Who are the Tour de France past winners? Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar, Chris Froome and more

The UAE Team Emirates man is the defending champion heading into this year's event. A three-time winner heading into competition with a fourth success on his mind, and no wonder. In any other year without Vingegaard, Pogacar would be close to being a four-time winner. His victories in 2020 and 2021 were no slouch either, though, with three stage wins apiece in each race to help him cement victory against his rivals.

The Dane missed out at last year's race to make it a hat-trick of victories in the general classification. In 2022, the Team Jumbo-Visma man set a new record for the fastest average speed by a rider throughout the tour as he battled rival Tadej Pogacar for the title and then defended his yellow jersey a year later, thrilling fans in another close battle with the Slovenian.

The Colombian became the first rider from Latin America to win the Tour de France when he rode to victory in 2019. Bernal in part was the beneficiary of Chris Froome’s exit as pre-race favourite shortly before the race began due to injury, but he was held at bay for much of the event by Giulio Ciccone, only taking the yellow jersey in the last few stages to ride to success.

The Team Sky man had watched countryman Chris Froome pick up four of the past five general classification honours heading into the 2018 race and was considered to be set for another finish behind the Briton. But Thomas proved his mettle after taking the yellow jersey on Stage 11 and refusing to relinquish it all the way to the finish, adding another triumph to the pair of Olympic gold medals he claimed at Beijing 2008 and London 2012.

One of the most successful cyclists of the modern era, Froome could have arguably scored more victories in this event if things had panned out the way he intended. Regardless, four victories put him among the all-time Tour de France greats. His first, in 2013, saw him win three stages, while a hat-trick in 2015, 2016 and 2017 underlined his power, edging Rigoberto Uran in the latter to take his fourth crown.

With victories in the Vuelta a Espana and Giro d’Italia under his belt, the Italian set off from Yorkshire - where the Tour’s Grand Depart was held - knowing he could complete the full set of grand tours if he prevailed. He won the general classification and did so by a whopping seven minutes, the largest gap for more than a generation. Nibali retired in 2022, having won one more Giro d’Italia in 2016.

Expectations were high for track cyclist specialist Wiggins, a multiple gold-medal winner at the Olympics, especially ahead of a tilt at the men’s road race at London 2012. He warmed up in superb fashion with victory in the Tour de France for Team Sky and then won gold on home soil shortly after, becoming the only rider to achieve the feat. Wiggins was knighted in 2013 and retired in 2016.

The first Australian to officially win the race and the second oldest to claim victory in the postwar period, Evans was far from a sure bet ahead of the race, with Alberto Contador widely considered the frontrunner. However, the man from Perth rode a close race that allowed him to pounce with just two stages to go, ripping the yellow jersey away from incumbent victor Andy Schleck.

Controversy struck after the 2010 Tour de France when original race winner Alberto Contador was deemed to have breached doping rules. It meant that Luxembourg’s Schleck was elevated to the yellow jersey, having held it between Stages 9 and 14 before he was edged by the Spaniard. Schleck also claimed the white jersey for the young rider classification for his efforts.

Ostensibly a three-time winner in the general classification, Contador’s career has been marked by doping controversy, with his 2010 success subsequently voided. But the Spaniard was top of the pile in 2007 and 2009 too, riding with Discovery Channel for the former and Astana for the latter. Famously on the former, only 31 seconds separated him from rivals Cadel Evans in second and Levi Leipheimer in third.

It took until Stage 17 of the race for Sastre to win one, but once he took the yellow jersey, he refused to relinquish it from there on, leading Team CSC to victory. He dedicated his win to the late cyclist Jose Maria Jimenez, his former brother-in-law, and raced for three more years before he retired.

Another winner who had to wait for his yellow jersey, Pereiro, finished second behind Floyd Landis. However, the American was found to have breached doping rules surrounding a test on Stage 17, and the Spaniard was subsequently awarded the top spot for his efforts. Pereiro was investigated himself for doping but was subsequently cleared and retired after the 2010 season.