Great Britain have had exceptional success in the past two decades at the Tour de France with the former Team Sky gang dominating the yellow jersey for most of the 2010s. Despite only a handful of riders each year making their way to France for the prestigious Grand Tour, Great Britain is the fifth highest winning country at the Tour.
Bradley Wiggins was the first ever British rider to win the Tour title in 2012, before Chris Froome followed in Wiggins’ footsteps, taking the title in 2013. This started a streak of Tour wins for GB, with Froome winning the title in 2015, 2016 and 2017, before Geraint Thomas took the title from his teammate in 2018.
Thomas was the last Brit to win the Tour, but he also came within touching distance in 2019 when he finished second to his team-mate Egan Bernal and last year placed third behind Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar. However, the Welshman won’t be at this year’s Tour having just raced the Giro d’Italia in May, where he placed second with his Ineos Grenadiers team.
Stage wins have also been a prominent feature of GB’s success, with the likes of Simon Yates, Steve Cummings, and Tom Pidcock among those to have recently won at the Tour. But it’s Mark Cavendish who is largely responsible for GB’s success on that front, having taken an astonishing 34 stage wins so far in his career.
There’s plenty to cheer about when it comes to the Brits at this year’s Tour de France too, so we’ve put together a list of all the British riders, their strengths, and how we can expect them to make their mark throughout the three weeks of racing.
Mark Cavendish, Astana Qazaqstan
Having announced his retirement at this year’s Giro d’Italia, this will be Mark Cavendish’s last Tour de France. But this year’s race provides a unique opportunity for the Manx rider to write his name in the history books, if successful. Currently on par with Eddy Merckx, if Cavendish can secure himself one last stage win, he’ll have won the most Tour stages in the race’s history.
Mark Cavendish won the final stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia
Throughout the Giro, Cavendish came tantalisingly close to a stage win placing fourth, third and eighth. However, it was only on the final stage in Rome that he finally secured a victory, proving that he still has the winning fire within him. He’s only raced once since at the ZLM Tour in June, placing ninth in the GC. But his Astana team are putting everything into…