Tour de France Champions

The Tour de France has always attracted big characters — and some of them are downright unbelievable. The winner of the second Tour only took the title because the four riders ahead of him were kicked out for cheating. The 1932 champion believed his victory literally saved his life when Nazi soldiers recognised him from the podium. And one of Britain’s modern greats only got his break in Europe by… forging an email.

Tour de France Champions dives into the wild, brilliant and sometimes chaotic stories of the riders who’ve conquered cycling’s greatest race. Giles Belbin takes you through more than a century of legends, scandals, triumphs and near‑myths, celebrating the men who’ve survived the mountains, the crashes, the tactics and the pressure to stand on the top step in Paris.

This is a ride through the heart of the world’s most iconic Grand Tour — the race that still defines cycling, shapes careers and captures imaginations like nothing else