoZQD2csCZrp5V-250-80.png.webp 250w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vqqtZmiJMoZQD2csCZrp5V-150-80.png.webp 150w\" sizes=\"150px\" \/><span class=\"w-full text-base font-[var(--article-river-item--font-weight,500)] font-article-heading line-clamp-3 md:line-clamp-2\">Jonas Vingegaard will try, but in reality, no one is likely to upset the Tadej Poga\u010dar show at the Tour de France \u2013 Philippa York analysis<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none border-b border-solid border-[#ccc] py-2\" data-recirculation-id=\"recirculation-card-3\" id=\"recirculation-inline-3\" data-analytics-id=\"recirculation-inline-3\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"recirculation-inline-3\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/CbxpbneafR6STQnwKHYfmM-250-80.jpg.webp 250w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/CbxpbneafR6STQnwKHYfmM-150-80.jpg.webp 150w\" sizes=\"150px\" \/><span class=\"w-full text-base font-[var(--article-river-item--font-weight,500)] font-article-heading line-clamp-3 md:line-clamp-2\">&#8216;Let&#8217;s go one by one&#8217; \u2013 Tadej Poga\u010dar wants to fill the gaps in his palmar\u00e8s, but which races are left to conquer?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/aside>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;The Tour de France has not brought us all the satisfactions that we had hoped for two months ago,&#8221; he wrote. And that was that. Not that Goddet had anything against Merckx in particular, it turned out, whom he said had &#8220;competently handled both the way the course played out and his rivals.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-c175df8a-8ce3-4fa3-bc0c-b328a0664e33\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-da6d9385-5534-4179-b3a9-cd7323e02027\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Rather, Goddet&#8217;s beef was that the lack of serious opposition to the all-conquering Eddy \u2013 &#8220;an apathetic peloton,&#8221; snarled part of the caption for the photo of Merckx regarding the bunch he&#8217;d just left reeling in his latest attack \u2013 had left the race looking and feeling more than a little, well, bland.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Riders had become overly concerned with their own well-being and were not willing to take risks, Goddet argued, and that was all the fault of modern society and the &#8216;nanny state&#8217;: its mollycoddling and obsession with safety had wreaked havoc &#8220;in this very special area of human activity&#8221; \u2013 bike racing \u2013 &#8220;where by definition, everything remains an adventure.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">What Goddet&#8217;s comments showed, then and now, is that while a fifth Tour de France title matters hugely in terms of the history of the sport, it doesn&#8217;t have to be the story of the race.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Just like last year when Tadej Poga\u010dar was on the cusp of a winning a fourth Tour but the main media focus was on his &#8216;lack of motivation&#8217; in the third week, and whether a fifth Tour victory is a close-run affair like in 1964 for Jacques Anquetil or a snooze-fest like in 1974 for Merckx, the statistic can become something of an afterthought.<\/p>\n<aside data-component-name=\"Recirculation:ArticleRiver\" data-recirculation-type=\"inline\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"Trending Bar\" data-nosnippet class=\"clear-both pt-2 pb-0 mb-4\"><span class=\"\n            flex\n            after:content-[&apos;&apos;] after:flex-1 after:ml-4 after:my-[0.7rem] after:border-t after:border-solid after:border-t-[#ccc]\n            before:content-[&apos;&apos;] before:flex-1 before:mr-4 before:my-[0.7rem] before:border-t before:border-solid before:border-t-[#ccc]\n            font-article-heading pb-0 text-[length:var(--article-river-title--font-size,1em)] uppercase sm:text-[length:var(--article-river-title--font-size,0.875em)] font-bold\n        \"><br \/>\n            What to read next<br \/>\n        <\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"flex flex-col gap-0 m-0 max-w-full\">\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none border-b border-solid border-[#ededed] py-2\" data-recirculation-id=\"recirculation-card-1\" id=\"recirculation-inline-2-1\" data-analytics-id=\"recirculation-2-inline-1\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"recirculation-2-inline-1\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/RWB8Yhvx5PcTwru9BtaPxY-250-80.jpg.webp 250w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/RWB8Yhvx5PcTwru9BtaPxY-150-80.jpg.webp 150w\" sizes=\"150px\" \/><span class=\"w-full text-base font-[var(--article-river-item--font-weight,500)] font-article-heading line-clamp-3 md:line-clamp-2\">Record-breakers, comebacks, and underdogs at Paris-Roubaix \u2013 The most memorable editions of the past 25 years<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none border-b border-solid border-[#ededed] py-2\" data-recirculation-id=\"recirculation-card-2\" id=\"recirculation-inline-2-2\" data-analytics-id=\"recirculation-2-inline-2\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"recirculation-2-inline-2\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/rAsAd4XPiLEaLrbBawWTL3-250-80.jpg.webp 250w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/rAsAd4XPiLEaLrbBawWTL3-150-80.jpg.webp 150w\" sizes=\"150px\" \/><span class=\"w-full text-base font-[var(--article-river-item--font-weight,500)] font-article-heading line-clamp-3 md:line-clamp-2\">By winning the Giro d&#8217;Italia, Jonas Vingegaard has had his strongest Tour de France preparation yet \u2013 but we still have no idea how he&#8217;ll compare with Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none border-b border-solid border-[#ccc] py-2\" data-recirculation-id=\"recirculation-card-3\" id=\"recirculation-inline-2-3\" data-analytics-id=\"recirculation-2-inline-3\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"recirculation-2-inline-3\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/WHEfA8PfrwjRikdcTccTK-250-80.png.webp 250w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/WHEfA8PfrwjRikdcTccTK-150-80.png.webp 150w\" sizes=\"150px\" \/><span class=\"w-full text-base font-[var(--article-river-item--font-weight,500)] font-article-heading line-clamp-3 md:line-clamp-2\">Who will win the Tour de France 2026? Our definitive ranking of the favourites for the yellow jersey<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/aside>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">On the other side of the fence, with so many Tour victories already in the bag, rather than a feeling of etching a permanent place in the history books, the sense of an &#8216;obligation&#8217; to take another can be what predominates inside a team.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;The first two or three Tours that he won were fantastic, but the last three he raced we suffered a lot because nothing that wasn\u2019t winning made any sense,&#8221; Eusebio Unzu\u00e9, sports director of Miguel Indurain, once said.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;In the last few Tours, there was a huge amount of tension, knowing that if you didn\u2019t make any mistakes, if you got it totally right inside the team, then he wouldn\u2019t let you down. He was almost perfect. So you had to check everything time and again, make sure it was all going to work perfectly. And what was the first thing you did when you got to Paris? Breathe easy again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"jacques-anquetil-the-first-to-ever-do-it-3\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Jacques Anquetil \u2013 the first to ever do it<\/h2>\n<p id=\"elk-d55fdde4-0718-435d-b4d1-bda2927ba789\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">But was it always like this? Certainly when it came to the first winner of five Tours, rather than feel obliged to keep going, come what may, the French star Jacques Anquetil knew exactly when to call time on the never-ending demands for greater and greater success.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">After he became the first member of the <em>Club des Cinq<\/em> in 1964, in July 1965 Anquetil said he was no longer interested in taking part. As he put it, with refreshing honesty or dubious cynicism (take your pick), he wasn&#8217;t going to race the Tour that year because &#8220;My contract won&#8217;t get any bigger if I win a sixth, and on the contrary, I&#8217;ve everything to lose if I fail.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">The key point to remember, though, was that by 1964 and when fighting for Tour number five, Anquetil had already not only equalled the previous record of three, jointly held by Philip Thys (1913, 1914, 1920) and Louison Bobet (1953, 1954, 1955), he&#8217;d gone one better. So rather than records, what inspired Anquetil go for Tour number five in 1964 (when he could perfectly easily have trotted out that 1965 line about not making any more money if he did take part then, too) was a different record. It was the chance to become the only rider after Fausto Coppi to conquer the Giro, which he&#8217;d won that May, and the Tour de France in the same year.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Quite apart from a rare &#8216;double&#8217;, another major issue was reportedly Anquetil&#8217;s ego. Winning another Tour would mean stealing a march on arch-rival and fellow Frenchman Raymond Poulidor whose failure to win so often as Anquetil, combined with his much more downhome, salt-of-the-earth personality, had made Poulidor something of a fan favourite \u2013 and his Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a victory in April 1964 had put him on the map as the coning man. So sensitive to criticism that he once named his yacht &#8216;Whistles&#8217; (in an ironic reference to the boos and catcalls he&#8217;d received after losing the 1959 Tour to Federico Martin Bahamontes), putting the Tour record out of reach with a fifth victory wasn&#8217;t apparently top of Anquetil&#8217;s to-do list. But putting Poulidor in his place, that was another story.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">What&#8217;s undeniable is that of the four Tours that gave their winners the chance to enter <em>le Club des Cinq<\/em>, 1964 was by far the most dramatic. Anquetil&#8217;s tiny final margin of success, just 55 seconds, underlined the knife-edge nature of the event, and also \u2013 after years where riders would conquer the Tour or be defeated by handfuls of minutes \u2013 hinted strongly at how the Tour was lurching, albeit patchily, into a more modern, finely calculated era. Equally, on top of that, Anquetil&#8217;s domination of the time trials (of which there were three), while Poulidor was much more superior in the mountains, helped keep the pendulum swinging back and forth. The first-ever live TV broadcasts of parts of Tour stages could hardly have come at a better moment.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-aa6735ac-dc37-41a8-9cf8-5f55a4beec16\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-f74c8cac-c137-475a-90d6-405c5cc46f43\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">The way things kept on going back in favour of one rider of the other was far from formulaic or limited to a particular type of stage, too: in the first week, Anquetil lost a 30-second time bonus because of a puncture in Brian\u010don in the Alps (and struggled on the Galibier), then Poulidor miscalculated by a lap in the Monaco velodrome the next day, and Anquetil regained all his lost time.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Even on a single stage, the setbacks and bouncebacks succeeded in almost bewildering speed. In Anquetil&#8217;s case, overeating at a vast lamb barbecue on the subsequent rest day in Andorra, and the fear induced by the prediction from one of France&#8217;s most famous fortune tellers, La Mage Bellne, in <em>France-Soir <\/em>newspaper, that he would have a fatal crash on stage 14, left him reeling on an initial climb the following day. But after Anquetil had drunk a bottle of champagne at the summit of the Envalira (now there&#8217;s a marginal gain for you), kindly provided by his team director, he overcame his severe indigestion. Thanks to a fantastic descent and a slightly questionable alliance, he managed to catch Poulidor on the flatter run-in.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">But even then it wasn&#8217;t all over. Before the end of the stage, Poulidor had crashed because of a mechanical and lost time on his arch-rival, only for Anquetil to suffer so much on the next day&#8217;s stage that after an incredibly gutsy ride across the Portillon climb, Poulidor could regain much of his losses.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">As if that wasn&#8217;t enough to make it a great Tour, the image that defined the closeness of the Poulidor-Anquetil era (and again, underlines how much smaller the gaps were becoming) came just 48 hours before the finish at Paris, on the P\u00fby de Dome. With the final result still hanging on a knife-edge, the race&#8217;s most emblematic image of the two was taken: leaning on each other as they tackled the interminably steep climb.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">The image in question only was possible because Poulidor had just gone too close to a photographer&#8217;s motorbike, scorched his leg on its exhaust pipe and was over-compensating in the opposite direction, and the point where they were in physical contact only lasted a few seconds. But it didn&#8217;t matter: that brief moment, once voted the all-time definitive image of the Tour de France in later <em>L&#8217;\u00c9quipe<\/em> polls, perfectly underlined both the ferocity of their rivalry \u2013 neither rider willing to give an inch to their opponent \u2013 and the way that their rivalry fed off and supported each other as well. To quote Goddet again: &#8220;Never had two men who fought so ferociously for the most beautiful and strangest of trophies been brought so closely together in their effort.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-87e4f036-f5b9-4510-8b7a-3b7162f40a27\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-2560-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: WellOffSide\/ L&#8217;Equipe)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-b0c6eae4-354f-43ca-8bc6-81f6e93baf33\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Despite ceding a little on the Puy de D\u00f4me, Anquetil finally won that year&#8217;s Tour, thanks to his last blast on the time trial \u2013 although even there, Poulidor initially gave him a run for his money. But rather than the notable success of five Tours, his victory was memorable much more because of how he had had such a narrow pathway to triumph. The precarious nature of the triumph was both underlined by the famous answer Anquetil gave when told his GC margin on Poulidor had been reduced to 14 seconds \u2013 that&#8217;s 13 seconds too much \u2013 not to mention his later revealed promise to himself that if Poulidor had taken yellow on the Puy de Dome, he&#8217;d have abandoned.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;What surprises me the most about him;&#8221; Poulidor said in turn, &#8220;isn&#8217;t just his class, it&#8217;s the way he knows how to suffer so much in a race.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;I&#8217;m proud to have beaten a great champion,&#8221; Anquetil said, &#8220;in the hardest Tour I&#8217;ve ever done.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">In the midst of all of these moving reflections on the drama and suspense provided by the race, the fact Anquetil had also won the Tour five times somehow didn&#8217;t matter so much as the human angle. In an era like today&#8217;s where the results seem to be what matters the most, that&#8217;s surely something worth keeping in mind this summer in the Tour.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"eddy-merckx-the-cannibal-3\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Eddy Merckx \u2013 The Cannibal<\/h2>\n<p id=\"elk-2a572b69-3029-4092-818d-dbf0ade2ff1d\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Anquetil&#8217;s hotly disputed but hugely memorable fifth Tour effectively rounded off his career in July \u2013 in 1966, his one remaining participation, he and Poulidor basically marked each other out of contention. But the next rider to achieve five Tour victories, Eddy Merckx, showed no sign of retiring, and was clearly in a class of his own.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">It wasn&#8217;t just <em>L&#8217;\u00c9quipe<\/em> making that point, either: neither of his top challengers were present. 1973 Tour winner Luis Oca\u00f1a had been sacked by his team, BIC, before the start of the race, and perennial Dutch favourite Joop Zoetemelk was recovering from a life-threatening crash at the warm-up race of Midi-Libre. Bereft of big rivals, the process of Merckx clinching victory number five was curiously colourless, laying the foundations by picking up time bonuses wherever and whenever he could, but then blasting the opposition out of existence at Gaillard and Aix-les-Bains in the Alps.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">It says it all that the one point of interest or flicker of rivalry in this &#8220;monotonous, boring Tour&#8221; \u2013 and if that was <em>L&#8217;\u00c9quipe<\/em>&#8216;s description, imagine what the rest of the media were saying \u2013 was provided by a rider nearly aged 40, the incombustible Raymond Poulidor.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-4526ee9c-b221-40a9-8fa9-f8b852688ade\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-4abc95b3-29f8-44d9-986d-0d4c5e2eccd7\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">The Frenchman dropping Merckx briefly in the Alps on the Mont du Ch\u00e2t climb proved to be an ephemeral moment of weakness on the Belgian&#8217;s part, but at least Poulidor&#8217;s win in Saint-Lary-Soulan provided a refreshing change from Merckx&#8217; continuous domination. But if Merckx&#8217;s success could seemingly be taken for granted, the fact his closest rival on the Tour podium was a 38-year-old made it clear that a new generation of contenders was sorely needed \u2013 one that duly emerged, defeating Merckx, in 1976.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">By that point, Merckx&#8217;s position as the greatest racer of all time had been clearly established and by anyone&#8217;s standard, his 1974 season could only be considered a triumph throughout. Merckx preceded his Tour victory with a win in the Giro d&#8217;Italia and the Tour de Suisse (albeit with no Spring Classics wins for the first time in his career) and followed his July triumph with victory in the World Championships. No other rider had ever previously secured the &#8216;Triple Crown&#8217; and no rider would again until Stephen Roche in 1987. That he failed to ride defensively and instead went for eight stage wins, no less, was even more remarkable as he&#8217;d raced the entire Tour with a bleeding, open, wound in his perineum.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;To race in the Tour de France five times and to win each time, that&#8217;s a dream, the kind of record I think is unusual,&#8221; Merckx said according to the <em>New York Times<\/em>, its po-faced headline &#8216;French Bike Tour won by Merckx&#8217; an indication of how little cycling had impacted in the US at that time more than anything else. But it&#8217;s notable that even the Belgian didn&#8217;t make so much of the number, rather he was prouder of having remained undefeated in all his participations. Again, it was the more human side of the endeavour that mattered the most, not the drawing equal with Anquetil.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">By the time the Tour reached Paris, recalls the still-active British photographer John Pierce of Photosport International, who was present on the race, the public was more &#8220;nonplussed&#8221; and resigned at the latest demonstration of power than anything else.