This year marked the 106th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's three Grand Tours, and perhaps the most popular. This year’s tour covered a total distance of 3,480 kilometres, with 21 stages. The race commenced on the 6th of July in Brussels, Belgium, and concluded on the 28th of July with the Champs-Élysées stage in Paris. This year’s edition had a total of 176 riders from 22 teams take part.
Perhaps the most popular annual cycling tour, The Tour De France came to an end on Sunday - the 28th of July. If you weren’t able to catch this year’s Tour, here’s what you need to know!
THE TOUR DE FRANCE 2019
HOW IT UNFOLDED
General Classification (The Yellow Jersey) - Mike Teunissen Claimed the tour’s first yellow jersey, holding onto it till stage 2. However, a a strong solo attack on the final climb of stage 3 put Julian Alaphilippe in the lead, thereby claiming the yellow at the end of the stage holding onto it till stage 5. On Stages 6 and 7 Giulio Ciccone claimed the GC classification. However, his hold of the yellow jersey was short-lived as Julian Alaphilippe rose to the top of the GC till the 18th stage. An exciting day on stage 19 of the race saw Egan Bernal claim the top spot in the GC, holding on to it till the end.
Points Classification (The Green Jersey) - Mike Teunissen claimed the Tour’s first Green Jersey as well, holding onto it till stage 2. However, Peter Sagan claimed the Green Jersey at the end of Stage two, holding onto it till the very end.
Mountains Classification (The Red Polka – Dotted Jersey) - Greg Van Avermaet claimed the Tour’s first Polka-Dotted Jersey holding onto it till stage 2 after which it was claimed by Tim Wellens who had a stronghold till the 17th stage. The lead was then claimed by Romain Bardet whose claim on the Jersey stayed strong till the end of the Tour.
Young Rider Classification (The White Jersey) - With multiple wins and overlapping results, the white jersey was perhaps the most-exchanged jersey of this year’s Tour. Young riders Caleb Ewan, Wout Van Aert, Guillo Ciccone, Egan Bernal and Enric Mas held the top spot in the Young Rider Classification across various stages of the race. The Tour ended with Egan Bernal at the top spot in this classification.
HOW IT ENDED
With the race leader unchallenged on the final stage, 22-year-old Egan Bernal crossed the line in the peloton, hand-in-hand with his Ineos teammate (and last year's winner) Geraint Thomas, claiming his first ever Tour De France GC win. This overall general classification win was historic for Bernal - he became the third-youngest all time winner of the Tour de France and the youngest ever winner of the yellow jersey (worn since 1919). To add to it, he is also the first Colombian and Latin American winner of the Tour de France. Teammate Geraint Thomas finished second while Steven Kruijswijk (Team Jumbo–Visma) came in third.
Conclusion
Finishing top of the Point Classification, holding on to the Green Jersey was crowd-favourite Peter Sagan. The Mountains Classification was won by Romain Bardet, while the Young Rider Classification was won by Egan Bernal and the Movistar team won the Team Classification.
