How the Tour de France (by bike) became the Grande Boucle (by bus)

1957 was the last year the Tour de France actually toured France , at least entirely by bicycle. Starting in Nantes and arriving in Paris 4,665 kilometers later, and won by Jacques Anquetil, the ^44th edition of the Tour de France did not involve any transfers. In other words, at each stage, the finish city was also the departure city, and the riders were not transported by bus – or plane – from one point to another.

Conversely, from 2000 to 2025, the Tour editions have used and abused transfers: 1,365 kilometers as the crow flies, on average (and 1,828 kilometers by road). For comparison, the first 33 editions, between 1903 and 1939, only had two transfers (for a total of… 400 kilometers by road in 1904 and 1906) – for stages that, nevertheless, often exceeded 300 kilometers. The 2025 vintage, on the other hand, will break all records: a route of 3,338 kilometers by bike for… 3,101 kilometers of transfers by bus or plane.

From 1947 until the end of the 1960s, the transfers remained modest: around 140 kilometers of road on average per edition. And then from the 1970s, as Libération recalled in 2015 , the fashion was for "half-stages" - two in the same day - which forced the riders to get up at dawn: in 1978, they went on strike on the road to Valence-d'Agen (Tarn-et-Garonne), and no longer had any split stages.

And while the Tour in the ^21st century has broken all records, between 1980 and 2000, transfers averaged 1,200 kilometers by road or plane, reaching 1,750 kilometers in 1987. Already, it is no longer so much a question of the arrival city also being the departure city; for the riders this means more buses, later visits to the masseur, later dinner, and, ultimately, less recovery.

To avoid another strike within a peloton that knows how to organize itself – like within the National Union of Professional Cyclists (UNCP) – the Tour organizers are taking care with the transition between the Pyrenees and the Alps by planning quieter stages or even a rest Monday.