gitaneusa.com :: View topic - Bicycle Brands Used to Win the Tour de France

sandranian · Site Admin

This is a list of the bicycles (brands) that were used to win the Tour de France. This list includes the main groupset used, the rider, and his country of origin. Where I have more information about the builder, I try to include it. But arguing that, for example, a Gitane built by Bernard Carré, who built at least some of Anquetil's bikes, is not a Gitane, is kind of silly. This is a work in progress (as you can see by the edits), and is the best information available to me as of the last edit date.

1903: La Francaise (Maurice Garin, FRA)
1904: Cycles J.C. (Henri Cornet, FRA)
1905: Peugeot (Louis Trousselier, FRA)
1906: Peugeot (Rene Pottier, FRA)
1907: Peugeot (Lucien Petit-Breton, FRA)
1908: Peugeot (Lucien Petit-Breton, FRA)
1909: Alcyon (Francois Faber, LUX)

1910: Alcyon (Octave Lapize, FRA)
1911: Alcyon (Gustave Garrigou, FRA)
1912: Alcyon (Odile Defraye, BEL)
1913: Peugeot (Philippe Thys, BEL)
1914: Peugeot (Philippe Thys, BEL)

1915-1918: No Tour (World War I)

1919: La Sportive[FN1] (Firmin Lambot, BEL)

1920: La Sportive[FN1] (Philippe Thys, BEL)
1921: La Sportive[FN1] (Leon Scieur, BEL)
1922: Peugeot (Firmin Lambot, BEL)
1923: Automoto (Henri Pelissier, FRA)
1924: Automoto (Ottavio Bottecchia, ITA)
1925: Automoto (Ottavio Bottecchia, ITA)
1926: Automoto (Lucien Buysse, BEL)
1927: Alcyon (Nicolas Frantz, LUX)
1928: Alcyon (Nicolas Frantz, LUX)
1929: Alcyon (Maurice DeWaele, BEL)

1930: 'L'Auto' [Alcyon][FN2](Andre Leducq, FRA)
1931: 'L'Auto' [Alcyon][FN2] (Antonin Magne, FRA)
1932: 'L'Auto' [Alcyon][FN2] (Andre Leducq, FRA)
1933: 'L'Auto' [Alcyon][FN2] (Georges Speicher, FRA)
1934: 'L'Auto' [Alcyon][FN2] (Antonin Magne, FRA)
1935: 'L'Auto' [Alcyon][FN2] (Romain Maes, BEL)
1936: 'L'Auto' [Alcyon)[FN2] (Sylvere Maes, BEL)
1937: 'L'Auto' [Alcyon][FN2] (Roger Lapebie, FRA)
1938: 'L'Auto' [FN2] (Gino Bartali, ITA)
1939: 'L'Auto' [Alcyon][FN2] (Sylvere Maes, BEL)

1940-1946 - No Tour (World War II)

1947: Genial-Lucifer - Simplex "Tour de France" (Jean Robic, FRA)
1948: Legnano - Campagnolo "Cambio Corsa" (Gino Bartali, ITA)
1949: Bianchi - Simplex "Tour de France" (Fausto Coppi, ITA)

1950: Frejus - Simplex "Tour de France" (Ferdi Kubler, SWI)
1951: La Perle - Campagnolo "Gran Sport" (Hugo Koblet, SWI)
1952: Bianchi - Campagnolo "Gran Sport" (Fausto Coppi, ITA)
1953: Stella - Huret "Competition" (Louison Bobet, FRA)
1954: Stella - Huret "Competition" (Louison Bobet, FRA)
1955: 'Louison Bobet' (Mercier) - Huret "Competition" (Louison Bobet, FRA)
1956: 'Geminiani' (Mercier or Cizeron?) - Campagnolo "Gran Sport" (Roger Walkowiak, FRA)
1957: Helyett (B. Carré) - Simplex "L.Juy 543" (Jacques Anquetil, FRA)
1958: Learco Guerra - Campagnolo "Gran Sport" (Charly Gaul, FRA)
1959: Coppi - Campagnolo "Gran Sport" (Federico Bahamontes, ESP)

