The Tour de France, the most prestigious bike race in the world, has been thrilling cycling fans for over a century and will continue to do so for many more years to come.
The oldest and grandest of the three Grand Tour events, high summer in France means the finest road riders in the world taking part in the gruelling three-week event which tests every skill and sinew of these superhuman sportsmen.
Tales from over 100 years of fierce competition are legendary and many of the names have gone into Tour de France folklore. Here are 10 of the very best.
10. Mark Cavendish
The Manx Missile only ever got to wear the yellow jersey once - he won the sprint finish at Utah Beach on day one of the 2016 race - but Mark Cavendish's skills were in sprinting rather than endurance.
Cavendish was for years one of the kings of the bunch finish enabling him to twice win the green jersey - 2011 and 2021 - and then, in 2024, eclipse Eddy Merckx by landing a record 35th stage win.
9. Philippe Thys
The French aren't always effusive about 'foreigners' dominating their race, but even they are well aware that, but for the First World War, Belgian Philippe Thys would have won more than three Tours.
His first, in 1913, came despite having to take time out to find a bike shop to repair a broken fork. His second followed 12 months later despite incurring a 30-minute penalty for an unauthorised wheel change.
The man they called The Basset Hound returned from the trenches in 1920 to complete his hat-trick.
8. Fausto Coppi
Just as many believe World War 1 wrecked Thys' hopes of Tour immortality, so it is claimed World War II did the same for Italy's Fausto Coppi.
Coppi only raced in three Tours and won two of them, in 1949 and 1952, becoming the first ever winner at the top of Alpe d'Huez in the latter - he won that Tour by almost half an hour.
7. Greg Lemond
Greg Lemond became the first American to ever wear the yellow jersey during a tense, often spiky, battle for glory with team-mate and rival Bernard Hinault in 1986.
However, it was his second of three race wins three years later that will go down as one of the most remarkable of all-time.
Lemond, back in the saddle less than two years after being shot in a hunting accident, pulled back over 50 seconds on Laurent Fignon on the final day's time trial into Paris to win the race by a mere eight seconds.
6. Chris Froome
There are plenty who believe Chris Froome should have won the 2012 Tour de France, instead sacrificing personal glory for the sake of team-mate Bradley Wiggins, who took the laurels.
With the fuse lit, however, Froome wasted no time in making amends, and became the second Briton in 12 months to win the race.
After crashing out in 2013 Froome returned to go on and complete a hat-trick of wins, before becoming just one of six riders to have won the Tour at least four times.
5. Jacques Anquetil
The first man to win the Tour five times, yet Jacques Anquetil struggled to win the love of many French cycling fans.
Anquetil, victorious in 1958 and then four times from 1961, was an elegant, classy rider who won the '61 Tour wearing the yellow jersey throughout the race.
His feats were legendary yet he suffered in comparison to his great rival Raymond Poulidor, who never won Le Tour but was the firmest of fans' favourites.
4. Bernard Hinault
France's Bernard Hinault became the third man to win five Tours when he took the spoils in 1985, remarkable in itself after he sustained a broken nose and bronchitis during the race.
Hinault's professional career started as Eddy Merckx's was coming to its conclusion and inevitably there were feverish comparisons of the two.
What is beyond doubt is that master time trialist Hinault won on his debut in 1978 and four more times after that and is widely regarded as the greatest ever French cyclist.
3. Miguel Indurain
One of three men to win the Tour de France five times and the only one to win all five in succession, Miguel Indurain truly was a road cycling colossus.
Modest, quiet, robotic, the Spaniard did his talking out on the roads, especially in time trials, where for five straight races he was nigh-on unbeatable.
2. Tadej Pogacar
Many have been compared to the great Eddy Merckx, but no one rider has worn those parallels more than four-time champion Tadej Pogacar.
Super aggressive, super confident and super talented it remains to be seen how many more Tours the sublime Slovenian can win.
Having revealed that he spreadeagled the field in 2025 despite a knee injury, which had almost prompted him to abandon, shows quite what a dominant force he is.
1. Eddy Merckx
When you're that good that race organisers urge you to skip a year to give others a chance.
That was the extraordinary Eddy Merckx, winner of Le Tour in 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972, turning it into a procession that he gallantly wanted to avoid.
So the Belgian skipped the 1973 race, instead focusing on the other two Grand Tours, the Vuelta and the Giro and he won them both.
The Cannibal was back in 1974 and inevitably won to become the second five-time winner of the race and cement his place in the record books as the greatest road racer of them all.
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