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;The atmosphere in the velodrome&#8221; \u2013 where the Tour finished for the last time ever that year before moving from La Cipale onto the Champs Elys\u00e9es in 1975 \u2013 &#8220;was a bit flat,&#8221; Pierce said. &#8220;Merckx was more like a Hollywood hero than a sporting hero, even if to me as a cyclist there&#8217;s no greater racer. Even me, was going to see the guy who&#8217;d just won the 1974 Giro, which to me was the best bike race ever, he&#8217;d won by 12 seconds, not Merckx.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;At the time I don&#8217;t think it was even mentioned that it was his fifth Tour, and I don&#8217;t think people are going to celebrate Poga\u010dar getting five either. It&#8217;s like going to buy the same loaf of bread every day.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-24a54f13-c945-453a-83fa-be37c04844ab\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"bernard-hinault-the-last-french-hero-3\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Bernard Hinault \u2013 The last French hero<\/h2>\n<p id=\"elk-bed61339-a3bc-42c2-be91-7c528dc24e58\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Even if they don&#8217;t sum it up completely, somewhere along the line in most Tours, an image emerges which captures its essence. In 1964, that&#8217;d be the Poulidor-Anquetil rubbing shoulders and elbows on the Puy de D\u00f4me, while in 1974, it was Merckx blasting away alone to Orl\u00e9ans. As for 1985, it&#8217;d have to be Hinault with his bloodied, broken nose and two black eyes, crossing the line at Saint-\u00c9tienne on stage 14, and still able from then on to defy the odds and conquer the race.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure extended-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-8311f519-7dca-445c-b913-6392e737e94a\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" extended-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-a0b6b8d9-3395-47f3-8568-d16c3b03c9ec\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Pre-race, if it had felt only logical that a four-time Tour winner should be the overwhelming favourite to take a fifth, that logic became even even more uncompromising given the 1984 champion Laurent Fignon \u2013 who&#8217;d beaten Hinault by more than ten minutes the previous July \u2013 was a non-starter because of an Achilles tendon operation. Furthermore, with Hinault&#8217;s teammate Greg LeMond in second in Paris, the 1985 Tour was the first where a fifth, record-equalling win was also a demonstration of collective GC strength as well.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Yet there were plenty of wheels within wheels: for one thing, the race was split into unequal two halves by Hinault&#8217;s crash. The Frenchman had won the opening TT, the stage 8 time trial and then still managed to gain time on LeMond, his nearest rival, in the Alps despite failing, surprisingly, to win a mountain TT.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">But Hinault&#8217;s crash in the final kilometre of the Saint-\u00c9tienne stage forced him on the defensive for the second half, particularly as congestion in his broken nose then morphed into fullblown bronchitis. The full picture behind events anchored in considerable controversy, such as LeMond being told by his team car that Hinault was much closer behind on a Pyrenean stage after he&#8217;d been dropped, remains unclear to this day, but they played out in Hinault&#8217;s favour.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">The same goes for LeMond&#8217;s claims that he had to push Hinault on the following day in order to keep the Frenchman in yellow \u2013 Hinault was still in the lead as a result. The fact is that despite his struggles on the climbs, Hinault was more than capable of defending himself on the flat final time trial at Lac de Vassiviere, only ceding five seconds to LeMond. A fifth Tour was in the bag.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Hinault would later shrug off any suggestion he could have lost the 1985 Tour at any point. But even if LeMond could undoubtedly have come closer, Hinault was one of the handful of modern-day Grand Tour GC racers \u2013 Alberto Contador being perhaps the best \u2013 who could win as much or more by strategy as by brute force.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;Without my fall in Saint-\u00c9tienne, that would have been an easy victory,&#8221; Hinault told <em>L&#8217;\u00c9quipe<\/em> in Bordeaux, going on \u2013 ever the politician \u2013 to thank LeMond for his support. &#8220;We blocked the opposition easily. Only [rival Stephen] Roche did what he could.&#8221; As for the idea he might have earned extra prestige by winning injured and with two black eyes, Hinault answered succinctly, &#8220;Maybe, but it still sucks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-6ef2403f-580f-4d9b-8b4d-668c15f925b8\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-0ef9cbd7-caf7-4bd4-a26a-bd2649aff890\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Present at the 1985 Tour as well, Pierce says the crowd&#8217;s support for Hinault&#8217;s success in Paris was &#8220;logically far greater as he&#8217;s French, it was pretty good compared to 1974. It was also to do with their personalities and how they celebrated. Merckx was much more relaxed, acting like winning five Tours was the most natural thing in the world. Hinault was a lot more nervous when he got his fifth, jumping around, hamming it up and putting on a real show.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Yet for all the added glamour, perhaps the most remarkable thing about Hinault&#8217;s win is that even as it seemed to confirm France&#8217;s domination of its home race in the post-Merckx era \u2013 nine wins from the previous eleven editions, five in a row \u2013 in fact it proved a kind of death knell for the host nation&#8217;s aspirations. To this day, Hinault&#8217;s 1985 victory remains the last time the men&#8217;s Tour has been won by a Frenchman. And no sooner had Hinault lost the Tour the following year (this despite having promised LeMond he would help him in return for the 1985 support), than he quit. For France, then as now, this was as good as it would get.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"miguel-indurain-30-years-since-the-last-five-time-winner-3\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Miguel Indurain \u2013 30 years since the last five-time winner<\/h2>\n<p id=\"elk-df506b85-f231-470c-9f87-5b09824dbfaf\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">To judge by his interviews, for Hinault as it was for Merckx, a fifth Tour was one in a series rather than a goal in itself, particularly given the problems and setbacks he&#8217;d had achieving it. But attitudes to the fifth Tour, at latest in the media, had changed notably was by the time Miguel Indurain clinched his 1995 title, and became, in the process, the only member of the <em>Club des Cinq<\/em> to secure all five in one fell swoop. For one thing, after three of the greatest Grand Tour riders had fallen dramatically short in their sixth Tour bid or simply (as in Anquetil&#8217;s case) opted out altogether, reaching five became the new gold standard. Secondly, Indurain&#8217;s ability to win one Tour after another in immediate succession, unlike either Merckx or Hinault, focussed the interest on the number even more.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Furthemore, as Unzu\u00e9 says, both for the rider and for the team, Banesto, Indurain&#8217;s lifelong squad, by 1995 the Tour de France had acquired an unwieldy level of importance. (It was one that caused some controversy too: Indurain&#8217;s repeated absence from the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, held in April up to 1994 and which he avoided as racing it that month could have harmed his Tour build-up, even sparked questions in the Spanish parliament.) Yet if another Indurain Tour victory had become almost routine by 1995, it was curiously both the July where Indurain himself tore up his own strategy and the race where he came closest to losing.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-879bebd8-8b9d-4ca5-9dd3-5c651a04ae3e\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-441c40dc-a678-4394-b845-67cf39a1502e\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Up until the 1994 Tour de France, for his previous four Grand Tour wins \u2013 two in the Giro and two in France \u2013 Indurain had always opted for riding defensively in the mountains and killing the opposition in the time trials. But in 1995, Indurain switched his game completely powering away on the shores of the River Meuse in Li\u00e8ge the day before a crucial time trial &#8211; where he&#8217;d normally have saved all his energy \u2013 a move which completely blindsided his rivals and gaining a hefty advantage, both psychological and real, as a result.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;I changed my strategy a bit and they got confused,&#8221; Indurain once told <em>El Pa\u00eds<\/em>. &#8220;The team might have had its ideas, but in a race, you have to take decisions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;What surprised me the most about his winning the Tour in any year was the time when he attacked at the end of the Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge route,&#8221; Unzu\u00e9, confirming he had no idea Indurain&#8217;s move was coming, once said in a biography of Indurain, <em>Relentless<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;That was a Miguel Indurain that I didn\u2019t know, the day before a time trial, what did he need to do that for? But that was the Tour, in an case, where we saw the day he came closest to racing like Eddy Merckx.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Yet if the Tour seemed to be completely in Indurain&#8217;s power after his knock-out blow in Belgium and equally important ride up to La Plagne in the Alps, the biggest setback of the 1995 Tour came on the stage to Mende in the Massif Central a few stages later. And it was a massive blow.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;That was the hardest day of all the five Tours,&#8221; Unzu\u00e9 once admitted, where &#8220;for many hours, it seemed as though something [an Indurain defeat] could happen\u2026 The Tour was slipping through our fingers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-86a2e61f-6245-434a-b655-fa5f26fa2176\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-33953d72-d5a3-4838-b776-52ba5f59b004\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">More than capable of defeating any rival individually, as Indurain had proved in La Plagne, what proved nearly catastrophic was when Indurain faced a collective challenge, in this case by the Spanish team, ONCE. In a move across the rugged Massif Central to Mende airfield, the presence of three ONCE riders including team leader Laurent Jalabert in a day-long break left Banesto broken apart, and Indurain and his squad had to look for all kinds of circumstantial allies to try and bring them back.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Teams with absolutely no interest in the GC battle, for reasons that shall remain purely conjectural, opted to back Indurain in his bid to quell the ONCE mutiny. For all Jalabert was at 9:10 overall, when the gap rose to over ten minutes, it felt like Indurain&#8217;s bid for a fifth Tour was about to go up in smoke.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">For the Tour-centric Banesto (and a country like Spain that was obsessed with stage racing and barely had any ideas of the importance of the Classics), this was nothing less than disastrous. ONCE was the Spanish equivalent of the Royal National Institute of Blind People, and the phone lines to its headquarters in Madrid reportedly collapsed under the numbers of outraged callers, demanding to know what the squad was doing, &#8216;betraying&#8217; a fellow-countryman like Indurain.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;I felt the race was in danger that day,&#8221; Indurain once told <em>El Pa\u00eds<\/em>, &#8220;but that wasn&#8217;t my responsibility, it was the team&#8217;s. They had to control and that&#8217;s where I put them under pressure because things had got out of control. I told them to sort it out and to see how they could do it. My job was to keep the GC contenders under control, and I had them under control.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Finally, enough teams collaborated \u2013 later claiming they were paying back an unspoken debt where Banesto would &#8216;gift&#8217; stage wins to rivals \u2013 with a by-now completely isolated Indurain to bring Jalabert and co within a safe enough distance for the Navarran&#8217;s maillot jaune to be safe. Jalabert won the stage, but his advantage of 4:50 was only enough to put him briefly on the podium. The yellow was another story.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">It&#8217;s true there were grumblings from 1996 Tour winner Bjaarne Riis that had the Tour raced the stage after the death of Fabio Casartelli in the Pyrenees, rather than neutralising it, Indurain might have been more vulnerable: But really the Tour ended the moment Indurain garnered enough support to keep ONCE under control on the road to Mende.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Such was Indurain&#8217;s control that<em> El Pa\u00eds <\/em>later insisted that &#8220;nobody would dare give an answer&#8221; to the question who could stop him taking a sixth in 1996. &#8220;They would be scared of being called a madman or a fortune teller,&#8221; the newspaper reported. Yet in fact, as we know \u2013 and just like nobody ever doubted that Merckx would win a sixth, either \u2013 five proved to be the upper limit for Indurain and there it remains.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">That is perhaps the pivotal fact on which all of the subsequent evaluations of five Tours really hangs. The importance of Poga\u010dar&#8217;s fifth win really depends on what happens if firstly he gets it, and secondly what happens afterwards. If, for whatever reason, that&#8217;s as good as it gets, it will feel very different as a victory than if it&#8217;s &#8216;just&#8217; another Tour win en route to becoming the first rider ever to take six. So given we&#8217;ll only know later what that fifth Tour win (if it happens) really means, for now perhaps it&#8217;s best to do as happened with Anquetil and Hinault (and to a lesser extent with Indurain) and focus in on the human experience that it took to attain that achievement \u2013 and the records can remain in the history books and for the years to come.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-888ec9e8-3e92-41ec-b000-43793aa23325\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\"><em><strong>The world\u2019s biggest bike race deserves world-class coverage. Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our unrivalled reporting of the 2026 Tour de France. From Barcelona through to Paris, our experienced team will bring you breaking news, expert insight, and in-depth coverage from every stage as the battle for the yellow jersey plays out. Plus, access the Cyclingnews app to follow the action on the go! <\/strong><\/em><u><em><strong>Find out more.<\/strong><\/em><\/u><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"slice-container-authorBio-Rmwt3NJNxEkne9NxQFuJGA\" class=\"slice-container slice-author-bio authorBio-Rmwt3NJNxEkne9NxQFuJGA slice-container-authorBio\">\n<div class=\"author author__default-layout author--separator author--collapsible\" data-hydrate=\"true\">\n<div class=\"author__header\">\n<div class=\"author__avatar-block\">\n<figure class=\"image-wrapped__wrapper\" data-bordeaux-image-check=\"false\">\n<div class=\"image-wrapped__widthsetter\">\n<div class=\"image-wrapped__aspect-padding\">\n<div><source class=\"author__avatar image-wrapped__image image__image\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/5QLhaPay9asJvmaNsCjFVZ-140-80.jpg.webp 140w\" sizes=\"99vw\" data-normal=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/5QLhaPay9asJvmaNsCjFVZ.jpg\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/5QLhaPay9asJvmaNsCjFVZ.jpg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/5QLhaPay9asJvmaNsCjFVZ.jpg\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\" data-slice-image=\"true\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"author__heading\">\n<div class=\"author__name\">Alasdair Fotheringham<\/div>\n<div class=\"author__social\">\n<nav class=\"button-social-group author__social-buttons\" aria-labelledby=\"button-social-group- author__social-buttons\">\n<div id=\"button-social-group- author__social-buttons\">Social Links Navigation<\/div>\n<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"author__bio-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"author__biography\">\n<p>Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for <em>Cyclingnews<\/em>, he has also written for <em>The Independent<\/em>,\u00a0 <em>The Guardian<\/em>,\u00a0 <em>ProCycling<\/em>, <em>The Express<\/em> and <em>Reuters<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"relative max-w-[1070px] viafoura-twig-component mt-6 mx-4 lg:mx-0\" data-component-name=\"Viafoura:Comments\" data-nosnippet data-community-guidelines-text=\"&lt;p class=&apos;vfcustom-community-guidelines&apos;&gt;Please follow our &lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/about\/#section-community-guidelines&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;community guidelines&lt;\/a&gt;.&lt;\/p&gt;\" data-join-the-conversation-text=\"Join the Conversation\">\n<div class=\"absolute top-0 left-0 w-full h-full flex items-center justify-center z-50 bg-white\/90 border-1 rounded-b-[var(--comment-widget-border-radius,0)]\">\n<div class=\"p-2 text-center\">\n<p class=\"mb-3 text-lg!\">You must confirm your public display name before commenting<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-3 text-sm!\">Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<section class=\"mx-2 my-5 sm:mx-0\">\n<aside class=\"w-full\" data-nosnippet data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-stacked\">\n<div data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-adviser:hybrid\">\n<div class=\"text-white py-4 px-3 mb-4 bg-[#333] uppercase font-bold custom-header-styles\">Read more<\/div>\n<div class=\"grid grid-cols-1 gap-4 mt-4 mb-5\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Teams &amp; Riders<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">&#8216;Tadej keeps on surprising us&#8217; \u2013 The inside view on how UAE Team Emirates-XRG have constructed Tadej Poga\u010dar&#8217;s assault on a fifth Tour de France<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vqqtZmiJMoZQD2csCZrp5V-840-80.png.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vqqtZmiJMoZQD2csCZrp5V-650-80.png.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vqqtZmiJMoZQD2csCZrp5V-500-80.png.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vqqtZmiJMoZQD2csCZrp5V-450-80.png.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vqqtZmiJMoZQD2csCZrp5V-320-80.png.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Racing<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">Jonas Vingegaard will try, but in reality, no one is likely to upset the Tadej Poga\u010dar show at the Tour de France \u2013 Philippa York analysis<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/CbxpbneafR6STQnwKHYfmM-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/CbxpbneafR6STQnwKHYfmM-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/CbxpbneafR6STQnwKHYfmM-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/CbxpbneafR6STQnwKHYfmM-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/CbxpbneafR6STQnwKHYfmM-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Teams &amp; Riders<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">&#8216;Let&#8217;s go one by one&#8217; \u2013 Tadej Poga\u010dar wants to fill the gaps in his palmar\u00e8s, but which races are left to conquer?