1960: Frejus or Legnano (?) - (Gastone Nencini, ITA)
1961: Helyett (B. Carré) - Simplex "Juy Export 61" (Jacques Anquetil, FRA)
1962: Helyett (B. Carré) - Simplex (Jacques Anquetil, FRA)
1963: Gitane (B. Carré) - Campagnolo "Record" (Jacques Anquetil, FRA)
1964: Gitane (B. Carré) - Campagnolo "Record" (Jacques Anquetil, FRA)
1965: 'Magni' (Bianchi) - Campagnolo "Record" (Felice Gimondi, ITA)
1966: Geminiani - Campagnolo "Record" (Lucien Aimar, FRA)
1967: Peugeot - Simplex "Prestige" (Roger Pingeon, FRA)
1968: Lejeune - Campagnolo "Nuovo Record" (Jan Janssen, NED)
1969: ‘Eddy Merckx’ (Kessels - G. v.d.Elst(?)) - Campagnolo "Nuovo Record" (Eddy Merckx, BEL)

1970: ‘Eddy Merckx’ (Masi - G. Pela (?)) - Campagnolo "Nuovo Record" (Eddy Merckx, BEL)
1971: ‘Eddy Merckx’ (Colnago-Kessels(?)) - Campagnolo "Nuovo Record" (Eddy Merckx, BEL)
1972: ‘Eddy Merckx’ (Colnago-Kessels(?)) - Campagnolo "Nuovo Record" (Eddy Merckx, BEL)
1973: Motobecane - Campagnolo "Nuovo Record" (Luis Ocana, ESP)
1974: 'Eddy Merckx' (DeRosa-Kessels(?)) - Campagnolo "Nuovo Record" (Eddy Merckx, BEL)
1975: Peugeot - Simplex "SLJ 5000" (Bernard Thevenet, FRA)
1976: Gitane - Campagnolo "Super Record" (Lucien Van Impe, BEL)
1977: Peugeot - Simplex (Bernard Thevenet, FRA)
1978: Gitane - Campagnolo "Super Record" (Bernard Hinault, FRA)
1979: Gitane - Campagnolo "Super Record" (Bernard Hinault, FRA)

1980: Raleigh - Campagnolo "Super Record" (Joop Zoetemelk, NED)
1981: Gitane - Campagnolo "Super Record" (Bernard Hinault, FRA)
1982: Gitane - Campagnolo "Super Record" (Bernard Hinault, FRA)
1983: Gitane - Simplex "SLJ" (Laurent Fignon, FRA)
1984: Gitane - Campagnolo "Super Record" (Laurent Fignon, FRA)
1985: 'Hinault' - Campagnolo "C-Record" (Bernard Hinault, FRA)
1986: Look & TVT - Campagnolo "C-Record" (Greg Lemond, USA)
1987: Battaglin - Campagnolo "C-Record" (Stephen Roche, IRE)
1988: Pinarello & TVT(?) - Campagnolo "C-Record" (Pedro Delgado, ESP)
1989: Bottecchia & TVT - Mavic (Greg Lemond, USA)

1990: 'LeMond' (TVT 'Carbone') - Campagnolo "C-Record" (Greg Lemond, USA)
1991: TVT and Razesa - Campagnolo "C-Record" (Miguel Indurain, ESP)
1992: Pinarello - Campagnolo "C-Record" (Miguel Indurain, ESP)
1993: Pinarello - Campagnolo "C-Record" (Miguel Indurain, ESP)
1994: Pinarello - Campagnolo "C-Record" (Miguel Indurain, ESP)
1995: Pinarello - Campagnolo "C-Record" (Miguel Indurain, ESP)
1996: Pinarello - Campagnolo "Record" (Bjarne Riis[FN6], DEN)
1997: Pinarello - Campagnolo "Record" (Jan Ullrich, GER)
1998: Bianchi - Campagnolo "Record" (Marco Pantani, ITA)
1999: No Winner Named [FN3]

