Items23The creator’s order
  1. 1Fausto CoppiFausto CoppiBorn 15 Sept 1919Coppi won the Giro five times and the Tour in 1949 and 1952, the first rider to win both in the same year. His style was the long solo mountain attack, often launched far from the finish over several passes, at a time when roads were unpaved and team support thin. He also set the hour record in…0i
  2. 2Jacques AnquetilJacques AnquetilBorn 8 Jan 1934The first five-time Tour winner (1957 and 1961 to 1964), Anquetil also won two Giros and the 1963 Vuelta. He won by calculation: take minutes in the time trials, then limit losses in the mountains. His 1964 duel with Raymond Poulidor on the Puy de Dôme, shoulder to shoulder, is the classic image of…0i
  3. 3Eddy MerckxEddy MerckxBorn 17 Jun 1945"The Cannibal" won five Tours, five Giros and the 1973 Vuelta, and was rarely content to defend: he won mountain stages, time trials and sprints in the same race. His 1969 Tour, won by almost eighteen minutes with a long solo over the Tourmalet, is the reference for total dominance.0i
  4. 4Bernard HinaultBernard HinaultBorn 14 Nov 1954"The Badger" won five Tours, three Giros and two Vueltas between 1978 and 1985. He was a strong time triallist who also raced aggressively and acted as patron of the peloton, controlling when others could attack. His 1980 Liège win in snow shows the same stubbornness that defined his stage races.0i
  5. 5Greg LeMondGreg LeMondLeMond won the Tour in 1986, 1989 and 1990, the 1989 edition by eight seconds after using triathlon aero bars in the final time trial while Laurent Fignon did not. He came back from a near-fatal hunting accident in 1987 to do it, and his openness to new equipment changed how Grand Tour time trials…0i
  6. 6Miguel InduráinMiguel InduráinBorn 16 Jul 1964Induráin won five consecutive Tours (1991 to 1995) and the Giro in 1992 and 1993, mostly by winning the long time trials and then riding steadily with the climbers. Tall and heavy for a stage racer, he rarely attacked in the mountains, and his career shows how much the route's time-trial kilometres…0i
  7. 7Marco PantaniMarco PantaniBorn 13 Jan 1970Pantani won the Giro and Tour in 1998 as a pure climber, standing on the pedals and attacking from the bottom of the final mountain. He was thrown out of the 1999 Giro for a high haematocrit reading, and his career sits squarely in cycling's EPO era, but no rider since has relied so completely on…0i
  8. 8Alberto ContadorAlberto ContadorBorn 6 Dec 1982Contador officially holds two Tours, two Giros and three Vueltas, having been stripped of the 2010 Tour and 2011 Giro after a clenbuterol positive. His style was repeated, rhythm-breaking accelerations out of the saddle on climbs, and he kept attacking from distance even late in his career, when he…0i
  9. 9Cadel EvansCadel EvansBorn 14 Feb 1977Evans, a former mountain bike world cup champion, won the 2011 Tour by limiting his losses in the Alps and then overturning Andy Schleck's lead in the penultimate-day time trial. He was a steady, diesel climber rather than an attacker, and his win is a model of consistency over three weeks, the…0i
  10. 10Vincenzo NibaliVincenzo NibaliBorn 14 Nov 1984"The Shark" won all three Grand Tours: the 2010 Vuelta, the Giro in 2013 and 2016, and the 2014 Tour, where he gained time on the cobbled stage to Arenberg. He was one of the finest descenders of his era and repeatedly won races by attacking downhill or in bad weather, when others were cautious.0i