<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/RWB8Yhvx5PcTwru9BtaPxY-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/RWB8Yhvx5PcTwru9BtaPxY-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/RWB8Yhvx5PcTwru9BtaPxY-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/RWB8Yhvx5PcTwru9BtaPxY-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/RWB8Yhvx5PcTwru9BtaPxY-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Racing<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">Record-breakers, comebacks, and underdogs at Paris-Roubaix \u2013 The most memorable editions of the past 25 years<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/rAsAd4XPiLEaLrbBawWTL3-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/rAsAd4XPiLEaLrbBawWTL3-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/rAsAd4XPiLEaLrbBawWTL3-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/rAsAd4XPiLEaLrbBawWTL3-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/rAsAd4XPiLEaLrbBawWTL3-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Teams &amp; Riders<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">By winning the Giro d&#8217;Italia, Jonas Vingegaard has had his strongest Tour de France preparation yet \u2013 but we still have no idea how he&#8217;ll compare with Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/WHEfA8PfrwjRikdcTccTK-840-80.png.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/WHEfA8PfrwjRikdcTccTK-650-80.png.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/WHEfA8PfrwjRikdcTccTK-500-80.png.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/WHEfA8PfrwjRikdcTccTK-450-80.png.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/WHEfA8PfrwjRikdcTccTK-320-80.png.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Teams &amp; Riders<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">Who will win the Tour de France 2026? Our definitive ranking of the favourites for the yellow jersey<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"w-full\" data-nosnippet data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-stacked\">\n<div data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-solr:latest-category\">\n<div class=\"text-white py-4 px-3 mb-4 bg-[#333] uppercase font-bold custom-header-styles\">Latest in Racing<\/div>\n<div class=\"grid grid-cols-1 gap-4 mt-4 mb-5\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/sCJMNDvRKKpfRDLfG8eLdU-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/sCJMNDvRKKpfRDLfG8eLdU-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/sCJMNDvRKKpfRDLfG8eLdU-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/sCJMNDvRKKpfRDLfG8eLdU-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/sCJMNDvRKKpfRDLfG8eLdU-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Racing<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">American Criterium Cup: New Zealand riders sweep elite races at Downer Classic in Wisconsin and hold off series leaders in tight sprints<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/z7b6qdBEfJfYrt4NBWKY9H-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/z7b6qdBEfJfYrt4NBWKY9H-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/z7b6qdBEfJfYrt4NBWKY9H-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/z7b6qdBEfJfYrt4NBWKY9H-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/z7b6qdBEfJfYrt4NBWKY9H-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Racing<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">Sprinter Tim Merlier spearheads Soudal-QuickStep&#8217;s first assault on Tour de France in post-Remco Evenepoel era<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BCZ8u8uUCDNe8jMM82YcAm-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BCZ8u8uUCDNe8jMM82YcAm-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BCZ8u8uUCDNe8jMM82YcAm-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BCZ8u8uUCDNe8jMM82YcAm-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BCZ8u8uUCDNe8jMM82YcAm-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Racing<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">Keegan Swenson wins a fourth SBT GRVL while Sofia Gomez Villafa\u00f1e makes late catch and pass of Sarah Lange in thrilling elite women&#8217;s race<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/qRJwCJNo8uUor3GSm8MWFF-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/qRJwCJNo8uUor3GSm8MWFF-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/qRJwCJNo8uUor3GSm8MWFF-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/qRJwCJNo8uUor3GSm8MWFF-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/qRJwCJNo8uUor3GSm8MWFF-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Racing<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">Gravel World Series: Gabby Traxler and Carter Nieuwesteeg win in &#8216;gnarliest conditions&#8217; at Ghost of the Gravel in Canada<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GVCgyEFBeWAPvqGW9eWsi3-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GVCgyEFBeWAPvqGW9eWsi3-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GVCgyEFBeWAPvqGW9eWsi3-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GVCgyEFBeWAPvqGW9eWsi3-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GVCgyEFBeWAPvqGW9eWsi3-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Racing<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">Youth and experience on display as Bahrain-Victorious announce balanced squad for Tour de France<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/Nytfb6kMapPQ5ugYEEppjg-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/Nytfb6kMapPQ5ugYEEppjg-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/Nytfb6kMapPQ5ugYEEppjg-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/Nytfb6kMapPQ5ugYEEppjg-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/Nytfb6kMapPQ5ugYEEppjg-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Racing<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">Irish National Championships: Seth Dunwoody edges Rory Townsend to win elite men\u2019s title<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"w-full\" data-nosnippet data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-stacked\">\n<div data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-solr:latest-articletype\">\n<div class=\"text-white py-4 px-3 mb-4 bg-[#333] uppercase font-bold custom-header-styles\">Latest in Features<\/div>\n<div class=\"grid grid-cols-1 gap-4 mt-4 mb-5\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/YQjyQHQHTFLJmgRoARpDSZ-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/YQjyQHQHTFLJmgRoARpDSZ-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/YQjyQHQHTFLJmgRoARpDSZ-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/YQjyQHQHTFLJmgRoARpDSZ-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/YQjyQHQHTFLJmgRoARpDSZ-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Teams &amp; Riders<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">&#8216;A free mind equals fast legs&#8217; \u2013 How my mental state helped me wear the yellow jersey for two days at an unforgettable Tour Auvergne-Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/YzVReE7BYHQc5qqJbJxp5Y-840-80.png.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/YzVReE7BYHQc5qqJbJxp5Y-650-80.png.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/YzVReE7BYHQc5qqJbJxp5Y-500-80.png.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/YzVReE7BYHQc5qqJbJxp5Y-450-80.png.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/YzVReE7BYHQc5qqJbJxp5Y-320-80.png.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Bikes<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">Win Fin, Flow Fork, Speed Sniffer: Specialized launches &#8216;fastest road bike ever made&#8217; in the S-Works Tarmac SL9<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/MrTDCTCzjt7SqaA6aiM33B-840-80.png.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/MrTDCTCzjt7SqaA6aiM33B-650-80.png.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/MrTDCTCzjt7SqaA6aiM33B-500-80.png.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/MrTDCTCzjt7SqaA6aiM33B-450-80.png.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/MrTDCTCzjt7SqaA6aiM33B-320-80.png.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Cycling Tech &amp; Components<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">Eurobike Tech Gallery: Unreleased gravel machines, crazy aero builds and futuristic concept bikes<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/ETHSCvhJmsvysUpX3yZeYJ-840-80.png.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/ETHSCvhJmsvysUpX3yZeYJ-650-80.png.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/ETHSCvhJmsvysUpX3yZeYJ-500-80.png.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/ETHSCvhJmsvysUpX3yZeYJ-450-80.png.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/ETHSCvhJmsvysUpX3yZeYJ-320-80.png.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Teams &amp; Riders<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">Write off Jonas Vingegaard at your peril, but there is one thing that could let him down at this Tour de France<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/k47gPEqWS7qGhFA58fFsJW-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/k47gPEqWS7qGhFA58fFsJW-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/k47gPEqWS7qGhFA58fFsJW-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/k47gPEqWS7qGhFA58fFsJW-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/k47gPEqWS7qGhFA58fFsJW-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Teams &amp; Riders<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">With Oscar Onley out, what can Netcompany Ineos hope to achieve in this Tour de France \u2013 and in future ones?<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Teams &amp; Riders<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">&#8216;Tadej keeps on surprising us&#8217; \u2013 The inside view on how UAE Team Emirates-XRG have constructed Tadej Poga\u010dar&#8217;s assault on a fifth Tour de France<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"widgetArea17\" class=\"widget-area md:basis-1\/3 widget-area-g-md-vp-1-3 widget-area-g-lg-vp-1-3 widget-area-g-xl-vp-1-3 page-widget-area-17\">\n<div data-widget-type=\"dynamic\" id=\"popular-data\" class=\"clear-both widget widget-dynamic widget-popular-data widget-dynamic-popular-data widget-dynamic-fter-popular-box\">\n<div class=\"wdn-fte-pb pos-relative space-t20\n\"><\/p>\n<div id=\"slice-container-popularBox\" class=\"slice-container popular-box-slice popularBox slice-container-popularBox\">\n<section data-hydrate=\"true\" class=\"popular-box\">\n<div class=\"popular-box__label\">\n<div class=\"popular-box__label__tab popular-box__label__tab--active\" role=\"heading\">LATEST ARTICLES<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<ol class=\"popular-box__articles-list popular-box__articles-list--active\">\n<li class=\"popular-box__article-list\">\n<div class=\"popular-box__article-list__container\">\n<div class=\"popular-box__article-list__image-wrapper\">\n<div><source class=\"popular-box__article-list__image image__image\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/YQjyQHQHTFLJmgRoARpDSZ-320-80.jpg.webp 320w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/YQjyQHQHTFLJmgRoARpDSZ-640-80.jpg.webp 640w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/YQjyQHQHTFLJmgRoARpDSZ-720-80.jpg.webp 720w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/YQjyQHQHTFLJmgRoARpDSZ-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w\" sizes=\"99vw\" data-normal=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/YQjyQHQHTFLJmgRoARpDSZ.jpg\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/YQjyQHQHTFLJmgRoARpDSZ.jpg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/YQjyQHQHTFLJmgRoARpDSZ.jpg\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\" data-slice-image=\"true\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"popular-box__article-list__content\">\n<div class=\"popular-box__article-list__number-text\">1<\/div>\n<div class=\"popular-box__article-list__heading\">&#8216;A free mind equals fast legs&#8217; \u2013 How my mental state helped me wear the yellow jersey for two days at an unforgettable Tour Auvergne-Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"popular-box__article-list\">\n<div class=\"popular-box__article-list__container\">\n<div class=\"popular-box__article-list__content\">\n<div 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France in post-Remco Evenepoel era<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"popular-box__article-list\">\n<div class=\"popular-box__article-list__container\">\n<div class=\"popular-box__article-list__content\">\n<div class=\"popular-box__article-list__number-text\">5<\/div>\n<div class=\"popular-box__article-list__heading\">Save up to $372.60 on a NordVPN subscription \u2013 Lock down your Tour de France viewing from anywhere this summer<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<article class=\"page-content-onecol flex-1\nnews-article article\n\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"widget-area-group widget-area-group-2col flex flex-wrap box-border\">\n<div id=\"widgetArea16\" class=\"widget-area basis-full md:basis-2\/3 widget-area-g-md-vp-2-3 widget-area-g-lg-vp-2-3 widget-area-g-xl-vp-2-3 page-widget-area-16\">\n<div data-widget-type=\"hero\" id=\"hero\" class=\"clear-both widget widget-hero widget-hero widget-hero-hero widget-hero widget-hero-fter-news\">\n<div class=\"news-article\">\n<header data-component-name=\"Article:Hero\">\n<nav class=\"breadcrumb\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumbs\">\n<ol>\n<li>\nPro Cycling\n<\/li>\n<li>\nRacing\n<\/li>\n<li>\nRoad\n<\/li>\n<li>\nTour de France\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/nav>\n<h1>Club des Cinq: How Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault and Indurain won their fifth Tour de France, and the history that Tadej Poga\u010dar seeks to emulate<\/h1>\n<div class=\"byline-social\">\n<div class=\"byline font-ui-heading text-[12px]\">\nFeatures<\/p>\n<div><span><br \/>\nBy<br \/>\nAlasdair Fotheringham <\/span><span><br \/>\npublished<br \/>\n<time data-component-name=\"UI:DateTime\" datetime=\"2026-06-30T08:48:00Z\" class=\"relative-date\"><br \/>\n30 June 2026<br \/>\n<\/time><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"strapline\">Alasdair Fotheringham takes a look back into the history books to explore how the famed fifth Tours were won, what they meant for their winners, and how the record has evolved<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"text-gray-700 mx-auto mb-4 flex items-center justify-start mx-0 my-5 p-0\" id=\"affiliate-disclaimer\" data-component-name=\"AffiliateDisclaimer\" data-hawk-message=\"Affiliate disclaimer removed because hawk deemed there are no affiliate links on this page\">\n<p class=\"text-[var(--affiliate-disclaimer--text-color,inherit))] mb-2 text-[length:var(--affiliate-disclaimer--font-size,0.75rem)] leading-[18px] md:text-[13px] [&amp;&gt;a]:text-inherit [&amp;&gt;a]:underline\">\nWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here\u2019s how it works.\n<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-widget-type=\"contentparsed\" id=\"content\" class=\"clear-both widget widget-contentparsed widget-content widget-contentparsed-content widget-content-parsed widget-content-parsed-content_document \">\n<div class=\"wcp-item-content\">\n<section class=\"content-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"box less-space hero-image-wrapper\">\n<figure class=\"mb-0\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-1600-80.jpg.webp 1600w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-750-80.jpg.webp 750w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><figcaption class=\"font-article-copy text-(--image--text--color) font-article-copy mt-2\"><span class=\"caption-text font-article-copy\">Bernard Hinault was the last French man to win the Tour, when he won his fifth<\/span><span class=\"credit font-article-copy\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\" class=\"text-copy bodyCopy auto paywall-locker\">\n<div data-analytics-id=\"utility-bar\" id=\"utility-bar\" class=\"font-ui-heading flex justify-between items-center py-2 border-t border-b border-gray-300 border-solid mb-5 mx-auto\" data-component-name=\"UtilityBar\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"utility-bar\">\n<div class=\"flex gap-2 text-[#333] subcontainer\">\n<div class=\"relative tooltip-container\" role=\"tooltip\">\n<div data-component-name=\"Social:Dropdown\" role=\"menu\" id=\"utilitybar__dropdown--share\" aria-labelledby=\"utilitybar__button--share\" class=\"absolute left-0 top-full w-44 bg-white rounded-md shadow-md border border-neutral-200 z-[9996] list-none m-0 py-2 px-3 border-solid\">\n<ul class=\"m-0!\">\n<li class=\"!p-0 !m-0 list-none border-b border-gray-200 border-solid\">\n<li class=\"!p-0 !m-0 list-none border-b border-gray-200 border-solid\">\n<p>Facebook<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"!p-0 !m-0 list-none border-b border-gray-200 border-solid\">\n<p>X<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"!p-0 !m-0 list-none border-b border-gray-200 border-solid\">\n<p>Pinterest<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"!p-0 !m-0 list-none border-b border-gray-200 border-solid\">\n<p>Email<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-ui-heading max-sm:hidden tooltip absolute left-1\/2 bg-gray-900 text-white text-xs leading-none px-3 py-1.5 rounded-md z-[10001] whitespace-nowrap\" id=\"tooltip-share-this-article\" role=\"tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\nShare this article\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"relative tooltip-container\" role=\"tooltip\"><span class=\"ml-1 inline-flex h-5 px-2 shrink-0 items-center justify-center self-center overflow-hidden whitespace-nowrap rounded-[10px] bg-primary-500 text-[11px] leading-none font-ui-heading font-semibold text-white\">4<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"font-ui-heading max-sm:hidden tooltip absolute left-1\/2 bg-gray-900 text-white text-xs leading-none px-3 py-1.5 rounded-md z-[10001] whitespace-nowrap\" id=\"tooltip-join-the-conversation\" role=\"tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\nJoin the conversation\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"flex gap-2 text-[#333] subcontainer\">\n<div class=\"relative tooltip-container\" role=\"tooltip\">\n<p>Follow us<\/p>\n<div class=\"font-ui-heading max-sm:hidden tooltip absolute left-1\/2 bg-gray-900 text-white text-xs leading-none px-3 py-1.5 rounded-md z-[10001] whitespace-nowrap\" id=\"tooltip-add-us-as-a-preferred-source-on-google\" role=\"tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\nAdd us as a preferred source on Google\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"relative tooltip-container\" role=\"tooltip\">\n<div class=\"font-ui-heading max-sm:hidden tooltip absolute left-1\/2 bg-gray-900 text-white text-xs leading-none px-3 py-1.5 rounded-md z-[10001] whitespace-nowrap\" id=\"tooltip-subscribe-to-our-newsletter\" role=\"tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\nSubscribe to our newsletter\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"elk-1bd11266-3146-4667-8e4d-4feab8c93d28\">Right now you can&#8217;t go far on any self-respecting sports website without seeing a story about how Tadej Poga\u010dar&#8217;s goal of capturing a fifth Tour de France would see him pull off one of the crowning achievements in the sport. And they&#8217;re all right, of course.<\/p>\n<p>But dig back in history, and it&#8217;s fair to say that a rider joining the <em>Club des Cinq<\/em> \u2013 as the ultra exclusive, four-strong circle of five-time Tour winners is known in France \u2013 wasn&#8217;t always the biggest story of the race. Far from it.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-1bd11266-3146-4667-8e4d-4feab8c93d28-2\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Take the main end-of-race analysis piece of the Tour de France or semi-official newspaper <em>L&#8217;\u00c9quipe<\/em> back in 1974, just when Eddy Merckx was on the point of conquering his fifth title.