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Tour de France 2023: Riders with most stage wins in Tour history - Complete list

Mark Cavendish and Eddy Merckx hold the top position on the all-time list of stage winners, each with an impressive 34 victories. Here is the full list of riders with 10 or more wins.

A total of thirty-four riders have won 10 or more stages at the road cycling 's Tour de France.

Belgian legend Eddy Merckx and British sprinter Mark Cavendish currently share the record for most wins (34 each).

Below is the complete list, with an asterisk indicating active riders.

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Most stage wins of the Tour de France

The most stage wins in the Tour De France is 34 and was achieved by Eddie Merckx (Belgium) between 1969 and 1978. This was equalled by Mark Cavendish (UK) between 2007 and 2021.

Mark Cavendish AKA 'the Manx Missile' won the 13th Stage of the 2021 Tour De France equalling Eddy Merckx all-time record for stage wins.

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Mark Cavendish became only the second rider in Tour de France history to reach 30 stage wins in the race, when he outsprinted Marcel Kittel to win stage 14 of the 2016 Tour.

The Manx Missile started the race on 26 stage wins before taking that tally to 27 with  victory on the opening stage at Utah Beach – pulling on the yellow jersey for the first time in the process. Cavendish then moved level with Hinault after edging out Andre Greipel by the narrowest margin in Angers on stage three.

Victory on stage six Cavendish move clear of Hinault with 29 wins to further underline his reputation as cycling’s greatest ever sprinter, and stage 14 saw him reach the 30 mark.

Cavendish’s four stage wins in this year’s race, alongside victories for team-mate Steve Cummings and Chris Froome have also taken the British tally to 65 – overtaking Switzerland (60) as the eighth-most successful nation at the Tour de France in the process.

Here’s a closer look at the other riders in the all-time top ten list for Tour de France stage wins.

1) Eddy Merckx (34)

With 525 victories in an 18-year professional cycling career, there isn’t an awful lot Eddy Merckx, the Cannibal , failed to achieve in cycling.

Therefore, it’s no surprise to see the five-time former Tour de France winner top of the tree when it comes to all-time Tour stage wins, with 34 stage wins to his name in all.

His first arrived in 1969, after an attack on the Ballon d’Alsace, and by the time the race finished he had a further five to his name including a solo win on stage 17 when his effort striking out alone over the Tourmalet, Soulur and Aubisque saw him finish the stage suffering with the effects of hypoglycaemia.

After finishing that Tour as overall winner by nearly 18 minutes, points classification winner, King of the Mountains, combination prize winner and the combativity award, Merckx went on to win 34 Tour de France stages in all, and 64 across all three Grand Tours – both still records today.

2)  Mark Cavendish (30)

Mark Cavendish was written off in some quarters before the 2016 Tour de France having only picked up one stage win in the previous two Tours.

His 2014 race ended with a crash on the first stage while in 2015 he was regularly outsprinted by Andre Greipel, despite appearing to be the form sprinter prior to the race, and ‘only’ picked up a single win.

The Manx Missile has roared back this year, however, winning both the first and third stages to first claim his first ever yellow jersey before moving level with Bernard Hinault on 28 career stage wins. Cavendish then extended that tally to 29 on stage six, outsprinting rival Marcel Kittel in a head-to-head drag race and beat Kittel again on stage 14.

The yellow jersey was the first of three major targets for Cavendish in 2016 , with the Rio 2016 Olympic Games ( Cavendish has been selected as part of Great Britain’s track team ) and the UCI Road World Championships also on the agenda.

3) Bernard Hinault (28)

Le Blaireau remains the last French winner of the Tour de France, having picked up his fifth overall title in 1985.

Between 1978 and 1986, Hinault also picked up 28 stage wins, and prior to Alberto Contador was the only rider to win all three Grand Tours twice.

Hinault won three times at his final Tour in 1986, despite riding as domestique to Greg Lemond – two were in individual time trials, but he also won on Alpe d’Huez after a stinging attack, crossing the finish line arm in arm with Lemond.

Hinault would go on to finish that race in second place meaning, between 1978 and 1986, every Grand Tour he finished was in either first or second place.

4) Andre Leducq (25)

Andre Leducq was one of France’s foremost cyclists in the interwar period, winning the Tour twice and picking up 25 stage wins in the process.

