Tour de France winning bikes: Which brand has won the most Tours in history?
admin July 20, 2025 0
The Tour de France began in 1903, and the first edition ever was won by Frenchman Maurice Garin. In the modern era, one can only imagine the kind of hardships those early Tour riders must have faced.
Stages well over fifteen hours long and crossing unpaved mountain passes unsupported draws comparisons with the golden age of Arctic exploration. What hardships those early heroes must have endured on their way to Tour glory.
Over a century of men’s Tour history has come and gone. The women’s race in several different formats has a far shorter and more inconsistent history. Except for the years 1915-1918, and then 1940-1046, which were stopped by World Wars One and Two, the Tour has been held each summer and has witnessed incredible feats from both man and machine.
Tour de France bikes have changed greatly in this period. This feature examines the most successful Tour de France bike brands from across the race’s history and looks at which bikes have won the most editions of the race. One thing is still the same, a Tour de France victory is worth a great deal to a bike sponsor.
With WorldTour teams using the equipment provided by their sponsors, many of the brands that are racking up stage wins in the modern race are still comparatively young compared to the Tour de France itself.
We’ve combed through the results of many editions of the Tour and tabulated which brands have dominated the race over the last century.
Further complicating things is the historically common practice of frames of old being built by a different brand than the one displayed on its tubes. Riders often had their frames hand-made for them in decades gone by, and the frame was painted up with a sponsor’s brand.
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The most significant of these instances concerns the French manufacturer Alcyon. Between 1930 and 1939, every bike ridden in the Tour was labelled L’Auto, as decreed by the race organisers.
It is widely assumed that these were built by Alcyon in each year except 1938, which would add 9 victories to the company’s tally. But, since there was no competition, these wins could be judged to be by default.
Another example is Eddy Merckx’s Tour de France bikes, which were made by Colnago and De Rosa, most famously, but a few other manufacturers were involved as well. The bikes were often branded ‘Eddy Merckx’, a nice link between Merckx and the cannibal of the modern era, Tadej Pogačar.
To simplify matters here, we’re sticking with the brand name on the winning frame rather than the manufacturer, something that becomes harder to find out the further back in time you go.
Some records of Tour bike brands and sponsors of old are hard to find. It’s nearly impossible to fit over a century of history into a relatively short article, so we have stuck to some of the major players and winningest brands.
Get in touch with us if you have information on the manufacturers of old or comment down below; we are fans too and welcome any extra expert knowledge.
Table of Contents
Toggle1. Pinarello – 16 wins
Pinarello tops the rankings list with a total of 16 official Tour de France overall victories. We visited the Pinarello factory in 2023, and you can view our special factory tour gallery here that features some Tour-winning bikes.
Pinarello earned its first TDF overall classification in 1988. A red Pinarello was ridden by Pedro Delgado, riding with Team Reynolds. This race was marred with controversy, as Delgado tested positive for Probenecid, which at the time was considered a performance-enhancing drug by the IOC, but was not yet banned by the UCI.
In the early 1990s, Pinarello enjoyed its first block of success and the brand’s bikes were ridden to several TDF General Classification victories by Miguel Induráin with five, and then Bjarne Riis, who was removed from then reinstated to the winner’s list after admitting to taking PEDs, with an asterisk to acknowledge the offence. Then Jan Ullrich won his only Tour in 1997 on a Team Telekom Pinarello.
Some of the Pinarello-branded bikes ridden in the Tour in the late ’80s and early ’90s were actually manufactured by TVT, though this was a pretty common practice of the era. In the interest of names on frames, we count 16 in total for the Italians.
Next came the Team Sky and Ineos Grenadiers era of dominance. Bradley Wiggins kicked things off in 2012, followed by four victories from Chris Froome, and one apiece by Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal. The Colombian’s victory in 2019 marks the Italian brand’s last overall title, for the moment.
Pinarello was founded in 1953 by Giovanni Pinarello. What we don’t know is whether Pinarello produced a winning bike that was rebranded between 1953 and Delgado’s 1988 Tour-winning ride. It’s possible the brand could have won more titles unofficially, but we are sticking to branded bikes here.
2. Peugeot – 10 wins
Peugeot has been making bicycles since the early 1800s, and while today it is best known for its cars, the French brand still produces a range of road, commuter, and mountain bikes.
Originally from Sochaux, France, the French brand earned its first Tour de France victory in 1905 with French rider Louis Trousselier and most recently in 1977 with Bernard Thévenet riding a Peugeot PY-10.
While Peugeot’s official Tour de France count is 10, it was also part of the collective of French automotive manufacturers that banded together after World War I under the moniker La Sportive to provide bikes for the race between 1919 and 1921. La Sportive has won in all three of these editions, which in part can be attributed to Peugeot.
3. L’Auto – 10 wins
In 1903, Henri Desgrange, the editor of the newspaper L’Auto, founded the Tour de France as a publicity stunt for his waning publication; it’s safe to say it worked out for him.
As Desgrange was running the race and setting the rules in 1930, he banned trade teams and only allowed national teams to participate, stipulating that each rider had to use a generic bicycle. Desgrange was a bit of a stickler at times and was renowned for making things hard for the race’s riders.
For those 10 pre-war years, every rider from the yellow jersey winner to the lanterne rouge competed on a yellow road bike with L’Auto painted on the downtube, racking up 10 wins for the branded bikes at least.
