1969 Tour de France

1969 Tour de France

Route of the 1969 Tour de France
Race details
Dates	28 June – 20 July 1969
Stages	22 + Prologue, including three split stages
Distance	4,117 km (2,558 mi)
Winning time	116h 16' 02"
Results
Winner  Eddy Merckx (BEL) (Faema)   Second  Roger Pingeon (FRA) (Peugeot–BP–Michelin)   Third  Raymond Poulidor (FRA) (Mercier–BP–Hutchinson) Points  Eddy Merckx (BEL) (Faema)   Mountains  Eddy Merckx (BEL) (Faema) Combination  Eddy Merckx (BEL) (Faema)   Sprints  Eric Leman (BEL) (Flandria–De Clerck–Krüger)   Combativity  Eddy Merckx (BEL) (Faema)   Team Faema
← 1968 1970 →

The 1969 Tour de France was the 56th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between 28 June and 20 July, with 22 stages covering a distance of 4,117 km (2,558 mi). The participant teams were no longer national teams, but were once more commercially sponsored. The race was won by Eddy Merckx who absolutely dominated the rest of the field. As an example in 1967 nine riders finished within 20:00 of the winner, in 1968 nineteen riders were within 20:00 but in 1969 the 10th place rider was +52:56, the 20th place rider was +1:17:36 and only Roger Pingeon finished inside 20:00 of Merckx.

The 1969 race is the only time that a single cyclist has won the general classification, the points classification and the mountains classification as well. Eddy Merckx rode on the winning team, Faema, and also won the combination classification as well as the combativity award.