A former amateur world road race champion, Leducq was in seemingly unstoppable form in the 1932 edition, winning the third stage in Bordeaux to claim the race lead and maintaining it all the way to Paris, picking up five more stage wins in the process.

The time bonuses awarded for stage winners at the time,meant the Frenchman won by more than 24 minutes overall, though had the race been decided on overall time alone, Germany’s Kurt Stopel would have only been three seconds back.

That race also saw him pass 20 stage wins – only the second rider ever to do so after Nicolas Frantz. Victory in Paris on the final stage confirmed his place as the race’s most successful rider up until that point.

5) Andre Darrigade (22)

Prior to Mark Cavendish, 1959 world champion Andre Darrigade was the Tour’s best ever sprinter – collecting 22 stage wins in all.

Dubbed the greatest French sprinter of all time by journalist Raphael Geminiani, Darrigade’s success also saw him win the Tour’s opening stage five times – wearing the yellow jersey 16 times in all as a result.

Racing in an era when national teams rode the Tour de France, with Louison Bobet and Jacques Anquetil the French GC riders, but Darrigade remained a popular figure thanks to his sprinting ability.

Comfortable sprinting from a long way out, he was simply peerless in his generation.

6) Nicolas Frantz (20)

Nicolas Frantz was the first rider to reach 20 stage wins at the Tour de France, which he did across six editions from 1924 to 1929.

The Luxembourg rider was a two-time back-to-back Tour de France champion too, and held the yellow jersey from start to finish in the 1928 race.

He clocked his 20th stage victory in Paris on the final day of the following year’s race, but only raced one more time at the Tour de France when national teams were introduced – finishing 45th in 1932.

7) Francois Faber (19)

Though born in France, and considering himself a Frenchman, Faber’s father was from Luxembourg, making Faber the first foreign winner of the Tour de France in 1909.

Faber, who also won Bordeaux-Paris in 1911 and Paris-Roubaix in 1913 relished increment conditions, and that paid off when he won the Tour.

Second the previous year, having won his first four stages, Faber starred in 1909 in foul weather for racing – bagging victory on the second day after a 200km solo effort on the 398km stage to Metz.

That set the tempo for the rest of the race, with the Luxembourg rider winning again the following day in freezing conditions after attacking on the Ballon d’Alsace with more than 100km still to race.

In all, Faber won five consecutive stages – still a Tour record – and would surely have been the first to 20 career wins were it not for the First World War, where he was killed in action.

8) Jean Alavoine (17)

Frenchman Jean Alavoine’s career was also disrupted by the Great War, with the two-time French champion collecting six stage wins pre-war and then a further 11 after the war.

Also a two-time Giro d’Italia stage winner – where he also finished third overall in 1920 – Alavoine’s most notable successes came in the first Tour de France after the war.

Winner of the fourth stage, Alavoine made it two from two the following day in Bayonne; the 482km (300-mile) stage was the longest in Tour history.

A versatile rider, Alavoine also won a mountain stage to Perpignan in the 1919 race before two further victories in Marseille and Paris – the latter, on the final day, seeing him snatch second place from Eugene Christophe overall.

Alavoine was second overall again in 1922, after three consecutive stage wins – again including the 482km stage from Les Sables d’Olonne to Bayonne, and two wins in the mountains – but lost his chance of winning the race after suffering from a cold and several mechanical issues.

9) Jacques Anquetil (16)

Jacques Anquetil was the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times, which he did with success in 1957 and four consecutive victories between 1961 and 1964.

Anquetil won 16 stages in all, 11 of which were in individual time trials – highlighting the phenomenal ability against the clock which brought him his Tour stage wins.

His long-running rivalry with Raymond Poulidor defined the era in French cycling, almost dividing the country in terms of who the public supported.

Anquetil’s final stage win at the Tour de France came on the final stage of the 1964 race, a 27km individual time trial from Versailles to Paris, and helped him beat Poulidor by just 55 seconds, the smallest winning margin in the race’s history at that point.

9=) Rene Le Greves (16)

A silver medallist on the track in 1932, French sprinter Rene Le Greves turned professional on the road in 1933 and won his first Tour de France stage that same year in Caen.