2000: No Winner Named [FN3]
2001: No Winner Named [FN3]
2002: No Winner Named [FN3]
2003: No Winner Named [FN3]
2004: No Winner Named [FN3]
2005: No Winner Named [FN3]
2006: Pinarello - Campagnolo "Record" (Oscar Pereiro[FN4], ESP)
2007: Trek - Shimano "Dura Ace" (Alberto Contador, ESP)
2008: Cervelo - Shimano "Dura Ace" (Carlos Sastre, ESP)
2009: Trek - Sram "Red" (Alberto Contador, ESP)

2010: Specialized - Sram "Red" (Andy Schleck[FN5], LUX )
2011: BMC - Shimano "Dura Ace Electronic" (Cadel Evans, AUS)
2012: Pinarello - Shimano "Dura Ace Electronic" (Bradley Wiggins, GBR)
2013: Pinarello - Shimano "Dura Ace Electronic" (Chris Froome, GBR)
2014: Specialized - Campagnolo "Record 11" (Vincenzo Nibali, ITA)
2015: Pinarello - Shimano "Dura Ace Electronic" (Chris Froome, GBR)
2016: Pinarello - Shimano "Dura Ace Electronic" (Chris Froome, GBR)
2017: Pinarello - Shimano "Dura Ace Electronic" (Chris Froome, GBR)
2018: Pinarello - Shimano "Dura Ace Electronic" (Geraint Thomas, GBR)
2019: Pinarello - Shimano "Dura-Ace R9100" (Egan Bernal, COL)

2020: Colnago - Campagnolo "Super Record EPS" (Tadej Pogačar, SLO)
2021: Colnago - Campagnolo "Super Record EPS" (Tadej Pogačar, SLO)
2022: Cervélo - Shimano "Dura Ace R9200" (Jonas Vingegaard, DNK)
2023: Cervélo - SRAM Red eTap AXS (Jonas Vingegaard, DNK)

************************************
Footnotes:
[FN1] WWI destroyed many of the bicycle teams and had the manufacturers on the ropes financially. Therefore, several French manufacturers formed 'La Sportive', a cycling consortium made up of firms like Alcyon, Armor, Automoto, Clément, La Française, Gladiator, Griffon, Hurtu, Labor, Liberator, Peugeot and Thomann. La Sportive provided bicycles for about 1/2 of the peloton. The consortium split in 1921, with the individual companies outfitting their own teams the following year. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Sportive

[FN2] From 1930-1939, Henri Desgrange banned trade teams and replaced them with national teams. All of the riders had to ride the same, generic bicycles which were painted yellow and were badged as "L'Auto", the name of Desgrange's newspaper. The bicycles were (likely) manufactured by Alcyon, due to the friendship between Desgrange and Alcyon manager, Edmond Gentil. Allegedly, Alcyon built the bikes each year, except for 1938. If you count these Tour wins for the manufacturer, Alcyon would be the most successful bicycle brand of the Tour de France with 16 Tour wins. But counting them as a true "winner", when there was no competition from other brands, seems inherently unfair.[Source: http://forum.velonews.com/topic.php?id=2628 ]

[FN3] Lance Amstrong was stripped of his Tour de France victories by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) in 2012 after an investigation and sanction by the United States Anti Doping Agency (USADA). The sanction is based on doping violations surrounding systematic doping on the US Postal and Discovery cycling teams. The UCI and ASO (organizer/owner of the Tour de France) ruled that there would be no winner named for the Tour de France from 1999 through 2005 (2012) [Source: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tour-de-france-organizers-confirm-uci-decision-on-armstrongs-victories ] Armstrong rode Trek bicycles with Shimano Dura Ace components.