4. Gitane – 9 wins
With nine Tour de France victories, French outfit Gitane made the bikes which Laurent Fignon and Bernard Hinault rode to some of their wins. (Hinault also rode Look machines) The brand was widespread in the professional peloton from the 1960s through to the 1980s and was also well known for producing motorcycles, also supporting moto racing teams during this period.
In 1972, Gitane produced the “Tour de France”, which was a lightweight (for the time) frame, made from Reynolds 531 tubing and served as the brand’s race bike.
After a few name changes and transfers of ownership, Gitane ended up as part of the same brand portfolio as Peugeot and B.H., under the umbrella of Cyclegroup.
Gitane purchased the Helyett company in the 1960s, and also claimed its three Tour victories, which were achieved by Jacques Anquetil in 1957, 1961 and 1962. The Helyett frames may well have been built by Gitane too, but since we’re sticking to names on frames, Gitane remains on nine victories.
5. Alcyon – 7 wins
With seven wins to its name, Alcyon, like so many of the brands that provided bikes to early Tour teams, made bikes, cars, and motorcycles.
The brand’s first-ever win in the Tour de France came from the Luxembourgian François Faber, who also clinched five stage victories in that edition.
Alcyon sponsored a team through the 1920s and was becoming a force in the peloton, winning the 1927, 1928 and 1929 editions, but the visibility of the Alcyon name ended there due to Desgrange’s ban on trade teams in 1930.
6. Automoto – 4 wins
French outfit Automoto was founded in 1902 and like so many others of the era, was in the business of two-wheeled vehicles, both human-powered and motorised.
The brand won four consecutive Tours de France under Henri Pélissier in 1923, Ottavio Bottecchia in 1924 and 1925, and Lucien Buysse in 1926. A few years later, in 1930, the brand was purchased by Peugeot but still produced bikes and motorcycles under the Automoto brand name until 1962, when it was discontinued.
7. Colnago – 3 wins
Colnago surprisingly only has three overall official victories that we know of, and the man responsible for those needs no introduction.
Tadej Pogačar has so far won the 2020, 2021 and 2024 editions of the Tour de France, along with 19 individual stages.
He has won on Campagnolo and Shimano-equipped Colnago bikes, and we must admit, a Colnago equipped with Campagnolo winning the Tour de France is pretty poetic stuff.
The World Champion is currently racing at this year’s race on the aero Y1RS and V5RS models, and if we emerge victorious, will join the four-time winners club.
8. Cervélo – 3 wins
Cervélo bikes have been ridden to a total of three Tour titles so far. The first of which was claimed by Spanish rider Carlos Sastre back in 2008 when riding for CSC. Fast forward over a decade and Danish star Jonas Vingegaard added to the tally with back to back victories in the race.
Sastre rode an S3 model back in 2008, Vingegaard meanwhile rode an S5 and R5 lightweight model whilst on the way to his victories , and was one of the early adopters of a 1X chainring chainset configuration on standard road stages.
9. La Sportive – 3 wins
While La Sportive may only have three Tour wins under its belt, and was only in existence for a handful of years, it’s one of our favourite stories in cycling history.
World War One left Europe in bad shape, and many of the factories that produced bicycles had been reduced to rubble. The continent was in a depression, and spending money on sporting teams was hardly a priority at the time.
So to make sure the race would not be yet another casualty of the war, Alcyon, Armor, Automoto, Clément, La Française, Gladiator, Griffon, Hurtu, Labor, Liberator, Peugeot and Thomann banded together to provide equipment to half the peloton, and sponsored the race from 1919-1921.
Given that half the riders were on La Sportive bikes during these years, it’s no surprise it came away with the General Classification each time, with Firmin Lambot winning in 1919, Philippe Thys winning in 1920, and Léon Scieur in 1921.
The group disbanded in 1922 when each respective company restarted its own teams.
10. Bianchi – 3 wins
The last time a Bianchi was ridden down the Champs-Élysées at the top of the general classification was in 1998 when Marco Pantani had the yellow jersey on his shoulders. It was also notably the last time an aluminium bike won at the Tour de France.
This edition was drama-filled, not only because of the racing, as the 85th edition was also the year of the Festina affair that marred the race with police raids, rider strikes, and teams pulling out of the race.
Bianchi’s other Tour de France victories were with another icon of the sport in the form of Fausto Coppi in 1949 and 1952.
The brand came within a hair’s breadth of doing it again in 2020, but Primož Roglič’s untimely implosion on the stage 2020 time trial up La Planche des Belles Filles handed the race to Tadej Pogačar.
11. Trek, Specialized, Frejus, Stella, and Geminiani – 2 wins
Here are five other brands, each with two wins to their name: Frejus, Stella, Geminiani, Trek (not counting Armstrong’s wins) and Specialized.
Trek has a tumultuous history with the Tour de France; its bikes have ‘won’ a total of nine Tours de France, however, with all of Lance Armstrong’s ‘victories’ being officially stricken from the record, the big red barn in Wisconsin can only officially claim Alberto Contador’s 2007 and 2009 wins.
We know Armstrong rode the bikes, but the victories officially don’t count, so this one goes around on itself slightly. Hopefully, you can understand our approach here.
Given that Frejus, Stella, and Geminiani no longer operate in the sport, only Specialized and Trek can hope to increase their tally in the years to come.
Elsewhere, BMC has also crossed the line 1st in Paris on two occasions, but while Cadel Evans’ 2011 title is irrefutable, soon after the 2006 Tour, Floyd Landis was found to have doped, was removed from the results, and Óscar Pereiro was confirmed as the race winner, thus adding to Pinarello’s victory total.
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