Usually stronger in the second half of the Tour, Le Greves picked up another 15 stage wins in all, including six in 1936, which he rode as French national champion.

His final victory arrived in 1939 before, like so many of his peers, his professional cycling career was to be curtailed by the war.

9=) Charles Pelissier (16)

Three-time French cyclo-cross champion Charles Pelissier was the younger brother of French riders Francis and former Tour winner Henri but clocked more stage wins than both of them combined.

His record of eight stage wins in the 1930 Tour still stands today, shared with Eddy Merckx and Freddy Maertens, and Pelissier also pulled on the yellow jersey three times thanks to his stage wins.

His success in 1930 saw him win the first stage to wear the yellow jersey and then – after a further three stage victories – finish with four consecutive wins in the final four stages too.

Only Mario Cipollini in 1999 has matched those four consecutive wins since, and Pelissier’s record is even more remarkable when you consider he was in the top three on 18 of the 21 stages.

It was only in the high mountains that he lost time, with the 50 minutes he ceded to Andre Leducq between Nice and Grenoble costing him any hope of overall victory.

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Tour de France: Winners and records

The Tour de France has 4 jerseys on offer for the various competitions that take place within the race. The most prestigious jersey is the yellow jersey of the GC leader, which unfortunately has been tainted on a few occasions since the turn of the century (see table below). The green jersey is the points classification sought after by sprinters and classics men. The polka dot jersey recognizes the rider who obtains the most mountain points, while the white jersey is a GC for riders under 26.

* Initially Alberto Contador was the winner. He had to give back his title after charges of doping.

** Lance Armstrong’s victories (1999 t/m 2005) have been taken from him due to the use of doping. No new winner was declared.

Tour de France Records

Four riders remain in the record books for having won the Tour de France five times: Eddy Merckx, Bernhard Hinault, Miguel Indurain and Jacques Anquetil .

Anquetil pulled off the unthinkable in 1961 when he held the yellow jersey from the first day of the race right up until the end.

Peter Sagan holds the record for green jersey wins with seven.

Richard Virenque is the King of the Mountains in the Tour de France. He won the polka dot jersey 4 times in a row from 1994-1997, and added a further three jerseys in 1999, 2003 and 2004.

Tadej Pogacar took home the white jersey four times, while Andy Schleck and Jan Ullrich both won the young riders classification three times.

In 1969, Eddy Merckx won the yellow jersey, the green jersey and the polka dot jersey, the only man ever to do so in a single Tour de France. He also has the most stage wins with 34, a record that he shares with Mark Cavendish.

The youngest winner ever was Henri Cornet, winning the 1904 Tour at 19 years of age. The oldest winner is Firmin Lambot, who was 36 years when he won in 1922.

Cadel Evans is the oldest winner post WWII – in 2011 he was 34 when he finally won his yellow jersey after years of trying.

Tadej Pogacar is the youngest post-WW2 Tour de France winner. He turned 22 the day after he won the 2020 edition.

Who has the record of most stage wins in a single tour of France?

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Mark Cavendish crashes out of Tour de France, missing outright record for stage wins

The Associated Press

Britain's Mark Cavendish (right) smiles prior to the fourth stage of the Tour de France in Nogaro, France on Tuesday. The ace sprinter crashed out of the race during the eighth stage on Saturday. Thibault Camus/AP hide caption

Britain's Mark Cavendish (right) smiles prior to the fourth stage of the Tour de France in Nogaro, France on Tuesday. The ace sprinter crashed out of the race during the eighth stage on Saturday.

LIMOGES, France — Mark Cavendish will have to share the record for most career stage wins at the Tour de France.

Competing in his final season, the ace sprinter crashed out of the race during the eighth stage on Saturday with a suspected collarbone fracture.

Cavendish equaled Eddy Merckx's record of 34 stage wins during the 2021 Tour, 13 years after his first success, but was not selected last year.

This edition was his last chance to become the outright record-holder after he announced in May during the Giro d'Italia that he will retire from cycling at the end of this season. Cavendish ended the Giro in style, winning the final stage in the historic center of Rome to post his 17th stage win at the Italian Grand Tour.

Known as "The Manx Missile" as he's from the Isle of Man, Cavendish was second in Friday's seventh stage.