[FN4] Floyd Landis was subsequently stripped of title for a doping violation. Rode BMC - Campagnolo "Record". This made the 2nd place finisher, Oscar Pereiro, the named winner.

[FN5] Alberto Contador was subsequently stripped of title for a doping violation. Rode Specialized -SRAM "Red".

[FN6] In 2007, Bjarne Riis admitted to the use of doping during the 1996 Tour de France and offered to return his yellow jersey. The organizers of the Tour de France stripped him of his 1996 Tour de France victory, but did not name a new winner. In 2008, the organizers reinstated his win, but placed an asterisk next to his name regarding the doping offense.

Sources:
http://forum.velonews.com/topic.php?id=2628
http://www.letour.us/indexold.html
*Unfortunately, the Source links no longer work. This has been here a while, and is updated with every new event. At this point, I guess you'll just have to trust me. Wink

sandranian · Site Admin

The SCORE:

Pinarello: 15****
Peugeot: 10
Gitane: 9 (12*)
Alcyon: 7 (16**)
Automoto: 4
Bianchi: 3
Trek: 2 (9***)

*Gitane purchased Helyett some time in the 1960's, and accordingly claimed (at that time) all of the Tour de France wins of Helyett as their own. It is unknown who built the Helyett bikes that Anquetil raced in the Tour de France: It is possible they were made by Gitane, but more likely by Bernard Carre.

** See above post for history on Alcyon.

*** Trek had 7 of its Tour "wins" stripped as a result of the 2012 doping scandal surrounding Lance Armstrong and the US Postal/Discovery cycling teams.

**** Can we really count the 2006 win? Floyd Landis was subsequently stripped of title for a doping violation. Rode BMC - Campagnolo "Record". This made the 2nd place finisher, Oscar Pereiro, the named winner. But there are doubts as to Pereiro's performance....

repairtec

Wow thats some interesting info Sandranian as far as Helyett goes I'll ask the Bike Guru's here if they know.

Can't see Sauvage Lejeune

lofter

sorry guys i jumped the gun i thought ford in 1966 was sponsered by gitane and thought it was aimar , but i just seen a photo trying to find the link i saw and he's on the pic with cycles Geminiani. dam it. Geminiani ended sponsor ship in 64 st rapheal sold the team to ford in 65 . anquetil helped aimar in 66 his last tour . i was reading lucien aimar wiki . my bad ....dam . sorry Crying or Very sad

sandranian · Site Admin

Some interesting stats on the Tour, for trivia buffs:

****
Source: Cyclingnews.com, June 2012 (edited to remove Lance Armstrong victories)
****
Records and stats from the last 109 years

The world’s most famous road race - the Tour de France - has a rich 109 year history and its fabled past is synonymous with the greatest names in the sport.

Multiple winners
5: Jacques Anquetil (Fra) – 1957, 1961-64
5: Eddy Merckx (Bel) – 1969-72, 1974
5: Bernard Hinault (Fra) – 1978-79, 1981-82, 1985
5: Miguel Indurain (Spa) – 1991-95

Victories by nation
France: 36
Belgium: 18
Spain: 13
USA: 3
Italy: 9
Luxembourg: 5
Holland and Switzerland: 2
Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Australia, Great Britain: 2

Smallest winning margins (since 1947)
8 seconds: 1989 - Greg LeMond (USA) beats Laurent Fignon (Fra)
23 seconds: 2007 – Alberto Contador (Spa) beats Cadel Evans (Aus)
32 seconds: 2006 – Oscar Pereiro (Spa) over Andreas Klöden (Ger) (after Floyd Landis was disqualified)
38 seconds: 1968 – Jan Janssen (Hol) beats Herman Van Springel (Bel)

Largest winning margins (since 1947)
28m 17s: 1952 – Fausto Coppi (Ita) beats Constant Ockers (Bel)
26m 16s: 1948 – Gino Bartali (Ita) beats Alberic Schotte (Bel)
22m 00s: 1951 – Hugo Koblet (Sui) beats Raphael Geminiani (Fra)