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Written by race director and leading sports journalist Jacques Goddet, the article had an extremely downbeat headline for one thing: <em>&#8216;Le cyclisme pro: une malade&#8217;<\/em> \u2013 pro cycling is ill. And what made it even odder was right below the headline, there was a half-page photo of the soon-to-be-crowned Tour winner and the undisputed patron of the peloton, Eddy Merckx, in full lone flight towards Orl\u00e9ans. With one day remaining, he&#8217;d dropped the pack in his umpteenth display of panache and power once again, and all this by a point where he was already in complete control of the race. He was certainly not looking <em>malade<\/em> at all.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Bafflingly, there was not a mention in Goddet&#8217;s summing up of the Tour that just a day later, Merckx would win his fifth Tour de France of five starts. Or that Merckx had already moved well ahead of Andr\u00e9 LeDucq&#8217;s record-breaking total of 24 stage wins and would push it up to a new target of 32 by the end of the race. (By the end of the 1975 Tour, it was up to 34, a record that would stand for nearly half a century.) Nor even did it seemingly matter that Merckx was only 29, so in theory at least, he could take even more records in the years to come. Goddet was still unhappy.<\/p>\n<aside data-component-name=\"Recirculation:ArticleRiver\" data-recirculation-type=\"inline\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"Trending Bar\" data-nosnippet class=\"clear-both pt-2 pb-0 mb-4\"><span class=\"\n            flex\n            after:content-[&apos;&apos;] after:flex-1 after:ml-4 after:my-[0.7rem] after:border-t after:border-solid after:border-t-[#ccc]\n            before:content-[&apos;&apos;] before:flex-1 before:mr-4 before:my-[0.7rem] before:border-t before:border-solid before:border-t-[#ccc]\n            font-article-heading pb-0 text-[length:var(--article-river-title--font-size,1em)] uppercase sm:text-[length:var(--article-river-title--font-size,0.875em)] font-bold\n        \"><br \/>\n            You may like<br \/>\n        <\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"flex flex-col gap-0 m-0 max-w-full\">\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none border-b border-solid border-[#ededed] py-2\" data-recirculation-id=\"recirculation-card-1\" id=\"recirculation-inline-1\" data-analytics-id=\"recirculation-inline-1\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"recirculation-inline-1\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-250-80.jpg.webp 250w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-150-80.jpg.webp 150w\" sizes=\"150px\" \/><span class=\"w-full text-base font-[var(--article-river-item--font-weight,500)] font-article-heading line-clamp-3 md:line-clamp-2\">&#8216;Tadej keeps on surprising us&#8217; \u2013 The inside view on how UAE Team Emirates-XRG have constructed Tadej Poga\u010dar&#8217;s assault on a fifth Tour de France<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none border-b border-solid border-[#ededed] py-2\" data-recirculation-id=\"recirculation-card-2\" id=\"recirculation-inline-2\" data-analytics-id=\"recirculation-inline-2\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"recirculation-inline-2\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vqqtZmiJMoZQD2csCZrp5V-250-80.png.webp 250w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vqqtZmiJMoZQD2csCZrp5V-150-80.png.webp 150w\" sizes=\"150px\" \/><span class=\"w-full text-base font-[var(--article-river-item--font-weight,500)] font-article-heading line-clamp-3 md:line-clamp-2\">Jonas Vingegaard will try, but in reality, no one is likely to upset the Tadej Poga\u010dar show at the Tour de France \u2013 Philippa York analysis<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none border-b border-solid border-[#ccc] py-2\" data-recirculation-id=\"recirculation-card-3\" id=\"recirculation-inline-3\" data-analytics-id=\"recirculation-inline-3\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"recirculation-inline-3\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/CbxpbneafR6STQnwKHYfmM-250-80.jpg.webp 250w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/CbxpbneafR6STQnwKHYfmM-150-80.jpg.webp 150w\" sizes=\"150px\" \/><span class=\"w-full text-base font-[var(--article-river-item--font-weight,500)] font-article-heading line-clamp-3 md:line-clamp-2\">&#8216;Let&#8217;s go one by one&#8217; \u2013 Tadej Poga\u010dar wants to fill the gaps in his palmar\u00e8s, but which races are left to conquer?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/aside>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;The Tour de France has not brought us all the satisfactions that we had hoped for two months ago,&#8221; he wrote. And that was that. Not that Goddet had anything against Merckx in particular, it turned out, whom he said had &#8220;competently handled both the way the course played out and his rivals.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-c175df8a-8ce3-4fa3-bc0c-b328a0664e33\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-da6d9385-5534-4179-b3a9-cd7323e02027\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Rather, Goddet&#8217;s beef was that the lack of serious opposition to the all-conquering Eddy \u2013 &#8220;an apathetic peloton,&#8221; snarled part of the caption for the photo of Merckx regarding the bunch he&#8217;d just left reeling in his latest attack \u2013 had left the race looking and feeling more than a little, well, bland.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Riders had become overly concerned with their own well-being and were not willing to take risks, Goddet argued, and that was all the fault of modern society and the &#8216;nanny state&#8217;: its mollycoddling and obsession with safety had wreaked havoc &#8220;in this very special area of human activity&#8221; \u2013 bike racing \u2013 &#8220;where by definition, everything remains an adventure.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">What Goddet&#8217;s comments showed, then and now, is that while a fifth Tour de France title matters hugely in terms of the history of the sport, it doesn&#8217;t have to be the story of the race.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Just like last year when Tadej Poga\u010dar was on the cusp of a winning a fourth Tour but the main media focus was on his &#8216;lack of motivation&#8217; in the third week, and whether a fifth Tour victory is a close-run affair like in 1964 for Jacques Anquetil or a snooze-fest like in 1974 for Merckx, the statistic can become something of an afterthought.<\/p>\n<aside data-component-name=\"Recirculation:ArticleRiver\" data-recirculation-type=\"inline\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"Trending Bar\" data-nosnippet class=\"clear-both pt-2 pb-0 mb-4\"><span class=\"\n            flex\n            after:content-[&apos;&apos;] after:flex-1 after:ml-4 after:my-[0.7rem] after:border-t after:border-solid after:border-t-[#ccc]\n            before:content-[&apos;&apos;] before:flex-1 before:mr-4 before:my-[0.7rem] before:border-t before:border-solid before:border-t-[#ccc]\n            font-article-heading pb-0 text-[length:var(--article-river-title--font-size,1em)] uppercase sm:text-[length:var(--article-river-title--font-size,0.875em)] font-bold\n        \"><br \/>\n            What to read next<br \/>\n        <\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"flex flex-col gap-0 m-0 max-w-full\">\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none border-b border-solid border-[#ededed] py-2\" data-recirculation-id=\"recirculation-card-1\" id=\"recirculation-inline-2-1\" data-analytics-id=\"recirculation-2-inline-1\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"recirculation-2-inline-1\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/RWB8Yhvx5PcTwru9BtaPxY-250-80.jpg.webp 250w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/RWB8Yhvx5PcTwru9BtaPxY-150-80.jpg.webp 150w\" sizes=\"150px\" \/><span class=\"w-full text-base font-[var(--article-river-item--font-weight,500)] font-article-heading line-clamp-3 md:line-clamp-2\">Record-breakers, comebacks, and underdogs at Paris-Roubaix \u2013 The most memorable editions of the past 25 years<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none border-b border-solid border-[#ededed] py-2\" data-recirculation-id=\"recirculation-card-2\" id=\"recirculation-inline-2-2\" data-analytics-id=\"recirculation-2-inline-2\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"recirculation-2-inline-2\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/rAsAd4XPiLEaLrbBawWTL3-250-80.jpg.webp 250w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/rAsAd4XPiLEaLrbBawWTL3-150-80.jpg.webp 150w\" sizes=\"150px\" \/><span class=\"w-full text-base font-[var(--article-river-item--font-weight,500)] font-article-heading line-clamp-3 md:line-clamp-2\">By winning the Giro d&#8217;Italia, Jonas Vingegaard has had his strongest Tour de France preparation yet \u2013 but we still have no idea how he&#8217;ll compare with Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none border-b border-solid border-[#ccc] py-2\" data-recirculation-id=\"recirculation-card-3\" id=\"recirculation-inline-2-3\" data-analytics-id=\"recirculation-2-inline-3\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"recirculation-2-inline-3\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/WHEfA8PfrwjRikdcTccTK-250-80.png.webp 250w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/WHEfA8PfrwjRikdcTccTK-150-80.png.webp 150w\" sizes=\"150px\" \/><span class=\"w-full text-base font-[var(--article-river-item--font-weight,500)] font-article-heading line-clamp-3 md:line-clamp-2\">Who will win the Tour de France 2026? Our definitive ranking of the favourites for the yellow jersey<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/aside>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">On the other side of the fence, with so many Tour victories already in the bag, rather than a feeling of etching a permanent place in the history books, the sense of an &#8216;obligation&#8217; to take another can be what predominates inside a team.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;The first two or three Tours that he won were fantastic, but the last three he raced we suffered a lot because nothing that wasn\u2019t winning made any sense,&#8221; Eusebio Unzu\u00e9, sports director of Miguel Indurain, once said.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;In the last few Tours, there was a huge amount of tension, knowing that if you didn\u2019t make any mistakes, if you got it totally right inside the team, then he wouldn\u2019t let you down. He was almost perfect. So you had to check everything time and again, make sure it was all going to work perfectly. And what was the first thing you did when you got to Paris? Breathe easy again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"jacques-anquetil-the-first-to-ever-do-it-3\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Jacques Anquetil \u2013 the first to ever do it<\/h2>\n<p id=\"elk-d55fdde4-0718-435d-b4d1-bda2927ba789\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">But was it always like this? Certainly when it came to the first winner of five Tours, rather than feel obliged to keep going, come what may, the French star Jacques Anquetil knew exactly when to call time on the never-ending demands for greater and greater success.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">After he became the first member of the <em>Club des Cinq<\/em> in 1964, in July 1965 Anquetil said he was no longer interested in taking part. As he put it, with refreshing honesty or dubious cynicism (take your pick), he wasn&#8217;t going to race the Tour that year because &#8220;My contract won&#8217;t get any bigger if I win a sixth, and on the contrary, I&#8217;ve everything to lose if I fail.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">The key point to remember, though, was that by 1964 and when fighting for Tour number five, Anquetil had already not only equalled the previous record of three, jointly held by Philip Thys (1913, 1914, 1920) and Louison Bobet (1953, 1954, 1955), he&#8217;d gone one better. So rather than records, what inspired Anquetil go for Tour number five in 1964 (when he could perfectly easily have trotted out that 1965 line about not making any more money if he did take part then, too) was a different record. It was the chance to become the only rider after Fausto Coppi to conquer the Giro, which he&#8217;d won that May, and the Tour de France in the same year.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Quite apart from a rare &#8216;double&#8217;, another major issue was reportedly Anquetil&#8217;s ego. Winning another Tour would mean stealing a march on arch-rival and fellow Frenchman Raymond Poulidor whose failure to win so often as Anquetil, combined with his much more downhome, salt-of-the-earth personality, had made Poulidor something of a fan favourite \u2013 and his Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a victory in April 1964 had put him on the map as the coning man. So sensitive to criticism that he once named his yacht &#8216;Whistles&#8217; (in an ironic reference to the boos and catcalls he&#8217;d received after losing the 1959 Tour to Federico Martin Bahamontes), putting the Tour record out of reach with a fifth victory wasn&#8217;t apparently top of Anquetil&#8217;s to-do list. But putting Poulidor in his place, that was another story.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">What&#8217;s undeniable is that of the four Tours that gave their winners the chance to enter <em>le Club des Cinq<\/em>, 1964 was by far the most dramatic. Anquetil&#8217;s tiny final margin of success, just 55 seconds, underlined the knife-edge nature of the event, and also \u2013 after years where riders would conquer the Tour or be defeated by handfuls of minutes \u2013 hinted strongly at how the Tour was lurching, albeit patchily, into a more modern, finely calculated era. Equally, on top of that, Anquetil&#8217;s domination of the time trials (of which there were three), while Poulidor was much more superior in the mountains, helped keep the pendulum swinging back and forth. The first-ever live TV broadcasts of parts of Tour stages could hardly have come at a better moment.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-aa6735ac-dc37-41a8-9cf8-5f55a4beec16\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-f74c8cac-c137-475a-90d6-405c5cc46f43\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">The way things kept on going back in favour of one rider of the other was far from formulaic or limited to a particular type of stage, too: in the first week, Anquetil lost a 30-second time bonus because of a puncture in Brian\u010don in the Alps (and struggled on the Galibier), then Poulidor miscalculated by a lap in the Monaco velodrome the next day, and Anquetil regained all his lost time.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Even on a single stage, the setbacks and bouncebacks succeeded in almost bewildering speed. In Anquetil&#8217;s case, overeating at a vast lamb barbecue on the subsequent rest day in Andorra, and the fear induced by the prediction from one of France&#8217;s most famous fortune tellers, La Mage Bellne, in <em>France-Soir <\/em>newspaper, that he would have a fatal crash on stage 14, left him reeling on an initial climb the following day. But after Anquetil had drunk a bottle of champagne at the summit of the Envalira (now there&#8217;s a marginal gain for you), kindly provided by his team director, he overcame his severe indigestion. Thanks to a fantastic descent and a slightly questionable alliance, he managed to catch Poulidor on the flatter run-in.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">But even then it wasn&#8217;t all over. Before the end of the stage, Poulidor had crashed because of a mechanical and lost time on his arch-rival, only for Anquetil to suffer so much on the next day&#8217;s stage that after an incredibly gutsy ride across the Portillon climb, Poulidor could regain much of his losses.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">As if that wasn&#8217;t enough to make it a great Tour, the image that defined the closeness of the Poulidor-Anquetil era (and again, underlines how much smaller the gaps were becoming) came just 48 hours before the finish at Paris, on the P\u00fby de Dome. With the final result still hanging on a knife-edge, the race&#8217;s most emblematic image of the two was taken: leaning on each other as they tackled the interminably steep climb.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">The image in question only was possible because Poulidor had just gone too close to a photographer&#8217;s motorbike, scorched his leg on its exhaust pipe and was over-compensating in the opposite direction, and the point where they were in physical contact only lasted a few seconds. But it didn&#8217;t matter: that brief moment, once voted the all-time definitive image of the Tour de France in later <em>L&#8217;\u00c9quipe<\/em> polls, perfectly underlined both the ferocity of their rivalry \u2013 neither rider willing to give an inch to their opponent \u2013 and the way that their rivalry fed off and supported each other as well. To quote Goddet again: &#8220;Never had two men who fought so ferociously for the most beautiful and strangest of trophies been brought so closely together in their effort.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-87e4f036-f5b9-4510-8b7a-3b7162f40a27\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-2560-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: WellOffSide\/ L&#8217;Equipe)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-b0c6eae4-354f-43ca-8bc6-81f6e93baf33\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Despite ceding a little on the Puy de D\u00f4me, Anquetil finally won that year&#8217;s Tour, thanks to his last blast on the time trial \u2013 although even there, Poulidor initially gave him a run for his money. But rather than the notable success of five Tours, his victory was memorable much more because of how he had had such a narrow pathway to triumph. The precarious nature of the triumph was both underlined by the famous answer Anquetil gave when told his GC margin on Poulidor had been reduced to 14 seconds \u2013 that&#8217;s 13 seconds too much \u2013 not to mention his later revealed promise to himself that if Poulidor had taken yellow on the Puy de Dome, he&#8217;d have abandoned.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;What surprises me the most about him;&#8221; Poulidor said in turn, &#8220;isn&#8217;t just his class, it&#8217;s the way he knows how to suffer so much in a race.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;I&#8217;m proud to have beaten a great champion,&#8221; Anquetil said, &#8220;in the hardest Tour I&#8217;ve ever done.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">In the midst of all of these moving reflections on the drama and suspense provided by the race, the fact Anquetil had also won the Tour five times somehow didn&#8217;t matter so much as the human angle. In an era like today&#8217;s where the results seem to be what matters the most, that&#8217;s surely something worth keeping in mind this summer in the Tour.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"eddy-merckx-the-cannibal-3\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Eddy Merckx \u2013 The Cannibal<\/h2>\n<p id=\"elk-2a572b69-3029-4092-818d-dbf0ade2ff1d\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Anquetil&#8217;s hotly disputed but hugely memorable fifth Tour effectively rounded off his career in July \u2013 in 1966, his one remaining participation, he and Poulidor basically marked each other out of contention. But the next rider to achieve five Tour victories, Eddy Merckx, showed no sign of retiring, and was clearly in a class of his own.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">It wasn&#8217;t just <em>L&#8217;\u00c9quipe<\/em> making that point, either: neither of his top challengers were present. 1973 Tour winner Luis Oca\u00f1a had been sacked by his team, BIC, before the start of the race, and perennial Dutch favourite Joop Zoetemelk was recovering from a life-threatening crash at the warm-up race of Midi-Libre. Bereft of big rivals, the process of Merckx clinching victory number five was curiously colourless, laying the foundations by picking up time bonuses wherever and whenever he could, but then blasting the opposition out of existence at Gaillard and Aix-les-Bains in the Alps.