Jonas Vingegaard wins the men's 2022 Tour de France

The 38-year-old former world champion crashed with 64 kilometers left while riding at the back of the peloton at about 45 kph (28 mph). TV images showed the veteran rider lying on the ground and holding his right shoulder in pain.

Cavendish's teammate, Gianni Moscon, said he had to brake suddenly because of a crash in front of him "and someone changed line and he just hit the rear wheel of the guy in front of him and went down."

"It was quite bad," Mosconi added. "I stayed with him but he wasn't able to go on with the race so we had to go back in the peloton."

Cavendish went into an ambulance for treatment and looked ashen-faced before his retirement from the race was announced.

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Merckx amassed his wins in the 1960s and 70s, an era during which his domination was such that he earned the nickname "The Cannibal." Unlike Merckx, who won a record five Tours, Cavendish has never won and specialized in the sprints.

His speed, prowess and longevity among his fellow sprinters have no equal at the Tour.

"It's so sad for a legend to finish the Tour like this," said former world champion Mads Pedersen, who won Saturday's stage in a mass sprint. "For me it was a pleasure to be able to ride with Mark Cavendish. I always had a good relationship with him in the peloton. Hopefully I can do some of the last races he does."

Cavendish became the fifth rider to abandon this year after Enric Mas, Richard Carapaz, Jacopo Guarnieri and Luis Leon Sanchez, who all crashed out. That became six toward the end of Saturday's stage when Belgian rider Steff Cras was caught in yet another pileup and retired.

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Cavendish was not selected for last year's Tour by his former Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl team and joined the Astana-Qazaqstan team in January to extend his storied career by one season, hoping he would add at least one more more stage win.

Cavendish also won the Tour de France best sprinter's green jersey twice. He has won stages at all three Grand Tours — Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, Spanish Vuelta — and became a world champion in 2011.

"It's really, really, a shame. Everybody wanted to see him go for one more win," two-time Tour champion Tadej Pogacar said.

• Mark Cavendish
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Nairo Quintana Shifts Focus to Stage Victories at Giro d’Italia

The former Giro champion adjusts his goals following an injury setback and targets stage wins in comeback bid.

Due to a crash at the Volta a Catalunya in March, Quintana sustained several injuries, including a ruptured ligament. His recovery has been painful and ongoing.

In order to alleviate strain on his sternum and collarbone, Quintana has opted for mountain biking, leading to a fractured preparation for the Giro d’Italia, as reported by GCN . Despite this setback, Quintana, the 2014 Giro winner, remains resolute in his intention to make a comeback to the race, marking his first participation since finishing second to Tom Dumoulin in 2017.

Quintana told AS Colombia, “We are going to get to the Giro d’Italia, maybe not in the way we want or in the best conditions, but we are going to ride well, and surely at the end of the last week, I will be much better than at the beginning.”

The Colombian’s career has been on and off for the past several years. Certainly, his name was tarnished after he tested positive for tramadol , which resulted in his disqualification from the 2022 Tour de France . Quintana came in sixth overall that year, but his results were thrown out, and he did not race at all in 2023.

Although the painkiller in his system was not banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency at the time, it was prohibited by the sport’s governing body (UCI).

Quintana’s initial break in the sport came in 2013 when he finished second to Chris Froome in the Tour de France . Then, in 2014, with his Giro victory, he became Colombia’s first Grand Tour winner since Luis Herrara in 1987.

The Movistar climber will continue recovering from injury until the start of the Giro on May 4. He’s won three stages in the Italian tour and will look to add to that total. If he does manage a stage win this year, it will be his first in Movistar kit since the 2019 Vuelta a España .

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Jonas Vingegaard wins 2nd straight Tour de France

For the second straight year, Jonas Vingegaard won the Tour de France. 

The Danish rider beat Tadej Pogačar by 7 minutes and 29 seconds on Sunday. 

Pogačar was the most recent back-to-back winner of the Tour de France, claiming titles in 2020 and 2021, and seen as Vingegaard's main rival. 

Vingegaard drank champagne, wearing his yellow jersey, as he celebrated his latest win. 

The Tour de France consists of 21 stages over 2,116 miles.  

"It’s been a long journey, yet it went by so fast. Day after day, it was a super hard race with a super nice fight between me and Tadej," Vingegaard said. 

