Tour de France 2022
The 2022 Tour de France began on 01/07 in Copenhagen and ended on 24/07 in Paris. The 109th edition largely marked a return to normality — at least regarding COVID, the race could take place mostly as it did before the pandemic.
Otherwise, hardly anyone would call the Tour de France normal: this stage race is the most famous cycling event of all, and simply taking part is already a dream come true for every pro rider!
Topics
Stages
Le Grand Départ in Denmark
The Tour de France did not start in France, but in Copenhagen — the northernmost start in the race’s history. The first three race days also took place in Denmark. That was actually planned for the 2021 edition, but COVID as well as the rescheduled football European Championship and the resulting calendar clash forced the organizers to postpone those plans to this year.
Since 2015 — and confirmed year after year — Copenhagen has been considered the world’s most bicycle-friendly city, and Denmark as a whole is a true pioneer. So it’s more than fitting that this year’s Grand Départ set off from Copenhagen. The official Grand Départ jersey reflects the national flag: white lines on a red background.
Stage 1, the Grand Départ, made full use of Copenhagen’s cycling infrastructure: 13.2 km through the beautiful city center. On 1 July 2022, spectators and locals enjoyed a fantastic view of the riders in the individual time trial. Day winner Yves Lampaert, the Belgian rider for Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl, was surprised by his own performance: I was hoping for a top-ten, which would have been amazing. But now I’ve beaten the best in the world! I’m just a farmer from Belgium — I didn’t expect this myself. I can’t believe it.
Stage overview
In Stage 2, one of the longest stages followed the shortest: 202.5 km from Roskilde along the coast of Zealand and across the Great Belt Bridge to Nyborg. Fabio Jakobsen took the win after an impressive ride. The Dutchman from Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl fought back remarkably after his horrific crash two years ago at the Tour of Poland — and celebrated with his first Tour stage win.
Stage 3 was held on the Jutland peninsula: from Vejle, 182 km along the coast to Sønderborg. Fans from northern Germany likely enjoyed the near-border finish — perhaps even for a day trip in the warm weather. Dylan Groenewegen (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) edged out Wout van Aert in a photo finish. The Belgian from Jumbo-Visma, however, successfully defended the yellow jersey from the previous day.
All three Danish stages were very flat: the few climbs were neither high nor steep and were barely noticeable for pro riders. Unsurprisingly, it was the sprinters who could launch into the Tour especially well here.
After the third stage on 03/07/2022, transfer day followed on 04/07: the next stage started in France, namely in Dunkirk. It wasn’t an official rest day, but we hoped the pros still found a moment to recover.
Stage 4: Once in France, the terrain turned hilly for the first time. The 171.5 km from Dunkirk to Calais were made tougher by coastal winds and elevation gain. We suspected lone breakaways would struggle here and that strong teamwork would be decisive.
That’s exactly how it played out: Jumbo-Visma delivered outstanding teamwork and always had several riders up front. Already in yellow, Wout van Aert finally took a stage win after two second places. Pogačar — perhaps the most dangerous solo rider — couldn’t counter the coordinated team effort; his UAE teammates were too far behind to help. Only after the key, final climb near Cap Blanc-Nez did Wout van Aert ride clear of teammate Simon Yates, sprinting to gain valuable seconds on the Slovenian.
Stage 5: 
After four years, the notorious cobblestones returned. Although the route from Lille to Arenberg was relatively short at 153.7 km, the total of 19.4 km of pavé posed a brutal challenge — hence the special jersey dedicated to the Lille–Arenberg stage. Classics fans knew these sectors from Paris-Roubaix.
Simon Clarke (EF Education-EasyPost) took the day with a superb ride. Titleholder Pogačar especially impressed and almost wrested the yellow jersey from Van Aert.
For the so-far dominant Jumbo-Visma, the stage was brutal: favorite and team leader Primož Roglič crashed and dislocated his shoulder. He intended to continue the Tour, but with a two-minute deficit to Pogačar, a Slovenian overall win looked out of reach. Van Aert would now try to keep yellow for Jumbo-Visma, even if his advantage had become razor-thin.
Stage 6: The stage began in Binche, Belgium, and traced the French-Belgian border to Longwy. At 220 km, it was the longest stage of the entire Tour; the route through the Ardennes added several climbs, even if the biggest summits were bypassed. The finale featured the “Mur de Pulventeux,” an 800 m ramp at 12% — a serious sting in the legs after more than 200 km.