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">It says it all that the one point of interest or flicker of rivalry in this &#8220;monotonous, boring Tour&#8221; \u2013 and if that was <em>L&#8217;\u00c9quipe<\/em>&#8216;s description, imagine what the rest of the media were saying \u2013 was provided by a rider nearly aged 40, the incombustible Raymond Poulidor.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-4526ee9c-b221-40a9-8fa9-f8b852688ade\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-4abc95b3-29f8-44d9-986d-0d4c5e2eccd7\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">The Frenchman dropping Merckx briefly in the Alps on the Mont du Ch\u00e2t climb proved to be an ephemeral moment of weakness on the Belgian&#8217;s part, but at least Poulidor&#8217;s win in Saint-Lary-Soulan provided a refreshing change from Merckx&#8217; continuous domination. But if Merckx&#8217;s success could seemingly be taken for granted, the fact his closest rival on the Tour podium was a 38-year-old made it clear that a new generation of contenders was sorely needed \u2013 one that duly emerged, defeating Merckx, in 1976.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">By that point, Merckx&#8217;s position as the greatest racer of all time had been clearly established and by anyone&#8217;s standard, his 1974 season could only be considered a triumph throughout. Merckx preceded his Tour victory with a win in the Giro d&#8217;Italia and the Tour de Suisse (albeit with no Spring Classics wins for the first time in his career) and followed his July triumph with victory in the World Championships. No other rider had ever previously secured the &#8216;Triple Crown&#8217; and no rider would again until Stephen Roche in 1987. That he failed to ride defensively and instead went for eight stage wins, no less, was even more remarkable as he&#8217;d raced the entire Tour with a bleeding, open, wound in his perineum.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;To race in the Tour de France five times and to win each time, that&#8217;s a dream, the kind of record I think is unusual,&#8221; Merckx said according to the <em>New York Times<\/em>, its po-faced headline &#8216;French Bike Tour won by Merckx&#8217; an indication of how little cycling had impacted in the US at that time more than anything else. But it&#8217;s notable that even the Belgian didn&#8217;t make so much of the number, rather he was prouder of having remained undefeated in all his participations. Again, it was the more human side of the endeavour that mattered the most, not the drawing equal with Anquetil.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">By the time the Tour reached Paris, recalls the still-active British photographer John Pierce of Photosport International, who was present on the race, the public was more &#8220;nonplussed&#8221; and resigned at the latest demonstration of power than anything else.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;The atmosphere in the velodrome&#8221; \u2013 where the Tour finished for the last time ever that year before moving from La Cipale onto the Champs Elys\u00e9es in 1975 \u2013 &#8220;was a bit flat,&#8221; Pierce said. &#8220;Merckx was more like a Hollywood hero than a sporting hero, even if to me as a cyclist there&#8217;s no greater racer. Even me, was going to see the guy who&#8217;d just won the 1974 Giro, which to me was the best bike race ever, he&#8217;d won by 12 seconds, not Merckx.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;At the time I don&#8217;t think it was even mentioned that it was his fifth Tour, and I don&#8217;t think people are going to celebrate Poga\u010dar getting five either. It&#8217;s like going to buy the same loaf of bread every day.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-24a54f13-c945-453a-83fa-be37c04844ab\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"bernard-hinault-the-last-french-hero-3\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Bernard Hinault \u2013 The last French hero<\/h2>\n<p id=\"elk-bed61339-a3bc-42c2-be91-7c528dc24e58\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Even if they don&#8217;t sum it up completely, somewhere along the line in most Tours, an image emerges which captures its essence. In 1964, that&#8217;d be the Poulidor-Anquetil rubbing shoulders and elbows on the Puy de D\u00f4me, while in 1974, it was Merckx blasting away alone to Orl\u00e9ans. As for 1985, it&#8217;d have to be Hinault with his bloodied, broken nose and two black eyes, crossing the line at Saint-\u00c9tienne on stage 14, and still able from then on to defy the odds and conquer the race.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure extended-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-8311f519-7dca-445c-b913-6392e737e94a\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" extended-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-a0b6b8d9-3395-47f3-8568-d16c3b03c9ec\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Pre-race, if it had felt only logical that a four-time Tour winner should be the overwhelming favourite to take a fifth, that logic became even even more uncompromising given the 1984 champion Laurent Fignon \u2013 who&#8217;d beaten Hinault by more than ten minutes the previous July \u2013 was a non-starter because of an Achilles tendon operation. Furthermore, with Hinault&#8217;s teammate Greg LeMond in second in Paris, the 1985 Tour was the first where a fifth, record-equalling win was also a demonstration of collective GC strength as well.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Yet there were plenty of wheels within wheels: for one thing, the race was split into unequal two halves by Hinault&#8217;s crash. The Frenchman had won the opening TT, the stage 8 time trial and then still managed to gain time on LeMond, his nearest rival, in the Alps despite failing, surprisingly, to win a mountain TT.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">But Hinault&#8217;s crash in the final kilometre of the Saint-\u00c9tienne stage forced him on the defensive for the second half, particularly as congestion in his broken nose then morphed into fullblown bronchitis. The full picture behind events anchored in considerable controversy, such as LeMond being told by his team car that Hinault was much closer behind on a Pyrenean stage after he&#8217;d been dropped, remains unclear to this day, but they played out in Hinault&#8217;s favour.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">The same goes for LeMond&#8217;s claims that he had to push Hinault on the following day in order to keep the Frenchman in yellow \u2013 Hinault was still in the lead as a result. The fact is that despite his struggles on the climbs, Hinault was more than capable of defending himself on the flat final time trial at Lac de Vassiviere, only ceding five seconds to LeMond. A fifth Tour was in the bag.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Hinault would later shrug off any suggestion he could have lost the 1985 Tour at any point. But even if LeMond could undoubtedly have come closer, Hinault was one of the handful of modern-day Grand Tour GC racers \u2013 Alberto Contador being perhaps the best \u2013 who could win as much or more by strategy as by brute force.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;Without my fall in Saint-\u00c9tienne, that would have been an easy victory,&#8221; Hinault told <em>L&#8217;\u00c9quipe<\/em> in Bordeaux, going on \u2013 ever the politician \u2013 to thank LeMond for his support. &#8220;We blocked the opposition easily. Only [rival Stephen] Roche did what he could.&#8221; As for the idea he might have earned extra prestige by winning injured and with two black eyes, Hinault answered succinctly, &#8220;Maybe, but it still sucks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-6ef2403f-580f-4d9b-8b4d-668c15f925b8\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-0ef9cbd7-caf7-4bd4-a26a-bd2649aff890\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Present at the 1985 Tour as well, Pierce says the crowd&#8217;s support for Hinault&#8217;s success in Paris was &#8220;logically far greater as he&#8217;s French, it was pretty good compared to 1974. It was also to do with their personalities and how they celebrated. Merckx was much more relaxed, acting like winning five Tours was the most natural thing in the world. Hinault was a lot more nervous when he got his fifth, jumping around, hamming it up and putting on a real show.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Yet for all the added glamour, perhaps the most remarkable thing about Hinault&#8217;s win is that even as it seemed to confirm France&#8217;s domination of its home race in the post-Merckx era \u2013 nine wins from the previous eleven editions, five in a row \u2013 in fact it proved a kind of death knell for the host nation&#8217;s aspirations. To this day, Hinault&#8217;s 1985 victory remains the last time the men&#8217;s Tour has been won by a Frenchman. And no sooner had Hinault lost the Tour the following year (this despite having promised LeMond he would help him in return for the 1985 support), than he quit. For France, then as now, this was as good as it would get.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"miguel-indurain-30-years-since-the-last-five-time-winner-3\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Miguel Indurain \u2013 30 years since the last five-time winner<\/h2>\n<p id=\"elk-df506b85-f231-470c-9f87-5b09824dbfaf\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">To judge by his interviews, for Hinault as it was for Merckx, a fifth Tour was one in a series rather than a goal in itself, particularly given the problems and setbacks he&#8217;d had achieving it. But attitudes to the fifth Tour, at latest in the media, had changed notably was by the time Miguel Indurain clinched his 1995 title, and became, in the process, the only member of the <em>Club des Cinq<\/em> to secure all five in one fell swoop. For one thing, after three of the greatest Grand Tour riders had fallen dramatically short in their sixth Tour bid or simply (as in Anquetil&#8217;s case) opted out altogether, reaching five became the new gold standard. Secondly, Indurain&#8217;s ability to win one Tour after another in immediate succession, unlike either Merckx or Hinault, focussed the interest on the number even more.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Furthemore, as Unzu\u00e9 says, both for the rider and for the team, Banesto, Indurain&#8217;s lifelong squad, by 1995 the Tour de France had acquired an unwieldy level of importance. (It was one that caused some controversy too: Indurain&#8217;s repeated absence from the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, held in April up to 1994 and which he avoided as racing it that month could have harmed his Tour build-up, even sparked questions in the Spanish parliament.) Yet if another Indurain Tour victory had become almost routine by 1995, it was curiously both the July where Indurain himself tore up his own strategy and the race where he came closest to losing.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-879bebd8-8b9d-4ca5-9dd3-5c651a04ae3e\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-441c40dc-a678-4394-b845-67cf39a1502e\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Up until the 1994 Tour de France, for his previous four Grand Tour wins \u2013 two in the Giro and two in France \u2013 Indurain had always opted for riding defensively in the mountains and killing the opposition in the time trials. But in 1995, Indurain switched his game completely powering away on the shores of the River Meuse in Li\u00e8ge the day before a crucial time trial &#8211; where he&#8217;d normally have saved all his energy \u2013 a move which completely blindsided his rivals and gaining a hefty advantage, both psychological and real, as a result.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;I changed my strategy a bit and they got confused,&#8221; Indurain once told <em>El Pa\u00eds<\/em>. &#8220;The team might have had its ideas, but in a race, you have to take decisions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;What surprised me the most about his winning the Tour in any year was the time when he attacked at the end of the Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge route,&#8221; Unzu\u00e9, confirming he had no idea Indurain&#8217;s move was coming, once said in a biography of Indurain, <em>Relentless<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;That was a Miguel Indurain that I didn\u2019t know, the day before a time trial, what did he need to do that for? But that was the Tour, in an case, where we saw the day he came closest to racing like Eddy Merckx.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Yet if the Tour seemed to be completely in Indurain&#8217;s power after his knock-out blow in Belgium and equally important ride up to La Plagne in the Alps, the biggest setback of the 1995 Tour came on the stage to Mende in the Massif Central a few stages later. And it was a massive blow.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;That was the hardest day of all the five Tours,&#8221; Unzu\u00e9 once admitted, where &#8220;for many hours, it seemed as though something [an Indurain defeat] could happen\u2026 The Tour was slipping through our fingers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-86a2e61f-6245-434a-b655-fa5f26fa2176\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-33953d72-d5a3-4838-b776-52ba5f59b004\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">More than capable of defeating any rival individually, as Indurain had proved in La Plagne, what proved nearly catastrophic was when Indurain faced a collective challenge, in this case by the Spanish team, ONCE. In a move across the rugged Massif Central to Mende airfield, the presence of three ONCE riders including team leader Laurent Jalabert in a day-long break left Banesto broken apart, and Indurain and his squad had to look for all kinds of circumstantial allies to try and bring them back.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Teams with absolutely no interest in the GC battle, for reasons that shall remain purely conjectural, opted to back Indurain in his bid to quell the ONCE mutiny. For all Jalabert was at 9:10 overall, when the gap rose to over ten minutes, it felt like Indurain&#8217;s bid for a fifth Tour was about to go up in smoke.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">For the Tour-centric Banesto (and a country like Spain that was obsessed with stage racing and barely had any ideas of the importance of the Classics), this was nothing less than disastrous. ONCE was the Spanish equivalent of the Royal National Institute of Blind People, and the phone lines to its headquarters in Madrid reportedly collapsed under the numbers of outraged callers, demanding to know what the squad was doing, &#8216;betraying&#8217; a fellow-countryman like Indurain.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;I felt the race was in danger that day,&#8221; Indurain once told <em>El Pa\u00eds<\/em>, &#8220;but that wasn&#8217;t my responsibility, it was the team&#8217;s. They had to control and that&#8217;s where I put them under pressure because things had got out of control. I told them to sort it out and to see how they could do it. My job was to keep the GC contenders under control, and I had them under control.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Finally, enough teams collaborated \u2013 later claiming they were paying back an unspoken debt where Banesto would &#8216;gift&#8217; stage wins to rivals \u2013 with a by-now completely isolated Indurain to bring Jalabert and co within a safe enough distance for the Navarran&#8217;s maillot jaune to be safe. Jalabert won the stage, but his advantage of 4:50 was only enough to put him briefly on the podium. The yellow was another story.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">It&#8217;s true there were grumblings from 1996 Tour winner Bjaarne Riis that had the Tour raced the stage after the death of Fabio Casartelli in the Pyrenees, rather than neutralising it, Indurain might have been more vulnerable: But really the Tour ended the moment Indurain garnered enough support to keep ONCE under control on the road to Mende.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Such was Indurain&#8217;s control that<em> El Pa\u00eds <\/em>later insisted that &#8220;nobody would dare give an answer&#8221; to the question who could stop him taking a sixth in 1996. &#8220;They would be scared of being called a madman or a fortune teller,&#8221; the newspaper reported. Yet in fact, as we know \u2013 and just like nobody ever doubted that Merckx would win a sixth, either \u2013 five proved to be the upper limit for Indurain and there it remains.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">That is perhaps the pivotal fact on which all of the subsequent evaluations of five Tours really hangs. The importance of Poga\u010dar&#8217;s fifth win really depends on what happens if firstly he gets it, and secondly what happens afterwards. If, for whatever reason, that&#8217;s as good as it gets, it will feel very different as a victory than if it&#8217;s &#8216;just&#8217; another Tour win en route to becoming the first rider ever to take six. So given we&#8217;ll only know later what that fifth Tour win (if it happens) really means, for now perhaps it&#8217;s best to do as happened with Anquetil and Hinault (and to a lesser extent with Indurain) and focus in on the human experience that it took to attain that achievement \u2013 and the records can remain in the history books and for the years to come.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-888ec9e8-3e92-41ec-b000-43793aa23325\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\"><em><strong>The world\u2019s biggest bike race deserves world-class coverage. Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our unrivalled reporting of the 2026 Tour de France. From Barcelona through to Paris, our experienced team will bring you breaking news, expert insight, and in-depth coverage from every stage as the battle for the yellow jersey plays out. Plus, access the Cyclingnews app to follow the action on the go! <\/strong><\/em><u><em><strong>Find out more.<\/strong><\/em><\/u><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"slice-container-authorBio-Rmwt3NJNxEkne9NxQFuJGA\" class=\"slice-container slice-author-bio authorBio-Rmwt3NJNxEkne9NxQFuJGA slice-container-authorBio\">\n<div class=\"author author__default-layout author--separator author--collapsible\" data-hydrate=\"true\">\n<div class=\"author__header\">\n<div class=\"author__avatar-block\">\n<figure class=\"image-wrapped__wrapper\" data-bordeaux-image-check=\"false\">\n<div class=\"image-wrapped__widthsetter\">\n<div class=\"image-wrapped__aspect-padding\">\n<div><source class=\"author__avatar image-wrapped__image image__image\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/5QLhaPay9asJvmaNsCjFVZ-140-80.jpg.webp 140w\" sizes=\"99vw\" data-normal=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/5QLhaPay9asJvmaNsCjFVZ.jpg\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/5QLhaPay9asJvmaNsCjFVZ.jpg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/5QLhaPay9asJvmaNsCjFVZ.jpg\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\" data-slice-image=\"true\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"author__heading\">\n<div class=\"author__name\">Alasdair Fotheringham<\/div>\n<div class=\"author__social\">\n<nav class=\"button-social-group author__social-buttons\" aria-labelledby=\"button-social-group- author__social-buttons\">\n<div id=\"button-social-group- author__social-buttons\">Social Links Navigation<\/div>\n<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"author__bio-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"author__biography\">\n<p>Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for <em>Cyclingnews<\/em>, he has also written for <em>The Independent<\/em>,\u00a0 <em>The Guardian<\/em>,\u00a0 <em>ProCycling<\/em>, <em>The Express<\/em> and <em>Reuters<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"relative max-w-[1070px] viafoura-twig-component mt-6 mx-4 lg:mx-0\" data-component-name=\"Viafoura:Comments\" data-nosnippet data-community-guidelines-text=\"&lt;p class=&apos;vfcustom-community-guidelines&apos;&gt;Please follow our &lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/about\/#section-community-guidelines&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;community guidelines&lt;\/a&gt;.