WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A GC CONTENDER?

Relentless drive, unwavering resilience and exceptional fitness are traits shared by all Tour de France riders. What more, then, does it take to challenge for the win?

- Chris Marshall-Bell

The Tour de France is an almighty undertaking. This year’s edition packs in 3,404km over 21 stages, with accumulated elevation in excess of 56,000 metres. For every rider, just getting selected for the start requires them to be in peak physical condition, but winning the biggest race of all demands an even more finely turned body. So what exactly does it take, in terms of talent and training, to be a GC contender?

The basic description of a Tour winner won’t shock anyone: almost always European, typically aged between 24 and 34; usually with a height between 175 and 185cm (5ft 9in and 6ft 1in), and low body weight of between 60 and 66kg. But there have been exceptions: two-time champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) was only 21 when he claimed his first title in 2020 – 98 years after the race’s oldest winner, 36-year-old Firmin Lambot, in 1922. The race’s first ever winner in 1903, Maurice Garin, was a petite 162cm (5ft 4in), while 2012 winner Bradley Wiggins was 190cm (6ft 3in). On the scales, five-time winner Miguel Induráin was 80kg, some 28kg heavier than his Spanish compatriot Luis Ocaña who won in 1973. As for non-Europeans, there have been three: American Greg LeMond won in 1986, 1989 and 1990; Australian Cadel Evans won in 2011; and Colombian Egan Bernal became the first South American winner in 2019.

Clearly then, the outward physical type isn’t a rule set in stone, but how closely do the habits, mentality and training of the sport’s greatest athletes converge?

UNBREAKABLE WORK ETHIC