Country: France
Team: La Française
Year(s): 1903

A chimney sweep-turned-champion, Garin led the inaugural Tour de France from start to finish, winning by almost three hours over the second-place rider. He earned the equivalent of about $40,000 for his efforts, money he later used to buy his own gas station.

Country:France
Team:Conte
Year(s):1904

Cornet was declared the winner of the 1904 Tour after the first four finishers (including Garin) were disqualified for various forms of cheating. Only 19 at the time, Cornet remains the youngest winner in Tour history.

Country: France
Team: Peugeot–Wolber
Year(s):1905

Trousselier had to go on leave from the French army to compete in the 1905 Tour, so he made sure he invested his time wisely, winning three stages on his way to the overall victory. The night before winning the final stage, “Trou-Trou” spent all night drinking and gambling, losing the money he was set to win. He returned to the army the day after being crowned champion.

Country: France
Team: Peugeot–Wolber
Year(s):1906

One year after becoming the first man to abandon the Tour while leading it, Pottier got his revenge by winning five stages and the overall title. Sadly, he hanged himself in his team clubhouse the following January after learning that his wife had had an affair while he competed in the race.

Country: France
Team:Peugeot–Wolber
Year(s):1907, 1908

The Tour’s first two-time winner, Petit-Breton’s name is actually Lucien Mazan. Trying to keep his occupation a secret from his father—who didn’t want him to become a cyclist—Mazan raced under a pseudonym. In earning the second of his two Tour victories, he won five stages and never finished outside the top four. He was killed while serving as a driver for the French army in World War I.

Country: Luxembourg
Team:Alcyon–Dunlop
Year(s): 1909

The first foreigner to win the Tour de France, Faber was incredibly large by contemporary standards. Nicknamed the “Giant of Colombe” after the Parisian suburb in which he lived, Faber measured six feet tall and weighed more than 200 pounds. He was shot in the back and killed while trying to carry a wounded comrade across no-man’s-land during a battle in WWI.

Country: France
Team:Alcyon–Dunlop
Year(s):1910

To win his only Tour de France, Lapize had to overcome both his teammate Faber, the defending champion, and the Tour’s first visit to the Pyrenees. Luckily, Lapize was a much better climber than Faber, so the high mountains played to his strengths. He is perhaps most famous for shouting, “You are assassins!” at Tour organizers while climbing the Tourmalet. While serving as a fighter pilot in WWI, he was shot down and killed over Verdun.

Country: France
Team: Alcyon–Dunlop
Year(s): 1911

Despite complaints from racers, Tour organizers considered the Pyreneean stages such a success that they added the Alps in 1911. Faber again lost to a teammate, the climber Garrigou, who needed a bodyguard and disguise to finish the race after accusations that he poisoned a fellow competitor. He was later found innocent.

Country: Belgium
Team: Alcyon–Dunlop
Year(s): 1912

The first Belgian to win the Tour de France, Defraye rode the Tour six times and only finished once (in the same year that he won).

Country: Belgium
Teams: Peugeot–Wolber, La Sportive
Year(s): 1913, 1914, 1920

The Tour’s first three-time winner, Thys was the last rider to win before the start of WWI, and one of only a few prior champions to survive the conflict and continue his career.

Country: Belgium
Teams: La Sportive, Peugeot-Wolber
Year(s): 1919, 1922

When the Tour started again after the war, Lambot continued Belgium’s run of success, taking the lead just two stages from the finish after Eugène Christophe—for the second time in his career—had his Tour ruined by a broken fork. Lambot won his second title at age 36, making him the oldest winner to date.

Country: Belgium
Team: La Sportive
Year(s): 1921

Discovered by Lambot, who hailed from the same town in Belgium, Scieur was nicknamed “the Locomotive” in the press for the way he relentlessly consolidated his lead. His wheel broke on the penultimate day and he carried it more than 300K on his back to show officials that he was justified in taking a replacement (rules at the time limited outside support for riders).

Country: France
Team: Automoto–Hutchinson
Year(s):1923

The oldest of three brothers, all of whom were cyclists, Pélissier finished only two of the eight Tours he started, placing second in 1914 and finally winning in 1923. Talented but ill-tempered, he dropped out mostly by choice. His most famous DNF came in 1920, when rather than accept a two-minute penalty for throwing away a flat tire, he abandoned the race in protest.

Country: Italy
Team: Automoto
Year(s):1924, 1925

In 1924, Bottecchia became Italy’s first Tour de France champion and the first rider to wear the yellow jersey from start to finish. His initial win was made easier thanks to the departure of the Pélissier brothers on Stage 3. Discovered to be wearing two jerseys at a time, then a violation of the rules, Henri, his brother, and another teammate abandoned—you guessed it—in protest.

Country: Belgium
Team: Automoto–Hutchinson
Year(s):1926

Buysse rode selflessly for Bottecchia in 1925 and was rewarded with a chance to win the Tour for himself in 1926. Tragically, the Belgian received news that his daughter had died early in the race, but his family convinced him to carry on to victory.

Country: Luxembourg
Team: Alcyon–Dunlop
Year(s): 1927, 1928

Fourth in 1925 and second in 1926, Frantz set the foundation for his first Tour victory by winning Stage 11, a mountainous day that tackled the Pyrenean “Circle of Death,” a route with four challenging climbs including the Col d’Aubisque and Col du Tourmalet. He led the 1928 Tour from start to finish, becoming only the fifth rider (at the time) to win the overall twice.

Country: Belgium
Team: Alcyon–Dunlop
Year(s): 1929

Second in 1927 and third in 1928, De Waele overcame several flat tires—riders were then required to change their own flats—and illness to win in 1929. He wasn’t a popular champion, which caused organizer Henri Desgrange to remark, “A corpse has won my race!”

Country: France
Teams: Alcyon–Dunlop, France
Year(s): 1930, 1932

The year 1930 brought a change to the Tour: National and regional teams, instead of sponsored trade teams, would now compete. This shifted the power back to France, with Leducq winning two of the decade’s first five Tours (all of which went to the French).

Country: France
Team:France
Year(s):1931, 1934

Third behind Leducq in 1930, Magne took advantage of new three-minute time bonuses given to stage winners—as well as a mysterious letter tipping him off to the tactics of a competitor—to win in 1931, his first of two victories.

Country: France
Team: France
Year(s): 1933

Historians consider the French team at the 1933 Tour to be one of the strongest collections of pre-war riders ever assembled. Speicher was joined on the start line by former winners Leducq and Magne, as well as future winner Roger Lapébie.