&lt;\/p&gt;\" data-join-the-conversation-text=\"Join the Conversation\">\n<div class=\"absolute top-0 left-0 w-full h-full flex items-center justify-center z-50 bg-white\/90 border-1 rounded-b-[var(--comment-widget-border-radius,0)]\">\n<div class=\"p-2 text-center\">\n<p class=\"mb-3 text-lg!\">You must confirm your public display name before commenting<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-3 text-sm!\">Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<section class=\"mx-2 my-5 sm:mx-0\">\n<aside class=\"w-full\" data-nosnippet data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-stacked\">\n<div data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-adviser:hybrid\">\n<div class=\"text-white py-4 px-3 mb-4 bg-[#333] uppercase font-bold custom-header-styles\">Read more<\/div>\n<div class=\"grid grid-cols-1 gap-4 mt-4 mb-5\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Teams &amp; Riders<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">&#8216;Tadej keeps on surprising us&#8217; \u2013 The inside view on how UAE Team Emirates-XRG have constructed Tadej Poga\u010dar&#8217;s assault on a fifth Tour de France<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vqqtZmiJMoZQD2csCZrp5V-840-80.png.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vqqtZmiJMoZQD2csCZrp5V-650-80.png.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vqqtZmiJMoZQD2csCZrp5V-500-80.png.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vqqtZmiJMoZQD2csCZrp5V-450-80.png.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vqqtZmiJMoZQD2csCZrp5V-320-80.png.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Racing<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">Jonas Vingegaard will try, but in reality, no one is likely to upset the Tadej Poga\u010dar show at the Tour de France \u2013 Philippa York analysis<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/CbxpbneafR6STQnwKHYfmM-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/CbxpbneafR6STQnwKHYfmM-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/CbxpbneafR6STQnwKHYfmM-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/CbxpbneafR6STQnwKHYfmM-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/CbxpbneafR6STQnwKHYfmM-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Teams &amp; Riders<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">&#8216;Let&#8217;s go one by one&#8217; \u2013 Tadej Poga\u010dar wants to fill the gaps in his palmar\u00e8s, but which races are left to conquer?<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/RWB8Yhvx5PcTwru9BtaPxY-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/RWB8Yhvx5PcTwru9BtaPxY-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/RWB8Yhvx5PcTwru9BtaPxY-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/RWB8Yhvx5PcTwru9BtaPxY-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/RWB8Yhvx5PcTwru9BtaPxY-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Racing<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">Record-breakers, comebacks, and underdogs at Paris-Roubaix \u2013 The most memorable editions of the past 25 years<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/rAsAd4XPiLEaLrbBawWTL3-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/rAsAd4XPiLEaLrbBawWTL3-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/rAsAd4XPiLEaLrbBawWTL3-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/rAsAd4XPiLEaLrbBawWTL3-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/rAsAd4XPiLEaLrbBawWTL3-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Teams &amp; Riders<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">By winning the Giro d&#8217;Italia, Jonas Vingegaard has had his strongest Tour de France preparation yet \u2013 but we still have no idea how he&#8217;ll compare with Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/WHEfA8PfrwjRikdcTccTK-840-80.png.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/WHEfA8PfrwjRikdcTccTK-650-80.png.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/WHEfA8PfrwjRikdcTccTK-500-80.png.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/WHEfA8PfrwjRikdcTccTK-450-80.png.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/WHEfA8PfrwjRikdcTccTK-320-80.png.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Teams &amp; Riders<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">Who will win the Tour de France 2026? Our definitive ranking of the favourites for the yellow jersey<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"w-full\" data-nosnippet data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-stacked\">\n<div data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-solr:latest-category\">\n<div class=\"text-white py-4 px-3 mb-4 bg-[#333] uppercase font-bold custom-header-styles\">Latest in Racing<\/div>\n<div class=\"grid grid-cols-1 gap-4 mt-4 mb-5\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/sCJMNDvRKKpfRDLfG8eLdU-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/sCJMNDvRKKpfRDLfG8eLdU-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/sCJMNDvRKKpfRDLfG8eLdU-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/sCJMNDvRKKpfRDLfG8eLdU-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/sCJMNDvRKKpfRDLfG8eLdU-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Racing<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">American Criterium Cup: New Zealand riders sweep elite races at Downer Classic in Wisconsin and hold off series leaders in tight sprints<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/z7b6qdBEfJfYrt4NBWKY9H-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/z7b6qdBEfJfYrt4NBWKY9H-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/z7b6qdBEfJfYrt4NBWKY9H-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/z7b6qdBEfJfYrt4NBWKY9H-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/z7b6qdBEfJfYrt4NBWKY9H-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Racing<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">Sprinter Tim Merlier spearheads Soudal-QuickStep&#8217;s first assault on Tour de France in post-Remco Evenepoel era<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BCZ8u8uUCDNe8jMM82YcAm-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BCZ8u8uUCDNe8jMM82YcAm-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BCZ8u8uUCDNe8jMM82YcAm-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BCZ8u8uUCDNe8jMM82YcAm-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BCZ8u8uUCDNe8jMM82YcAm-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Racing<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">Keegan Swenson wins a fourth SBT GRVL while Sofia Gomez Villafa\u00f1e makes late catch and pass of Sarah Lange in thrilling elite women&#8217;s race<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/qRJwCJNo8uUor3GSm8MWFF-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/qRJwCJNo8uUor3GSm8MWFF-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/qRJwCJNo8uUor3GSm8MWFF-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/qRJwCJNo8uUor3GSm8MWFF-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/qRJwCJNo8uUor3GSm8MWFF-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Racing<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">Gravel World Series: Gabby Traxler and Carter Nieuwesteeg win in &#8216;gnarliest conditions&#8217; at Ghost of the Gravel in Canada<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GVCgyEFBeWAPvqGW9eWsi3-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GVCgyEFBeWAPvqGW9eWsi3-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GVCgyEFBeWAPvqGW9eWsi3-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GVCgyEFBeWAPvqGW9eWsi3-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/GVCgyEFBeWAPvqGW9eWsi3-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Racing<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">Youth and experience on display as Bahrain-Victorious announce balanced squad for Tour de France<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/Nytfb6kMapPQ5ugYEEppjg-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/Nytfb6kMapPQ5ugYEEppjg-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/Nytfb6kMapPQ5ugYEEppjg-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/Nytfb6kMapPQ5ugYEEppjg-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/Nytfb6kMapPQ5ugYEEppjg-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Racing<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">Irish National Championships: Seth Dunwoody edges Rory Townsend to win elite men\u2019s title<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"w-full\" data-nosnippet data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-stacked\">\n<div data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-solr:latest-articletype\">\n<div class=\"text-white py-4 px-3 mb-4 bg-[#333] uppercase font-bold custom-header-styles\">Latest in Features<\/div>\n<div class=\"grid grid-cols-1 gap-4 mt-4 mb-5\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" 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custom-text-styles\">Write off Jonas Vingegaard at your peril, but there is one thing that could let him down at this Tour de France<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"aspect-[var(--img-listing-aspect-ratio,16\/9)] relative mb-3.5\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/k47gPEqWS7qGhFA58fFsJW-840-80.jpg.webp 840w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/k47gPEqWS7qGhFA58fFsJW-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/k47gPEqWS7qGhFA58fFsJW-500-80.jpg.webp 500w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/k47gPEqWS7qGhFA58fFsJW-450-80.jpg.webp 450w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/k47gPEqWS7qGhFA58fFsJW-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 900px) 925px, (min-width: 700px) 450px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"custom-subheading-styles\">Teams &amp; Riders<\/span><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block custom-text-styles\">With Oscar Onley out, what can Netcompany Ineos hope to achieve in this Tour de France \u2013 and in future ones?<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span 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Team Emirates-XRG have constructed Tadej Poga\u010dar&#8217;s assault on a fifth Tour de France<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"relative recirc-feed sponsored-card min-h-[250px]\" data-recirc-id=\"article-river-stacked-ads:native-cards\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"article-river-ads\" data-nosnippet data-ad-slot-path=\"feed-sponsored-post\" data-attribute-device=\"all\">\n<div class=\"max-w-full sponsored-post--placeholder animate-pulse\">\n<div class=\"relative!\"><span class=\"text-base text-black font-bold mx-0 my-2.5 p-0 block bg-gray-100\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"widgetArea17\" class=\"widget-area md:basis-1\/3 widget-area-g-md-vp-1-3 widget-area-g-lg-vp-1-3 widget-area-g-xl-vp-1-3 page-widget-area-17\">\n<div data-widget-type=\"dynamic\" id=\"popular-data\" class=\"clear-both widget widget-dynamic widget-popular-data widget-dynamic-popular-data widget-dynamic-fter-popular-box\">\n<div class=\"wdn-fte-pb pos-relative space-t20\n\"><\/p>\n<div id=\"slice-container-popularBox\" class=\"slice-container popular-box-slice popularBox slice-container-popularBox\">\n<section data-hydrate=\"true\" class=\"popular-box\">\n<div class=\"popular-box__label\">\n<div class=\"popular-box__label__tab popular-box__label__tab--active\" role=\"heading\">LATEST ARTICLES<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<ol class=\"popular-box__articles-list popular-box__articles-list--active\">\n<li class=\"popular-box__article-list\">\n<div class=\"popular-box__article-list__container\">\n<div class=\"popular-box__article-list__image-wrapper\">\n<div><source class=\"popular-box__article-list__image image__image\" type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/YQjyQHQHTFLJmgRoARpDSZ-320-80.jpg.webp 320w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/YQjyQHQHTFLJmgRoARpDSZ-640-80.jpg.webp 640w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/YQjyQHQHTFLJmgRoARpDSZ-720-80.jpg.webp 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France in post-Remco Evenepoel era<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"popular-box__article-list\">\n<div class=\"popular-box__article-list__container\">\n<div class=\"popular-box__article-list__content\">\n<div class=\"popular-box__article-list__number-text\">5<\/div>\n<div class=\"popular-box__article-list__heading\">Save up to $372.60 on a NordVPN subscription \u2013 Lock down your Tour de France viewing from anywhere this summer<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"news-article\">\n<header data-component-name=\"Article:Hero\">\n<nav class=\"breadcrumb\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumbs\">\n<ol>\n<li>\nPro Cycling\n<\/li>\n<li>\nRacing\n<\/li>\n<li>\nRoad\n<\/li>\n<li>\nTour de France\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/nav>\n<h1>Club des Cinq: How Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault and Indurain won their fifth Tour de France, and the history that Tadej Poga\u010dar seeks to emulate<\/h1>\n<div class=\"byline-social\">\n<div class=\"byline font-ui-heading text-[12px]\">\nFeatures<\/p>\n<div><span><br \/>\nBy<br \/>\nAlasdair Fotheringham <\/span><span><br \/>\npublished<br \/>\n<time data-component-name=\"UI:DateTime\" datetime=\"2026-06-30T08:48:00Z\" class=\"relative-date\"><br \/>\n30 June 2026<br \/>\n<\/time><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"strapline\">Alasdair Fotheringham takes a look back into the history books to explore how the famed fifth Tours were won, what they meant for their winners, and how the record has evolved<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"text-gray-700 mx-auto mb-4 flex items-center justify-start mx-0 my-5 p-0\" id=\"affiliate-disclaimer\" data-component-name=\"AffiliateDisclaimer\" data-hawk-message=\"Affiliate disclaimer removed because hawk deemed there are no affiliate links on this page\">\n<p class=\"text-[var(--affiliate-disclaimer--text-color,inherit))] mb-2 text-[length:var(--affiliate-disclaimer--font-size,0.75rem)] leading-[18px] 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Here\u2019s how it works.\n<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\" class=\"text-copy bodyCopy auto paywall-locker\">\n<div data-analytics-id=\"utility-bar\" id=\"utility-bar\" class=\"font-ui-heading flex justify-between items-center py-2 border-t border-b border-gray-300 border-solid mb-5 mx-auto\" data-component-name=\"UtilityBar\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"utility-bar\">\n<div class=\"flex gap-2 text-[#333] subcontainer\">\n<div class=\"relative tooltip-container\" role=\"tooltip\">\n<div data-component-name=\"Social:Dropdown\" role=\"menu\" id=\"utilitybar__dropdown--share\" aria-labelledby=\"utilitybar__button--share\" class=\"absolute left-0 top-full w-44 bg-white rounded-md shadow-md border border-neutral-200 z-[9996] list-none m-0 py-2 px-3 border-solid\">\n<ul class=\"m-0!\">\n<li class=\"!p-0 !m-0 list-none border-b border-gray-200 border-solid\">\n<li class=\"!p-0 !m-0 list-none border-b border-gray-200 border-solid\">\n<p>Facebook<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"!p-0 !m-0 list-none border-b border-gray-200 border-solid\">\n<p>X<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"!p-0 !m-0 list-none border-b border-gray-200 border-solid\">\n<p>Pinterest<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"!p-0 !m-0 list-none border-b border-gray-200 border-solid\">\n<p>Email<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"font-ui-heading max-sm:hidden tooltip absolute left-1\/2 bg-gray-900 text-white text-xs leading-none px-3 py-1.5 rounded-md z-[10001] whitespace-nowrap\" id=\"tooltip-share-this-article\" role=\"tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\nShare this article\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"relative tooltip-container\" role=\"tooltip\"><span class=\"ml-1 inline-flex h-5 px-2 shrink-0 items-center justify-center self-center overflow-hidden whitespace-nowrap rounded-[10px] bg-primary-500 text-[11px] leading-none font-ui-heading font-semibold text-white\">4<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"font-ui-heading max-sm:hidden tooltip absolute left-1\/2 bg-gray-900 text-white text-xs leading-none px-3 py-1.5 rounded-md z-[10001] whitespace-nowrap\" id=\"tooltip-join-the-conversation\" role=\"tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\nJoin the conversation\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"flex gap-2 text-[#333] subcontainer\">\n<div class=\"relative tooltip-container\" role=\"tooltip\">\n<p>Follow us<\/p>\n<div class=\"font-ui-heading max-sm:hidden tooltip absolute left-1\/2 bg-gray-900 text-white text-xs leading-none px-3 py-1.5 rounded-md z-[10001] whitespace-nowrap\" id=\"tooltip-add-us-as-a-preferred-source-on-google\" role=\"tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\nAdd us as a preferred source on Google\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"relative tooltip-container\" role=\"tooltip\">\n<div class=\"font-ui-heading max-sm:hidden tooltip absolute left-1\/2 bg-gray-900 text-white text-xs leading-none px-3 py-1.5 rounded-md z-[10001] whitespace-nowrap\" id=\"tooltip-subscribe-to-our-newsletter\" role=\"tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\nSubscribe to our newsletter\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"elk-1bd11266-3146-4667-8e4d-4feab8c93d28\">Right now you can&#8217;t go far on any self-respecting sports website without seeing a story about how Tadej Poga\u010dar&#8217;s goal of capturing a fifth Tour de France would see him pull off one of the crowning achievements in the sport. And they&#8217;re all right, of course.<\/p>\n<p>But dig back in history, and it&#8217;s fair to say that a rider joining the <em>Club des Cinq<\/em> \u2013 as the ultra exclusive, four-strong circle of five-time Tour winners is known in France \u2013 wasn&#8217;t always the biggest story of the race. Far from it.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-1bd11266-3146-4667-8e4d-4feab8c93d28-2\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Take the main end-of-race analysis piece of the Tour de France or semi-official newspaper <em>L&#8217;\u00c9quipe<\/em> back in 1974, just when Eddy Merckx was on the point of conquering his fifth title.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Written by race director and leading sports journalist Jacques Goddet, the article had an extremely downbeat headline for one thing: <em>&#8216;Le cyclisme pro: une malade&#8217;<\/em> \u2013 pro cycling is ill. And what made it even odder was right below the headline, there was a half-page photo of the soon-to-be-crowned Tour winner and the undisputed patron of the peloton, Eddy Merckx, in full lone flight towards Orl\u00e9ans. With one day remaining, he&#8217;d dropped the pack in his umpteenth display of panache and power once again, and all this by a point where he was already in complete control of the race. He was certainly not looking <em>malade<\/em> at all.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Bafflingly, there was not a mention in Goddet&#8217;s summing up of the Tour that just a day later, Merckx would win his fifth Tour de France of five starts. Or that Merckx had already moved well ahead of Andr\u00e9 LeDucq&#8217;s record-breaking total of 24 stage wins and would push it up to a new target of 32 by the end of the race. (By the end of the 1975 Tour, it was up to 34, a record that would stand for nearly half a century.) Nor even did it seemingly matter that Merckx was only 29, so in theory at least, he could take even more records in the years to come. Goddet was still unhappy.