Inevitable or not: breakaway leader Wout van Aert couldn’t hold his long advantage or the yellow jersey. Favorite Pogačar won convincingly — and donned the familiar maillot jaune once again. Still, the hat-trick was not yet guaranteed.
Stage 7: The first route classified as a mountain stage covered 176.5 km from Nancy into the Vosges. The toughest climb awaited at the very end — the now-traditional La Planche des Belles Filles. The run-in featured repeated ramps, making this a genuine summit finish.
That very finish produced some of the Tour’s most emotional images: Germany’s Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) attacked from distance for over 100 km, but on slopes reaching 24% he ran out of gas with 100 m to go; several riders swept past, including Pogačar, who snatched the stage on the line.
Stage 8: From Dole, France, into Switzerland — another hilly day. A grueling 186.5 km were rewarded with a glorious view of Lake Geneva at the finish. The day was shaped by a mass crash early on, forcing one rider to abandon. The final 5 km climb at an average of 4.6% snuffed out the breakaway’s hopes.
In the end, Wout van Aert claimed the stage with a blistering sprint. None of the classification jerseys changed hands.
Stage 9: Once in Switzerland, a true Alpine test followed. The riders covered 193 km in the mountains. Long uphill sectors dominated, but the descent between the Col de la Croix — dropping 1,300 m — and the downhill after the Pas de Morgins shortly before the finish were also hugely demanding, even for the pros.
It was a day for climbers: Luxembourg’s Bob Jungels (AG2R Citroën Team) won in commanding style. Germany’s Simon Geschke (Cofidis) took the polka dots — only the eighth German ever to wear them.
Rest day 1: Back in France, in the border town of Châtel, the pros enjoyed their first proper rest on 11/07.
Stage 10: At 148.5 km in Haute-Savoie, it was neither the longest nor the hardest stage, so the pace stayed high despite the rolling profile. Fans enjoyed stunning Alpine backdrops and an entertaining breakaway duel — even a brief neutralization didn’t spoil it. The win went to Dane Magnus Cort Nielsen (EF Education-EasyPost).
COVID-hit UAE just about kept yellow — Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) missed the iconic jersey by only 11 seconds. The 25-year-old was no pre-race favorite but was fast becoming a fans’ favorite, especially in Germany.
Stage 11: Climbers, get ready! Alpine ascents and hairpins dominated. From Albertville (324 m) the riders climbed all the way to the Col du Granon (2,413 m). That summit finish — 11.3 km at 9.2% — was brutally selective.
So selective that even ‘the dominator’ and renowned climber Pogačar cracked. While he parried most attacks, he faltered in the final kilometers. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) won the stage and seized yellow — by 2 minutes 51 over Pogačar.
Stage 12: 165 km from Briançon to L’Alpe d’Huez, tackling both the Col du Galibier and the Col de la Croix de Fer. Another Alpine battlefield, even with the previous day still in the legs.
Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) claimed his first Tour stage — in his debut year no less! Vingegaard and Jumbo-Visma defended yellow comfortably; three Pogačar attacks were calmly neutralized.
Stage 13: After days of suffering, a day for sprinters again. 192 km, mostly flat, from Le Bourg-d’Oisans to Saint-Étienne. The expected high speed materialized, though some riders chose to hold back.
The jerseys remained unchanged: Jumbo-Visma kept both yellow and green, and Simon Geschke held polka dots. Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) attacked early and delivered an impressive win.
Stage 14: From Saint-Étienne to Mende. Packed with short climbs and descents, it tempted breakaways — though it wasn’t clear whether they could truly hold off the peloton.
Michael Matthews (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) dug in early with the break. The hot climb to the Montée Jalabert threatened to erase his advantage and briefly cost him the lead. But on the final 1.7 km the Australian launched a brilliant sprint for the win.
Stage 15: Rodez–Carcassonne, officially hilly — rightly so. Still, sprinters could survive the modest gradients and contest the 202 km finish.
For Jumbo-Visma it was a nightmare day: former favorite Primož Roglič abandoned before the stage due to his Stage 5 crash, to heal his shoulder. During the stage Steven Kruijswijk crashed and was badly injured. The team leading both yellow and green would tackle the remaining stages with only six riders. They also missed the win: Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) out-sprinted Wout van Aert.
Rest day 2: In Carcassonne, the teams enjoyed a final rest on 18/07. Six stages to go — then we’d have a winner!
Bad news nonetheless: crowd-pleaser Lennard Kämna had to abandon due to a lingering cold.
Stage 16: Into the Pyrenees! Day one of the new challenge covered 178 km. Descending skills were crucial: two long downhills from km 125 defined the stage. Only the best descender would win.