Yellow jersey wearers by nation
France: 82
Belgium: 53
Italy: 25
Holland: 17
Germany: 12
Spain: 12
Switzerland: 10
Luxembourg: 7
Denmark: 6
USA: 4
Great Britain and Australia: 6
Ireland: 3
Canada: 2
Austria, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Estonia, Colombia, Norway and Ukraine: 1

Most days in the yellow jersey
Eddy Merckx (Bel): 111
Bernard Hinault (Fra): 79
Miguel Indurain (Spa): 60
Jacques Anquetil (Fra): 52

Most green jersey victories
6: Erik Zabel (Ger) – 1996-2001
4: Sean Kelly (Ire) – 1982-83, 1985, 1989
3: Jan Janssen (Hol) – 1964-65, 1967
3: Eddy Merckx (Bel) – 1969, 1971-72
3: Freddy Maertens (Bel) – 1976, 1978, 1981
3: Djamolidine Abdoujaparov (Uzb) – 1991, 1993-94
3: Robbie McEwen (Aus) – 2002, 2004, 2006

Green jersey winners by nation
Belgium: 19
France: 9
Germany: 8
Holland, Ireland and Australia: 4
Uzbekistan: 3
Italy, Switzerland and Norway: 2
Spain, Great Britain: 1

Most polka-dot jersey victories
7: Richard Virenque (Fra) – 1994-97, 1999, 2003-04
6: Federico Bahamontes (Spa) – 1954, 1958-59, 1962-64
6: Lucien Van Impe (Bel) – 1971-72, 1975, 1977, 1981, 1983

Polka-dot jersey winners by nation
France: 18
Spain: 15
Italy: 13
Belgium: 11
Colombia: 4

Most white jersey victories
3: Andy Schleck (Lux) – 2008-2010
3: Jan Ullrich (Ger) – 1996-98
2: Marco Pantani (Ita) – 1994-95

White jersey winners by nation
France, Holland, Italy and Spain: 5
Germany: 4
Luxembourg: 3
Colombia, USA and Russia: 2
Australia, Mexico and Ukraine: 1

Biggest winning margin in a stage (since 1947)
22m 50s: 1976 (Montgenevre-Manosque) - Jose Luis Viego (Spa)
21m 48s: 1957 (Pau-Bordeaux) – Pierino Baffi (Ita)
20m 31s: 1955 (Millau-Albi) – Daan De Groot (Hol)

Most stage victories
34: Eddy Merckx (Bel)
28: Bernard Hinault (Fra)
25: Andre Leducq (Fra)
22: Andre Darrigade (Fra)
20: Nicolas Frantz (Lux)
20: Mark Cavendish (GBr)

Most time trial victories
20: Bernard Hinault (Fra)
16: Eddy Merckx (Bel)
11: Jacques Anquetil (Fra)

Most stage wins in one Tour
8: Charles Pelissier (Fra) – 1930
8: Eddy Merckx (Bel) – 1970, 1974
8: Freddy Maertens (Bel) – 1976

Oldest Tour winners (age at end of the race)
36: Firmin Lambot (Bel) – 1922
34: Henri Pelissier (Fra) – 1923
34: Gino Bartali (Ita) - 1948
34: Cadel Evans (Aus) – 2011

Youngest Tour winners (age at end of the race)
19: Henri Cornet (Fra) – 1904
21: Romain Maes (Bel) – 1935
22: Francois Faber (Lux) – 1909
22: Octave Lapize (Fra) – 1910
22: Philippe Thys (Bel) – 1913
22: Felice Gimondi (Ita) – 1965
22: Laurent Fignon (Fra) – 1983

Longest gap between victories
10 Years: Gino Bartali (Ita) – 1938 and 1948

Most Tour starts
16: Joop Zoetemelk (Hol)
16: George Hincapie (USA)