<\/p>\n<aside data-component-name=\"Recirculation:ArticleRiver\" data-recirculation-type=\"inline\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"Trending Bar\" data-nosnippet class=\"clear-both pt-2 pb-0 mb-4\"><span class=\"\n            flex\n            after:content-[&apos;&apos;] after:flex-1 after:ml-4 after:my-[0.7rem] after:border-t after:border-solid after:border-t-[#ccc]\n            before:content-[&apos;&apos;] before:flex-1 before:mr-4 before:my-[0.7rem] before:border-t before:border-solid before:border-t-[#ccc]\n            font-article-heading pb-0 text-[length:var(--article-river-title--font-size,1em)] uppercase sm:text-[length:var(--article-river-title--font-size,0.875em)] font-bold\n        \"><br \/>\n            You may like<br \/>\n        <\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"flex flex-col gap-0 m-0 max-w-full\">\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none border-b border-solid border-[#ededed] py-2\" data-recirculation-id=\"recirculation-card-1\" id=\"recirculation-inline-1\" data-analytics-id=\"recirculation-inline-1\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"recirculation-inline-1\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-250-80.jpg.webp 250w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/s2mu99cSc9cQb8sSAxSoJR-150-80.jpg.webp 150w\" sizes=\"150px\" \/><span class=\"w-full text-base font-[var(--article-river-item--font-weight,500)] font-article-heading line-clamp-3 md:line-clamp-2\">&#8216;Tadej keeps on surprising us&#8217; \u2013 The inside view on how UAE Team Emirates-XRG have constructed Tadej Poga\u010dar&#8217;s assault on a fifth Tour de France<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none border-b border-solid border-[#ededed] py-2\" data-recirculation-id=\"recirculation-card-2\" id=\"recirculation-inline-2\" data-analytics-id=\"recirculation-inline-2\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"recirculation-inline-2\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vqqtZmiJMoZQD2csCZrp5V-250-80.png.webp 250w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vqqtZmiJMoZQD2csCZrp5V-150-80.png.webp 150w\" sizes=\"150px\" \/><span class=\"w-full text-base font-[var(--article-river-item--font-weight,500)] font-article-heading line-clamp-3 md:line-clamp-2\">Jonas Vingegaard will try, but in reality, no one is likely to upset the Tadej Poga\u010dar show at the Tour de France \u2013 Philippa York analysis<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none border-b border-solid border-[#ccc] py-2\" data-recirculation-id=\"recirculation-card-3\" id=\"recirculation-inline-3\" data-analytics-id=\"recirculation-inline-3\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"recirculation-inline-3\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/CbxpbneafR6STQnwKHYfmM-250-80.jpg.webp 250w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/CbxpbneafR6STQnwKHYfmM-150-80.jpg.webp 150w\" sizes=\"150px\" \/><span class=\"w-full text-base font-[var(--article-river-item--font-weight,500)] font-article-heading line-clamp-3 md:line-clamp-2\">&#8216;Let&#8217;s go one by one&#8217; \u2013 Tadej Poga\u010dar wants to fill the gaps in his palmar\u00e8s, but which races are left to conquer?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/aside>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;The Tour de France has not brought us all the satisfactions that we had hoped for two months ago,&#8221; he wrote. And that was that. Not that Goddet had anything against Merckx in particular, it turned out, whom he said had &#8220;competently handled both the way the course played out and his rivals.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-c175df8a-8ce3-4fa3-bc0c-b328a0664e33\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/oxMRFPmGinDFsoUQ7wC5KZ-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-da6d9385-5534-4179-b3a9-cd7323e02027\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Rather, Goddet&#8217;s beef was that the lack of serious opposition to the all-conquering Eddy \u2013 &#8220;an apathetic peloton,&#8221; snarled part of the caption for the photo of Merckx regarding the bunch he&#8217;d just left reeling in his latest attack \u2013 had left the race looking and feeling more than a little, well, bland.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Riders had become overly concerned with their own well-being and were not willing to take risks, Goddet argued, and that was all the fault of modern society and the &#8216;nanny state&#8217;: its mollycoddling and obsession with safety had wreaked havoc &#8220;in this very special area of human activity&#8221; \u2013 bike racing \u2013 &#8220;where by definition, everything remains an adventure.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">What Goddet&#8217;s comments showed, then and now, is that while a fifth Tour de France title matters hugely in terms of the history of the sport, it doesn&#8217;t have to be the story of the race.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Just like last year when Tadej Poga\u010dar was on the cusp of a winning a fourth Tour but the main media focus was on his &#8216;lack of motivation&#8217; in the third week, and whether a fifth Tour victory is a close-run affair like in 1964 for Jacques Anquetil or a snooze-fest like in 1974 for Merckx, the statistic can become something of an afterthought.<\/p>\n<aside data-component-name=\"Recirculation:ArticleRiver\" data-recirculation-type=\"inline\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"Trending Bar\" data-nosnippet class=\"clear-both pt-2 pb-0 mb-4\"><span class=\"\n            flex\n            after:content-[&apos;&apos;] after:flex-1 after:ml-4 after:my-[0.7rem] after:border-t after:border-solid after:border-t-[#ccc]\n            before:content-[&apos;&apos;] before:flex-1 before:mr-4 before:my-[0.7rem] before:border-t before:border-solid before:border-t-[#ccc]\n            font-article-heading pb-0 text-[length:var(--article-river-title--font-size,1em)] uppercase sm:text-[length:var(--article-river-title--font-size,0.875em)] font-bold\n        \"><br \/>\n            What to read next<br \/>\n        <\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"flex flex-col gap-0 m-0 max-w-full\">\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none border-b border-solid border-[#ededed] py-2\" data-recirculation-id=\"recirculation-card-1\" id=\"recirculation-inline-2-1\" data-analytics-id=\"recirculation-2-inline-1\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"recirculation-2-inline-1\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/RWB8Yhvx5PcTwru9BtaPxY-250-80.jpg.webp 250w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/RWB8Yhvx5PcTwru9BtaPxY-150-80.jpg.webp 150w\" sizes=\"150px\" \/><span class=\"w-full text-base font-[var(--article-river-item--font-weight,500)] font-article-heading line-clamp-3 md:line-clamp-2\">Record-breakers, comebacks, and underdogs at Paris-Roubaix \u2013 The most memorable editions of the past 25 years<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none border-b border-solid border-[#ededed] py-2\" data-recirculation-id=\"recirculation-card-2\" id=\"recirculation-inline-2-2\" data-analytics-id=\"recirculation-2-inline-2\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"recirculation-2-inline-2\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/rAsAd4XPiLEaLrbBawWTL3-250-80.jpg.webp 250w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/rAsAd4XPiLEaLrbBawWTL3-150-80.jpg.webp 150w\" sizes=\"150px\" \/><span class=\"w-full text-base font-[var(--article-river-item--font-weight,500)] font-article-heading line-clamp-3 md:line-clamp-2\">By winning the Giro d&#8217;Italia, Jonas Vingegaard has had his strongest Tour de France preparation yet \u2013 but we still have no idea how he&#8217;ll compare with Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none border-b border-solid border-[#ccc] py-2\" data-recirculation-id=\"recirculation-card-3\" id=\"recirculation-inline-2-3\" data-analytics-id=\"recirculation-2-inline-3\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"recirculation-2-inline-3\">\n    <source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/WHEfA8PfrwjRikdcTccTK-250-80.png.webp 250w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/WHEfA8PfrwjRikdcTccTK-150-80.png.webp 150w\" sizes=\"150px\" \/><span class=\"w-full text-base font-[var(--article-river-item--font-weight,500)] font-article-heading line-clamp-3 md:line-clamp-2\">Who will win the Tour de France 2026? Our definitive ranking of the favourites for the yellow jersey<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/aside>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">On the other side of the fence, with so many Tour victories already in the bag, rather than a feeling of etching a permanent place in the history books, the sense of an &#8216;obligation&#8217; to take another can be what predominates inside a team.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;The first two or three Tours that he won were fantastic, but the last three he raced we suffered a lot because nothing that wasn\u2019t winning made any sense,&#8221; Eusebio Unzu\u00e9, sports director of Miguel Indurain, once said.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;In the last few Tours, there was a huge amount of tension, knowing that if you didn\u2019t make any mistakes, if you got it totally right inside the team, then he wouldn\u2019t let you down. He was almost perfect. So you had to check everything time and again, make sure it was all going to work perfectly. And what was the first thing you did when you got to Paris? Breathe easy again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"jacques-anquetil-the-first-to-ever-do-it-3\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Jacques Anquetil \u2013 the first to ever do it<\/h2>\n<p id=\"elk-d55fdde4-0718-435d-b4d1-bda2927ba789\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">But was it always like this? Certainly when it came to the first winner of five Tours, rather than feel obliged to keep going, come what may, the French star Jacques Anquetil knew exactly when to call time on the never-ending demands for greater and greater success.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">After he became the first member of the <em>Club des Cinq<\/em> in 1964, in July 1965 Anquetil said he was no longer interested in taking part. As he put it, with refreshing honesty or dubious cynicism (take your pick), he wasn&#8217;t going to race the Tour that year because &#8220;My contract won&#8217;t get any bigger if I win a sixth, and on the contrary, I&#8217;ve everything to lose if I fail.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">The key point to remember, though, was that by 1964 and when fighting for Tour number five, Anquetil had already not only equalled the previous record of three, jointly held by Philip Thys (1913, 1914, 1920) and Louison Bobet (1953, 1954, 1955), he&#8217;d gone one better. So rather than records, what inspired Anquetil go for Tour number five in 1964 (when he could perfectly easily have trotted out that 1965 line about not making any more money if he did take part then, too) was a different record. It was the chance to become the only rider after Fausto Coppi to conquer the Giro, which he&#8217;d won that May, and the Tour de France in the same year.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Quite apart from a rare &#8216;double&#8217;, another major issue was reportedly Anquetil&#8217;s ego. Winning another Tour would mean stealing a march on arch-rival and fellow Frenchman Raymond Poulidor whose failure to win so often as Anquetil, combined with his much more downhome, salt-of-the-earth personality, had made Poulidor something of a fan favourite \u2013 and his Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a victory in April 1964 had put him on the map as the coning man. So sensitive to criticism that he once named his yacht &#8216;Whistles&#8217; (in an ironic reference to the boos and catcalls he&#8217;d received after losing the 1959 Tour to Federico Martin Bahamontes), putting the Tour record out of reach with a fifth victory wasn&#8217;t apparently top of Anquetil&#8217;s to-do list. But putting Poulidor in his place, that was another story.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">What&#8217;s undeniable is that of the four Tours that gave their winners the chance to enter <em>le Club des Cinq<\/em>, 1964 was by far the most dramatic. Anquetil&#8217;s tiny final margin of success, just 55 seconds, underlined the knife-edge nature of the event, and also \u2013 after years where riders would conquer the Tour or be defeated by handfuls of minutes \u2013 hinted strongly at how the Tour was lurching, albeit patchily, into a more modern, finely calculated era. Equally, on top of that, Anquetil&#8217;s domination of the time trials (of which there were three), while Poulidor was much more superior in the mountains, helped keep the pendulum swinging back and forth. The first-ever live TV broadcasts of parts of Tour stages could hardly have come at a better moment.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-aa6735ac-dc37-41a8-9cf8-5f55a4beec16\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/o2vwNk2tKA5dSXhBt3JDAZ-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-f74c8cac-c137-475a-90d6-405c5cc46f43\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">The way things kept on going back in favour of one rider of the other was far from formulaic or limited to a particular type of stage, too: in the first week, Anquetil lost a 30-second time bonus because of a puncture in Brian\u010don in the Alps (and struggled on the Galibier), then Poulidor miscalculated by a lap in the Monaco velodrome the next day, and Anquetil regained all his lost time.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Even on a single stage, the setbacks and bouncebacks succeeded in almost bewildering speed. In Anquetil&#8217;s case, overeating at a vast lamb barbecue on the subsequent rest day in Andorra, and the fear induced by the prediction from one of France&#8217;s most famous fortune tellers, La Mage Bellne, in <em>France-Soir <\/em>newspaper, that he would have a fatal crash on stage 14, left him reeling on an initial climb the following day. But after Anquetil had drunk a bottle of champagne at the summit of the Envalira (now there&#8217;s a marginal gain for you), kindly provided by his team director, he overcame his severe indigestion. Thanks to a fantastic descent and a slightly questionable alliance, he managed to catch Poulidor on the flatter run-in.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">But even then it wasn&#8217;t all over. Before the end of the stage, Poulidor had crashed because of a mechanical and lost time on his arch-rival, only for Anquetil to suffer so much on the next day&#8217;s stage that after an incredibly gutsy ride across the Portillon climb, Poulidor could regain much of his losses.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">As if that wasn&#8217;t enough to make it a great Tour, the image that defined the closeness of the Poulidor-Anquetil era (and again, underlines how much smaller the gaps were becoming) came just 48 hours before the finish at Paris, on the P\u00fby de Dome. With the final result still hanging on a knife-edge, the race&#8217;s most emblematic image of the two was taken: leaning on each other as they tackled the interminably steep climb.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">The image in question only was possible because Poulidor had just gone too close to a photographer&#8217;s motorbike, scorched his leg on its exhaust pipe and was over-compensating in the opposite direction, and the point where they were in physical contact only lasted a few seconds. But it didn&#8217;t matter: that brief moment, once voted the all-time definitive image of the Tour de France in later <em>L&#8217;\u00c9quipe<\/em> polls, perfectly underlined both the ferocity of their rivalry \u2013 neither rider willing to give an inch to their opponent \u2013 and the way that their rivalry fed off and supported each other as well. To quote Goddet again: &#8220;Never had two men who fought so ferociously for the most beautiful and strangest of trophies been brought so closely together in their effort.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-87e4f036-f5b9-4510-8b7a-3b7162f40a27\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-2560-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/h5iiNyLzHiPXSzz2RXxZvM-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: WellOffSide\/ L&#8217;Equipe)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-b0c6eae4-354f-43ca-8bc6-81f6e93baf33\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Despite ceding a little on the Puy de D\u00f4me, Anquetil finally won that year&#8217;s Tour, thanks to his last blast on the time trial \u2013 although even there, Poulidor initially gave him a run for his money. But rather than the notable success of five Tours, his victory was memorable much more because of how he had had such a narrow pathway to triumph. The precarious nature of the triumph was both underlined by the famous answer Anquetil gave when told his GC margin on Poulidor had been reduced to 14 seconds \u2013 that&#8217;s 13 seconds too much \u2013 not to mention his later revealed promise to himself that if Poulidor had taken yellow on the Puy de Dome, he&#8217;d have abandoned.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;What surprises me the most about him;&#8221; Poulidor said in turn, &#8220;isn&#8217;t just his class, it&#8217;s the way he knows how to suffer so much in a race.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;I&#8217;m proud to have beaten a great champion,&#8221; Anquetil said, &#8220;in the hardest Tour I&#8217;ve ever done.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">In the midst of all of these moving reflections on the drama and suspense provided by the race, the fact Anquetil had also won the Tour five times somehow didn&#8217;t matter so much as the human angle. In an era like today&#8217;s where the results seem to be what matters the most, that&#8217;s surely something worth keeping in mind this summer in the Tour.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"eddy-merckx-the-cannibal-3\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Eddy Merckx \u2013 The Cannibal<\/h2>\n<p id=\"elk-2a572b69-3029-4092-818d-dbf0ade2ff1d\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Anquetil&#8217;s hotly disputed but hugely memorable fifth Tour effectively rounded off his career in July \u2013 in 1966, his one remaining participation, he and Poulidor basically marked each other out of contention. But the next rider to achieve five Tour victories, Eddy Merckx, showed no sign of retiring, and was clearly in a class of his own.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">It wasn&#8217;t just <em>L&#8217;\u00c9quipe<\/em> making that point, either: neither of his top challengers were present. 1973 Tour winner Luis Oca\u00f1a had been sacked by his team, BIC, before the start of the race, and perennial Dutch favourite Joop Zoetemelk was recovering from a life-threatening crash at the warm-up race of Midi-Libre. Bereft of big rivals, the process of Merckx clinching victory number five was curiously colourless, laying the foundations by picking up time bonuses wherever and whenever he could, but then blasting the opposition out of existence at Gaillard and Aix-les-Bains in the Alps.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">It says it all that the one point of interest or flicker of rivalry in this &#8220;monotonous, boring Tour&#8221; \u2013 and if that was <em>L&#8217;\u00c9quipe<\/em>&#8216;s description, imagine what the rest of the media were saying \u2013 was provided by a rider nearly aged 40, the incombustible Raymond Poulidor.