That was Canada’s Hugo Houle. Despite brutal heat, the Israel-Premier Tech rider finished over a minute ahead — only the second Canadian stage win in Tour history. Simon Geschke extended his KOM lead despite COVID concerns.
Stage 17: The second of three Pyrenean days. Barely 130 km, but lots of vertical gain. The final 8 km at 7.8% were especially taxing. Smart pacing — considering the gradient, the heat, and the even harder stage to come — was vital.
Pogačar took the stage, but only clawed back four seconds on Vingegaard’s yellow and still trailed by 2:18 overall. Wout van Aert had mathematically sealed green and would focus on helping his leader. Geschke kept polka dots despite a mechanical.
Stage 18: 
143 km from Lourdes to Hautacam — with the Col d’Aubisque and Col de Spandelles in between. The last mountain stage separated wheat from chaff, hence its dedicated special jersey.
We predicted that even favorites might crack here — and that’s what happened:
Jumbo-Visma utterly dominated and had already locked in green and polka dots when titleholder Pogačar crashed. Although Vingegaard and teammate Wout van Aert waited for the champion, they ultimately left him over a minute behind. Vingegaard now led the GC by more than three minutes and was the overwhelming favorite to win the Tour!
Stage 19: The penultimate flat stage. 188.3 km away from the Pyrenees into France’s interior. Close to the finish, Jumbo-Visma still didn’t ease up: Christophe Laporte took the win. Vingegaard looked strong but likely saved energy for the next day. Two more times he had to stay sharp — then yellow would be his for good!
Stage 20: The second and final individual time trial. Anyone dreaming of yellow had to deliver over the 40 km from Lacapelle-Marival to Rocamadour. Vingegaard was flying for the stage win — and then nearly crashed! With Paris almost in sight, that scare must have cut deep. He backed off slightly, still taking a powerful second place behind teammate Wout van Aert.
Stage 21: On 24/07, the finale of the 2022 Tour de France took place! Before the men’s sprint showdown, the women’s edition held its Grand Départ. A Sunday many cycling fans spent in front of the TV — or even at the finish in Paris. From Paris La Défense Arena, 115 km around the capital led back into the city center. As tradition dictates, the finish ran along the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe.
Also traditional: on the last stage of the Tour, the yellow jersey is no longer attacked — the leader can savor the final kilometers in the iconic jersey and celebrate. And Jonas Vingegaard Rasmussen and Team Jumbo-Visma more than earned it! Vingegaard won both the overall and the KOM classifications by a clear margin, while teammate Wout van Aert took the points jersey and racked up the most stage wins. Pogačar settled for the best young rider.
Analysis
Over recent years and decades, the Tour has increasingly featured unpredictable passages: organizers deliberately string together testing climbs and twists, wind-exposed sections, and, of course, classics like cobbles. The 109th edition offered all of that — and was still the fastest Tour de France ever.
Jonas Vingegaard Rasmussen’s commanding victory — finishing well ahead of the ultra-dangerous Pogačar in both GC and KOM — underlines how cycling is leaning even more into being a true team sport:
Jumbo-Visma may not have won the team classification, but with three of the four jerseys and a haul of stage wins, the Dutch squad was clearly the decisive force of the race. A team that can absorb the loss of a superstar like Roglič is very hard to beat.
Pogačar — second overall and best young rider — will likely draw two lessons: he needs a stronger support cast on the hardest days, and he may want to scrutinize his packed race calendar — perhaps trimming it for next season.
No German rider took a classification jersey this year — mostly due to ferocious competition. Simon Geschke came close to becoming the first German ever to finish with polka dots, while Lennard Kämna thrilled home fans despite an early exit — and surely has big days ahead. The next years will be exciting!
Our pre-race favorites
UAE Team Emirates
The team around Slovenian Tadej Pogačar was the clear top favorite. In 2020 he became the first rider ever to win GC, young rider and KOM — three of the four jerseys. He topped that by repeating the feat in 2021.
Pogačar was again in strong form in 2022. Stopping his title defense was always going to be difficult.
Team Jumbo-Visma
From Slovenia as well came the biggest threat to the champion: Primož Roglič, Vuelta winner in 2019, 2020 and 2021, backed by a powerful team and an excellent first half of the year.
After an unfortunate crash in the 2021 Tour, the 2022 Paris–Nice winner had great chances to take yellow this year. The Jumbo-Visma roster also featured other heavy hitters, like Dane Jonas Vingegaard Rasmussen — who, even as a domestique in 2021, took second after his leader crashed out.
