The
Tour de France is underway and as this year’s field compete for the yellow jersey, we’re looking back at the only four cyclists to ever win the tour five times. The only other cyclist to better the five-tour victory record is Lance Armstrong, who was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France victories after it was discovered he had been doping
Jacques Anquetil
Image Source: cycling.today
Arguably not just the best the Tour de France has ever seen but the greatest cyclist of all time, Jacques Anquetil was a French cyclist that started racing when he was just 17.
Anquetil’s most famous win was the 1961 Tour de France. Before the first stage he had stated that he would win the first stage and retain the yellow jersey from that point on. The field featured Charly Gaul and Federico Bahamontes, two previous winners of the tour, and many felt like it would be impossible for Anquetil to retain the jersey even if he did win the first stage. However, true to his word, Anquetil outrode everyone on day one and would continue to destroy the field winning by over 12 minutes.
In addition to his win in 1961, Anquetil won the Tour de France in 1957, 1961, 1963 and 1964.
Miguel Indurain
Image Source: stickybottle.com
Before Lance Armstrong, Miguel Indurain had won the Tour de France five times from 1991 to 1995, more consecutive tour win than anyone else in the tour’s history. Once Armstrong’s seven tour titles were stripped, Indurain regained the title.
Like many in the cycling world, Indurain’s career was not without controversy. During the 1994 Tour de France, he tested positive for salbutamol, a banned substance. However, it was later found that he had ingested the substance from an inhaler he had used to treat a respiratory illness. In his home country of Spain, many believed that the incident has been a ploy by the French to hinder Indurain’s dominance in the tour.
*Please note that Betway Uganda currently DOES NOT offer betting on the Tour De France
Eddie Merckx
Image Source: cyclingweekly.com
There are few that even begin to approach the brilliance of Eddie Merckx. During his career, the Belgian-born cyclists won the Tour de France and Tours of Italy five times each, the Tour of Spain once, three World Championships, the hour record, all of the five Monuments, and every major one-day race apart from one, the Paris-Tours.
Merckx won the Tour de France in 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1974 equally Anquetil’s record of 5 tour wins. During the 1965 tour, he came agonizingly close to winning a sixth. However, the French public weren’t happy with the idea of a Belgian rider breaking Anquetil’s record and responding violently. During the fourteenth stage, a spectator punched Merckx in the kidney 150 meters from the finish line. The incident would lose Merckx thirty-four seconds on Thevenet, the eventual winner.
Bernard Hinault
The only other rider to win the Tour de France five times, Bernard Hinault is also the last Frenchman to win the tour. He and Merkx are also the only rider’s in Tour de France history to have won each of the tour’s classifications: overall, mountains and points.
Hinault won the Tour de France in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982 and 1985. He also came close to breaking the five-win streak placing second in 1984 and 1986. Many believe that Hinault could well have challenged for a sixth Tour de France following the 1986 tour. However, he would retire at the peak of his form towards the end of that year.
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