List of Tour de France general classification winners
Country No . of wins No . of winning cyclists
France 36 23
Belgium 18 10
Spain 12 7
Italy 10 7
Great Britain 6 3
Luxembourg 5 4
United States 3 1
Netherlands 2 2
Switzerland 2 2
Denmark 1 1
Germany 1 1
Ireland 1 1
Australia 1 1
Colombia 1 1
Winners -- By nationality
This is a list of the Tour de France general classification winners. The Tour de France is an annual road bicycle race held over 23 days in July. Established in 1903 by newspaper L'Auto, the Tour is the most well-known and prestigious of cycling's three Grand Tours; the others are the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España. The race usually covers approximately 3,500 kilometres (2,200 mi), passing through France and neighbouring countries such as Belgium. The race is broken into day-long stages. Individual finishing times for each stage are totalled to determine the overall winner at the end of the race. The course changes every year, but has always finished in Paris; since 1975 it has finished along the Champs-Élysées. The rider with the lowest aggregate time at the end of each day wears the yellow jersey, representing the leader of the general classification. There are other jerseys as well: the green jersey, worn by the leader of the points classification; the polka dot jersey, worn by the leader of the mountains classification; and the white jersey, worn by the leader of the young rider classification. Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain, have won the most Tours with five each. Indurain is the only man to win five consecutive Tours. Henri Cornet is the youngest winner; he won in 1904, just short of his 20th birthday.