Jumbo-Visma couldn’t race in its standard kit: the rules forbid jerseys too close to yellow so the leader’s jersey remains unique and unmistakable. Accordingly, the team rode in Tour-specific colors.
Team Ineos Grenadiers
For TDF 22, the traditionally successful squad had to do without Richard Carapaz — the Ecuadorian champ focused on La Vuelta a España instead.
Adam Yates would lead and try to rekindle the team’s glory from the 2010s. Star lieutenants included 2018 Tour winner Geraint Thomas and this year’s Itzulia champion Daniel Martínez. With that lineup, Ineos Grenadiers also had a great shot at the team classification.
Team Bora-Hansgrohe
Germany’s only WorldTour team could look back proudly on its recent win at the Giro d’Italia 2022. Winner Jai Hindley, however, did not start the Tour.
Instead, Bora-Hansgrohe planned a dual strategy: Sam Bennett to chase stages and green, while Aleksandr Vlasov targeted GC. If Vlasov ended up in yellow, it would be a surprise — but the team had already proven at the Giro that surprises are possible.
Trek-Segafredo
Trek-Segafredo made headlines recently mostly because of their bikes: on the one hand, thieves stole bikes and gear twice from the team car.
On the other, Dutch rider Ellen van Dijk broke her own women’s hour record on 23 May 2022 on a special Trek bike — and still holds it.
The US team aimed for stage wins in both the men’s and women’s races. The women’s squad, in particular, was among the favorites for the overall. Both teams started in matching Tour-specific kits.
The surprise package: Alpecin-Fenix — or rather Alpecin-Deceuninck
On 1 July — the very day of the Copenhagen start — Alpecin-Fenix was rebranded as Alpecin-Deceuninck. With Dutch star Mathieu van der Poel, the 2022 Tour of Flanders winner, they lined up with a strong captain.
Technically a second-tier team, they weren’t favorites for the overall but certainly targeted stage wins. The bigger goal was to secure a UCI WorldTour license and thus guaranteed entry to the biggest events.
All participating teams
The automatically qualified UCI WorldTeams in this year’s Tour:
- AG2R Citroën Team, France
- Astana Qazaqstan Team, Kazakhstan
- Bahrain Victorious, Bahrain
- Bora-Hansgrohe, Germany
- Cofidis, France
- EF Education-EasyPost, USA
- Groupama-FDJ, France
- Ineos Grenadiers, Great Britain
- Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux, Belgium
- Israel-Premier Tech, Israel
- Lotto-Soudal, Belgium
- Movistar Team, Spain
- Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl, Belgium
- Team BikeExchange-Jayco, Australia
- Team DSM, Netherlands
- Jumbo-Visma, Netherlands
- Trek-Segafredo, USA
- UAE Team Emirates, UAE
Plus the “wildcard” invites:
- Alpecin-Fenix, Belgium
- Arkéa-Samsic, France
- B&B Hotels-KTM, France
- TotalEnergies, France
Classification jerseys, special editions & team kits
As always, the iconic jerseys come in their current designs: the white jersey for best young rider; the polka-dot KOM jersey for the best climber; and the green jersey — the only one Pogačar didn’t win in the previous two years — for the points classification leader.
And of course there is the yellow jersey for the overall winner.
Tip: Like other pro-team apparel, these jerseys are available in “Race” or standard versions in our shop. The Race version replicates the pro functionality with a closer, more aerodynamic fit — ideal for hard training or racing.
Beyond the classification jerseys, there’s also the classic tribute jersey to La Grande Boucle itself — inspired by the finale, when the French Air Patrol salutes the peloton with tricolor smoke.
Several teams also raced in special, Tour-specific designs — for example BORA-hansgrohe and Team Jumbo-Visma. Here you can find all team kits.
Tour de France Femmes 2022
After a first women’s edition in 1955, it took almost 30 years for the second, in 1984. Sponsorship challenges and limited media attention weighed heavily on the event. Irregular editions and constant name changes meant the final race under the name Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale was held in 2009.
Fan and rider demand has remained strong. This year the organizer of the men’s race finally gave in, so after a 13-year break we again had a Tour de France Femmes — officially counted as the “first edition.”
The race lasts eight days and starts on the same day the men’s race finishes. On the Champs-Élysées, fans could witness the women’s start and then the men’s finish. The €250,000 prize for the winner is the largest purse in women’s cycling this year — but of course the goal is to wear the legendary yellow jersey. The classification jerseys are the same in both editions.