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-4526ee9c-b221-40a9-8fa9-f8b852688ade\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/BFzyLoDiqmurwS2ZHFrSdZ-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-4abc95b3-29f8-44d9-986d-0d4c5e2eccd7\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">The Frenchman dropping Merckx briefly in the Alps on the Mont du Ch\u00e2t climb proved to be an ephemeral moment of weakness on the Belgian&#8217;s part, but at least Poulidor&#8217;s win in Saint-Lary-Soulan provided a refreshing change from Merckx&#8217; continuous domination. But if Merckx&#8217;s success could seemingly be taken for granted, the fact his closest rival on the Tour podium was a 38-year-old made it clear that a new generation of contenders was sorely needed \u2013 one that duly emerged, defeating Merckx, in 1976.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">By that point, Merckx&#8217;s position as the greatest racer of all time had been clearly established and by anyone&#8217;s standard, his 1974 season could only be considered a triumph throughout. Merckx preceded his Tour victory with a win in the Giro d&#8217;Italia and the Tour de Suisse (albeit with no Spring Classics wins for the first time in his career) and followed his July triumph with victory in the World Championships. No other rider had ever previously secured the &#8216;Triple Crown&#8217; and no rider would again until Stephen Roche in 1987. That he failed to ride defensively and instead went for eight stage wins, no less, was even more remarkable as he&#8217;d raced the entire Tour with a bleeding, open, wound in his perineum.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;To race in the Tour de France five times and to win each time, that&#8217;s a dream, the kind of record I think is unusual,&#8221; Merckx said according to the <em>New York Times<\/em>, its po-faced headline &#8216;French Bike Tour won by Merckx&#8217; an indication of how little cycling had impacted in the US at that time more than anything else. But it&#8217;s notable that even the Belgian didn&#8217;t make so much of the number, rather he was prouder of having remained undefeated in all his participations. Again, it was the more human side of the endeavour that mattered the most, not the drawing equal with Anquetil.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">By the time the Tour reached Paris, recalls the still-active British photographer John Pierce of Photosport International, who was present on the race, the public was more &#8220;nonplussed&#8221; and resigned at the latest demonstration of power than anything else.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;The atmosphere in the velodrome&#8221; \u2013 where the Tour finished for the last time ever that year before moving from La Cipale onto the Champs Elys\u00e9es in 1975 \u2013 &#8220;was a bit flat,&#8221; Pierce said. &#8220;Merckx was more like a Hollywood hero than a sporting hero, even if to me as a cyclist there&#8217;s no greater racer. Even me, was going to see the guy who&#8217;d just won the 1974 Giro, which to me was the best bike race ever, he&#8217;d won by 12 seconds, not Merckx.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;At the time I don&#8217;t think it was even mentioned that it was his fifth Tour, and I don&#8217;t think people are going to celebrate Poga\u010dar getting five either. It&#8217;s like going to buy the same loaf of bread every day.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-24a54f13-c945-453a-83fa-be37c04844ab\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/vJNAEBTEBgUhN7sKNkuaVa-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"bernard-hinault-the-last-french-hero-3\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Bernard Hinault \u2013 The last French hero<\/h2>\n<p id=\"elk-bed61339-a3bc-42c2-be91-7c528dc24e58\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Even if they don&#8217;t sum it up completely, somewhere along the line in most Tours, an image emerges which captures its essence. In 1964, that&#8217;d be the Poulidor-Anquetil rubbing shoulders and elbows on the Puy de D\u00f4me, while in 1974, it was Merckx blasting away alone to Orl\u00e9ans. As for 1985, it&#8217;d have to be Hinault with his bloodied, broken nose and two black eyes, crossing the line at Saint-\u00c9tienne on stage 14, and still able from then on to defy the odds and conquer the race.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure extended-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-8311f519-7dca-445c-b913-6392e737e94a\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/yrvcMTCkapw3sbduRTvnKa-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" extended-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-a0b6b8d9-3395-47f3-8568-d16c3b03c9ec\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Pre-race, if it had felt only logical that a four-time Tour winner should be the overwhelming favourite to take a fifth, that logic became even even more uncompromising given the 1984 champion Laurent Fignon \u2013 who&#8217;d beaten Hinault by more than ten minutes the previous July \u2013 was a non-starter because of an Achilles tendon operation. Furthermore, with Hinault&#8217;s teammate Greg LeMond in second in Paris, the 1985 Tour was the first where a fifth, record-equalling win was also a demonstration of collective GC strength as well.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Yet there were plenty of wheels within wheels: for one thing, the race was split into unequal two halves by Hinault&#8217;s crash. The Frenchman had won the opening TT, the stage 8 time trial and then still managed to gain time on LeMond, his nearest rival, in the Alps despite failing, surprisingly, to win a mountain TT.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">But Hinault&#8217;s crash in the final kilometre of the Saint-\u00c9tienne stage forced him on the defensive for the second half, particularly as congestion in his broken nose then morphed into fullblown bronchitis. The full picture behind events anchored in considerable controversy, such as LeMond being told by his team car that Hinault was much closer behind on a Pyrenean stage after he&#8217;d been dropped, remains unclear to this day, but they played out in Hinault&#8217;s favour.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">The same goes for LeMond&#8217;s claims that he had to push Hinault on the following day in order to keep the Frenchman in yellow \u2013 Hinault was still in the lead as a result. The fact is that despite his struggles on the climbs, Hinault was more than capable of defending himself on the flat final time trial at Lac de Vassiviere, only ceding five seconds to LeMond. A fifth Tour was in the bag.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Hinault would later shrug off any suggestion he could have lost the 1985 Tour at any point. But even if LeMond could undoubtedly have come closer, Hinault was one of the handful of modern-day Grand Tour GC racers \u2013 Alberto Contador being perhaps the best \u2013 who could win as much or more by strategy as by brute force.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;Without my fall in Saint-\u00c9tienne, that would have been an easy victory,&#8221; Hinault told <em>L&#8217;\u00c9quipe<\/em> in Bordeaux, going on \u2013 ever the politician \u2013 to thank LeMond for his support. &#8220;We blocked the opposition easily. Only [rival Stephen] Roche did what he could.&#8221; As for the idea he might have earned extra prestige by winning injured and with two black eyes, Hinault answered succinctly, &#8220;Maybe, but it still sucks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-6ef2403f-580f-4d9b-8b4d-668c15f925b8\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/afks6hQKd2X8A3izXgZARa-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-0ef9cbd7-caf7-4bd4-a26a-bd2649aff890\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Present at the 1985 Tour as well, Pierce says the crowd&#8217;s support for Hinault&#8217;s success in Paris was &#8220;logically far greater as he&#8217;s French, it was pretty good compared to 1974. It was also to do with their personalities and how they celebrated. Merckx was much more relaxed, acting like winning five Tours was the most natural thing in the world. Hinault was a lot more nervous when he got his fifth, jumping around, hamming it up and putting on a real show.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Yet for all the added glamour, perhaps the most remarkable thing about Hinault&#8217;s win is that even as it seemed to confirm France&#8217;s domination of its home race in the post-Merckx era \u2013 nine wins from the previous eleven editions, five in a row \u2013 in fact it proved a kind of death knell for the host nation&#8217;s aspirations. To this day, Hinault&#8217;s 1985 victory remains the last time the men&#8217;s Tour has been won by a Frenchman. And no sooner had Hinault lost the Tour the following year (this despite having promised LeMond he would help him in return for the 1985 support), than he quit. For France, then as now, this was as good as it would get.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"miguel-indurain-30-years-since-the-last-five-time-winner-3\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Miguel Indurain \u2013 30 years since the last five-time winner<\/h2>\n<p id=\"elk-df506b85-f231-470c-9f87-5b09824dbfaf\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">To judge by his interviews, for Hinault as it was for Merckx, a fifth Tour was one in a series rather than a goal in itself, particularly given the problems and setbacks he&#8217;d had achieving it. But attitudes to the fifth Tour, at latest in the media, had changed notably was by the time Miguel Indurain clinched his 1995 title, and became, in the process, the only member of the <em>Club des Cinq<\/em> to secure all five in one fell swoop. For one thing, after three of the greatest Grand Tour riders had fallen dramatically short in their sixth Tour bid or simply (as in Anquetil&#8217;s case) opted out altogether, reaching five became the new gold standard. Secondly, Indurain&#8217;s ability to win one Tour after another in immediate succession, unlike either Merckx or Hinault, focussed the interest on the number even more.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Furthemore, as Unzu\u00e9 says, both for the rider and for the team, Banesto, Indurain&#8217;s lifelong squad, by 1995 the Tour de France had acquired an unwieldy level of importance. (It was one that caused some controversy too: Indurain&#8217;s repeated absence from the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, held in April up to 1994 and which he avoided as racing it that month could have harmed his Tour build-up, even sparked questions in the Spanish parliament.) Yet if another Indurain Tour victory had become almost routine by 1995, it was curiously both the July where Indurain himself tore up his own strategy and the race where he came closest to losing.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-879bebd8-8b9d-4ca5-9dd3-5c651a04ae3e\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/AxqhWd8yfKPZTSKuWyexiZ-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-441c40dc-a678-4394-b845-67cf39a1502e\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Up until the 1994 Tour de France, for his previous four Grand Tour wins \u2013 two in the Giro and two in France \u2013 Indurain had always opted for riding defensively in the mountains and killing the opposition in the time trials. But in 1995, Indurain switched his game completely powering away on the shores of the River Meuse in Li\u00e8ge the day before a crucial time trial &#8211; where he&#8217;d normally have saved all his energy \u2013 a move which completely blindsided his rivals and gaining a hefty advantage, both psychological and real, as a result.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;I changed my strategy a bit and they got confused,&#8221; Indurain once told <em>El Pa\u00eds<\/em>. &#8220;The team might have had its ideas, but in a race, you have to take decisions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;What surprised me the most about his winning the Tour in any year was the time when he attacked at the end of the Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge route,&#8221; Unzu\u00e9, confirming he had no idea Indurain&#8217;s move was coming, once said in a biography of Indurain, <em>Relentless<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;That was a Miguel Indurain that I didn\u2019t know, the day before a time trial, what did he need to do that for? But that was the Tour, in an case, where we saw the day he came closest to racing like Eddy Merckx.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Yet if the Tour seemed to be completely in Indurain&#8217;s power after his knock-out blow in Belgium and equally important ride up to La Plagne in the Alps, the biggest setback of the 1995 Tour came on the stage to Mende in the Massif Central a few stages later. And it was a massive blow.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;That was the hardest day of all the five Tours,&#8221; Unzu\u00e9 once admitted, where &#8220;for many hours, it seemed as though something [an Indurain defeat] could happen\u2026 The Tour was slipping through our fingers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure full-width-layout kiosq-b\" data-bordeaux-image-check id=\"elk-86a2e61f-6245-434a-b655-fa5f26fa2176\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-2500-80.jpg.webp 2560w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-1920-80.jpg.webp 1920w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-1440-80.jpg.webp 1440w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-1280-80.jpg.webp 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-1200-80.jpg.webp 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-1024-80.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-970-80.jpg.webp 970w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-650-80.jpg.webp 650w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-480-80.jpg.webp 480w, https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7xmpFPkGTNzmsY62nCdf9Z-320-80.jpg.webp 320w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\" full-width-layout\"><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"elk-33953d72-d5a3-4838-b776-52ba5f59b004\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">More than capable of defeating any rival individually, as Indurain had proved in La Plagne, what proved nearly catastrophic was when Indurain faced a collective challenge, in this case by the Spanish team, ONCE. In a move across the rugged Massif Central to Mende airfield, the presence of three ONCE riders including team leader Laurent Jalabert in a day-long break left Banesto broken apart, and Indurain and his squad had to look for all kinds of circumstantial allies to try and bring them back.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Teams with absolutely no interest in the GC battle, for reasons that shall remain purely conjectural, opted to back Indurain in his bid to quell the ONCE mutiny. For all Jalabert was at 9:10 overall, when the gap rose to over ten minutes, it felt like Indurain&#8217;s bid for a fifth Tour was about to go up in smoke.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">For the Tour-centric Banesto (and a country like Spain that was obsessed with stage racing and barely had any ideas of the importance of the Classics), this was nothing less than disastrous. ONCE was the Spanish equivalent of the Royal National Institute of Blind People, and the phone lines to its headquarters in Madrid reportedly collapsed under the numbers of outraged callers, demanding to know what the squad was doing, &#8216;betraying&#8217; a fellow-countryman like Indurain.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;I felt the race was in danger that day,&#8221; Indurain once told <em>El Pa\u00eds<\/em>, &#8220;but that wasn&#8217;t my responsibility, it was the team&#8217;s. They had to control and that&#8217;s where I put them under pressure because things had got out of control. I told them to sort it out and to see how they could do it. My job was to keep the GC contenders under control, and I had them under control.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Finally, enough teams collaborated \u2013 later claiming they were paying back an unspoken debt where Banesto would &#8216;gift&#8217; stage wins to rivals \u2013 with a by-now completely isolated Indurain to bring Jalabert and co within a safe enough distance for the Navarran&#8217;s maillot jaune to be safe. Jalabert won the stage, but his advantage of 4:50 was only enough to put him briefly on the podium. The yellow was another story.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">It&#8217;s true there were grumblings from 1996 Tour winner Bjaarne Riis that had the Tour raced the stage after the death of Fabio Casartelli in the Pyrenees, rather than neutralising it, Indurain might have been more vulnerable: But really the Tour ended the moment Indurain garnered enough support to keep ONCE under control on the road to Mende.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Such was Indurain&#8217;s control that<em> El Pa\u00eds <\/em>later insisted that &#8220;nobody would dare give an answer&#8221; to the question who could stop him taking a sixth in 1996. &#8220;They would be scared of being called a madman or a fortune teller,&#8221; the newspaper reported. Yet in fact, as we know \u2013 and just like nobody ever doubted that Merckx would win a sixth, either \u2013 five proved to be the upper limit for Indurain and there it remains.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">That is perhaps the pivotal fact on which all of the subsequent evaluations of five Tours really hangs. The importance of Poga\u010dar&#8217;s fifth win really depends on what happens if firstly he gets it, and secondly what happens afterwards. If, for whatever reason, that&#8217;s as good as it gets, it will feel very different as a victory than if it&#8217;s &#8216;just&#8217; another Tour win en route to becoming the first rider ever to take six. So given we&#8217;ll only know later what that fifth Tour win (if it happens) really means, for now perhaps it&#8217;s best to do as happened with Anquetil and Hinault (and to a lesser extent with Indurain) and focus in on the human experience that it took to attain that achievement \u2013 and the records can remain in the history books and for the years to come.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-888ec9e8-3e92-41ec-b000-43793aa23325\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\"><em><strong>The world\u2019s biggest bike race deserves world-class coverage. Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our unrivalled reporting of the 2026 Tour de France. From Barcelona through to Paris, our experienced team will bring you breaking news, expert insight, and in-depth coverage from every stage as the battle for the yellow jersey plays out. Plus, access the Cyclingnews app to follow the action on the go! <\/strong><\/em><u><em><strong>Find out more.<\/strong><\/em><\/u><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/racing\/club-des-cinq-how-anquetil-merckx-hinault-and-indurain-won-their-fifth-tour-de-france-and-the-history-that-tadej-pogacar-seeks-to-emulate\/&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zantGmAoguwfRAJctuWQFa-2500-80.jpg&#8221;] 1 Tour de France team-by-team guide \u2013 Line-up, leaders and ambitions for every squad on the start list 2 Who will win the Tour de France 2026? Our definitive ranking of the favourites for the yellow jersey 3 &#8216;Tadej keeps on surprising us&#8217; \u2013 The inside view on how UAE Team Emirates-XRG [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,68],"class_list":["post-2019929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-cyclingnews-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2019929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2019929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2019929\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2019929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2019929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2019929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}