With Vingegaard clearly in control going into the weekend, he reportedly told his team, “We have to be careful not to do anything stupid."

Pogačar won Saturday's stage, but still trailed Vingegaard by 7 minutes, which is virtually impossible to make up on the final stage. 

After the victory, Vingegaard said he's already looking ahead to 2024.

"I hope to come back next year and see if I can take a 3rd win – or at least try! That’s my plan," he said.

Fan taking selfie causes huge crash during Tour de France

During the 15th stage of the race, a spectator could be seen bumping into U.S. rider Sepp Kuss as they tried to snap a picture of the cyclists.

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France's Godon wins opening Tour de Romandie stage

French cyclist Dorian Godon won a sprint finish ahead of his Decathlon AG2R La Mondial teammate Andrea Vendrame on the first stage of the Tour de Romandie in Switzerland on Wednesday.

Godon, who came fourth in Tuesday's prologue, slipped through a gap to burst clear of the bunch in the closing metres of the hilly 165.7km stage from Chateau d'Oex to Fribourg and was followed closely by Vendrame.

Belgian rider Gianni Vermeersch of Alpecin-Deceuninck claimed third after an early six-man breakaway was swallowed up by the peloton on the last climb of the Arconciel.

Godon took over the race leader's jersey after picking up a time bonus that leaves him six seconds in front of Vermeersch. Julian Alaphilippe is nine seconds off the pace in third.

"We did a one-two with Andrea, and on top of the jersey, it's my first World Tour victory. I just had to be patient and I was rewarded," said Godon.

Thursday's second stage is a 171km run that finishes with a climb to Salvan/Les Marecottes in the Swiss Alps.

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Tour de Romandie highlights: Brandon McNulty claims second individual time trial win of season at Stage 3

Watch highlights as US Champion Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) coasted to victory at Stage 3 of the Tour de Romandie on Friday. Stream all the top cycling action, including the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana, live and on-demand on Eurosport, the Eurosport app and discovery+.

Tour de France: Jai Hindley wins stage 5 as Vingegaard drops Pogacar in Pyrenees

Australian moves into yellow jersey after day-long attack

Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) won a tumultuous stage 5 of the Tour de France in Laruns to move into the yellow jersey, but Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) is now the clear favourite for overall victory after he dropped Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) on the Col de Marie Blanque, gaining more than a minute on his rival in the process.

Vingegaard is now up to second overall, 47 seconds behind Hindley, and the Dane is already some 53 seconds ahead of Pogačar after an ominous show of force on the Tour’s entry into the Pyrenees. Paris is still two and a half weeks away, but the road to overall victory very clearly runs through Vingegaard.

The Basque Grand Départ meant the first high mountains of this Tour arrived much earlier than normal, but there was nothing cagey about the peloton’s approach to a day that produced spectacle from start to finish, with Hindley part of a dangerous split that went clear before the road had even started to climb.

Powered by strongmen that included Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), that sizeable group built up a maximum lead of four minutes over the top of the Col de Soudet and they still had 2:30 in hand at the base of the Col de Marie Blanque.

Four kilometres from the top of the Marie Blanque, Hindley tracked an acceleration from Felix Gall (AG2R-Citroën) and the 2021 Giro d’Italia winner then proceeded to drop the Swiss rider to crest the summit alone and drop to the finish in Laruns as the stage winner.

“I was sort of improvising out there and enjoying bike racing and I just managed to find myself in that group,” said Hindley, who is making his Tour debut. “I enjoyed it out there today. It's really incredible. I have no words – I really have no words.”

Further down the mountain, Jumbo-Visma had taken over the pace-making in the yellow jersey group from UAE Team Emirates, and when Sepp Kuss went into overdrive on the upper slopes of the Marie Blanque, only Vingegaard and Pogačar could follow.

Vingegaard was clearly encouraged by what he saw. 1500m or so from the summit, he delivered a familiar acceleration that Pogačar simply could not match. While Pogačar battled to limit his losses, Vingegaard zoomed ahead into the mist, picking off the remnants of the break as he set about closing the gap to Hindley.

“We didn’t think this was the perfect stage for me, but, yeah, then when they started riding on the last climb, I had the feeling I had good legs,” Vingegaard said. “I said to Sepp that maybe he goes on the front. He did and I decided to attack as well.”

As simple and as complicated as that. The defending champion crested the summit 1:05 down on Hindley but 36 seconds clear of Pogačar, and he continued to improve his position on the 18.5km that remained to the finish in Laruns.

Vingegaard caught Gall, Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) in the closing kilometres, coming home fifth on the stage, 34 seconds behind the Australian.

Pogačar, meanwhile, waited for overnight leader and teammate Adam Yates on the descent off the Marie Blanque, but the damage was still considerable by the finish. In the Basque Country at the weekend, Pogačar picked off the bonus seconds, but the momentum of the race is suddenly all with Vingegaard, who confessed that he was surprised by his gains.

“Actually, yes,” Vingegaard said. “I wanted to test him a bit. And my legs were good and I’m super happy with where I am. I’m super happy with taking a minute, that’s a good time gain for me.”

How it unfolded

The opening instalment of the Pyrenean doubleheader saw the race encounter its first hors categorie ascent, but in keeping with the anarchic, ‘new normal’ of the modern Tour, the first defining moment of the day came even before the climbing had even begun.

The flat terrain after the start Pau encouraged a rapid start, and the peloton split after 15km or so during which Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) was always prominent towards the head of the bunch.

Once the dust settled, Van Aert was part of a 35-strong front group that also included Jumbo-Visma teammates Tiesj Benoot and Christophe Laporte, as well as GC dangerman Hindley, who had quality support in the form of German champion Emanuel Buchmann. The 37-strong group would proceed to amass a lead in excess of two minutes over the bunch before the Col de Soudet.

The UAE Team Emirates squad of Pogačar and yellow jersey Adam Yates took up the reins of pursuit, given that Vingegaard teammates up ahead, but their efforts failed to prevent the leaders from stretching their advantage to four minutes over the top of the mist-shrouded Soudet after Van Aert had briefly gone off the front with Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek).

Gall attacked atop the climb to nab the mountains points, with Hindley looking very comfortable indeed, and the front group split up still further over the other side. Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech) would slip away, later joined by Van Aert and Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) over the Col d'Ichère, but they were pinned back by the rest of the break at the base of the final climb, the Col de Marie Blanque.

At that point, the Hindley et al had 2:30 in hand over the UAE-led peloton, but the AG2R contingent were keen to press on the pace on behalf of Gall. When the Swiss rider attacked 4km from the summit, only Hindley could follow. After working together for a time, the Australian opted to proceed alone.

At that point, the question seemed to be whether UAE Team Emirates could make inroads into Hindley’s buffer or indeed whether Pogačar would take matters in hand himself. Instead, it was Jumbo-Visma who laid down a marker in the yellow jersey group once Van Aert had dropped back, and their forcing created a selection that saw Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich) and Ben O’Connor (AG2R-Citroën) among those quickly distanced.

Adam Yates, Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) were the next to go, and once Sepp Kuss came to the front on the upper reaches of the climb, only Vingegaard and Pogačar were able to follow. It was a striking selection given that this was still only the fifth day of the Tour, and an even starker message arrived shortly afterwards when Vingegaard pressed clear of Pogačar to strike the first telling blow of their prize fight.

It is far too soon, of course, to couch this as a knock-out blow, but Vingegaard’s early advantage on the scorecard is a sizeable one all the same. Pogačar, meanwhile, found himself relying on help from the undercard to stay in the contest, reaching Laruns in a group that included the Yates brothers, Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos).

Others suffered even more sobering afternoons, including Ben O’Connor (AG2R-Citroën), who lost 1:57, Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious), who conceded 2:55, and Egan Bernal (Ineos), who shipped 3:22.

The day and the jersey belonged to Hindley, who confirmed his credentials as a contender for the biggest prize, but Vingegaard already looms with intent. “We’ll just do our best,” the Dane said at the finish. “We’ll see what it ends with in Paris.”

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Barry Ryan is Head of Features at Cyclingnews. He has covered professional cycling since 2010, reporting from the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and events from Argentina to Japan. His writing has appeared in The Independent, Procycling and Cycling Plus. He is the author of The Ascent: Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and the Rise of Irish Cycling’s Golden Generation , published by Gill Books.

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