23 | July | 2012 | VeloVoices

Key race facts

3,497 – In kilometres, this year’s total race distance.

87:34:47 – Total race time for overall winner Bradley Wiggins (Sky), an average speed of 39.93kph.

153 – Number of finishers, out of 198 starters.

2 – Only two riders wore the leader’s yellow jersey during the race: Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan) and Wiggins.

Sagan dominated the green jersey race (image courtesy of Danielle Haex)

2 – Only two riders led the green jersey points competition during the race: Cancellara and Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale). Cancellara led the competition for the first two days, Sagan for all 19 thereafter.

4 – Number of riders who led the polka dot jersey King of the Mountains competition: Michael Morkov (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank), Chris Froome (Sky), Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) and the eventual winner Thomas Voeckler (Europcar).

19 – Tejay van Garderen (BMC) led the white jersey young rider competition for 19 of the 21 stages. (Cofidis’ Rein Taaramae held the jersey for two days mid-race.)

3:57:36 – Jimmy Engoulvent (Saur-Sojasun) was the last classified finisher, three hours and 57 minutes slower than Wiggins. The final stage to Paris took 49 minutes less to complete.

The champion

32 – Age of Bradley Wiggins.

Wiggins’ dominance was built on his two TT wins (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

3:21 – Wiggins’ final winning margin over teammate Chris Froome.

1 – Wiggins became the first British rider to take overall victory at any of the three Grand Tours. Before this year, no Briton had ever finished higher than fourth.

4 – Previous best performance at the Tour, in 2009.

2 – Stages won by Wiggins during the race, both individual time trials.

4 – Wiggins has now won four major stage races in 2012: Paris-Nice, Tour de Romandie, Criterium du Dauphine and the Tour.

1 – Victory at the Tour has propelled Wiggins to the top of the latest UCI WorldTour rider rankings (and consolidated Sky’s position at the top of the team rankings).

The stage winners

13 – Number of different stage winners.

Greipel increased his Tour tally from one to four victories (image courtesy of Lotto-Belisol)

5 – Number of riders with multiple stage victories: Peter Sagan, Mark Cavendish and Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) won three each, while Thomas Voeckler and Bradley Wiggins claimed two apiece.

6 – Different nationalities who won stages: Britain led the way with seven, followed by France (five), Germany and Slovakia (three each), Spain (two) and Switzerland (one).

12 – Between them, British and French riders won 12 of the Tour’s 21 stages.

0 – Italian riders failed to win a single stage.

9 – Just nine of the 22 teams won stages during the race, with Sky leading the way with six – three for Cavendish, two for Wiggins, one for Froome – including the last three in a row (Cavendish, Wiggins, Cavendish).

4 – Mark Cavendish has now won the final stage on the Champs-Élysées in each of the past four editions.

1 – Yesterday’s win by Cavendish in Paris marked the first time the reigning world champion has won on the Champs-Élysées.

23 – Cavendish now has 23 career Tour stage wins, overtaking Andre Darrigade to move into fourth all-time. Eddy Merckx leads the way with 34.

And a few other random stats …

99 – This was the 99th running of the Tour. Prior to the start of the race, the 198 participating riders had won a total of 99 Tour stages.

The oldest swinger in town (image courtesy of RadioShack-Nissan)

40 – Age of Jens Voigt and Chris Horner, both of RadioShack-Nissan, the two oldest riders in the race. Voigt turns 41 in September, Horner in October.

22 – Age of Thibaut Pinot (FDJ-BigMat), the youngest rider in the race. Peter Sagan is also 22. The pair won four stages between them (Sagan three, Pinot one), and were the first Tour stage winners ever to have been born in the 1990s.

16 – Racing days between Mark Cavendish‘s wins on stages two and 18 – his longest ever drought between victories at the Tour.

5 – Top three finishes for Orica-GreenEDGE sprinter Matt Goss – but no wins (two seconds, three thirds).

29 – Dries Devenyns (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) had double cause for celebration in Paris. As well as completing the race, Sunday was also his 29th birthday.

17 – George Hincapie (BMC) started a record-setting 17th Tour this year. He completed all but one of them.

Some data is courtesy of Infostrada Sports.

Link: Tour de France official website

After 23 days and 3,497km of gruelling effort, the 2012 Tour de France is finally over and we have not only Britain’s first podium finish in 99 editions of the race, but also its first champion in the form of Bradley Wiggins. Ultimately Sky proved too strong for all their rivals as Chris Froome took a comfortable second place and the team took victory in six of the race’s 21 stages. The 153 finishers can now enjoy a well-earned rest, but in the meantime here is a stage-by-stage reminder of how Wiggins and Froome created a little piece of Tour history which will be forever British.

Prologue: Liege, 6.4km individual time trial

Image courtesy of Danielle Haex

Prologue: Liege, 6.4km individual time trial

Stage 1: Liege to Seraing, 198km

Stage 2: Vise to Tournai, 207.5km

Stage 3: Orchies to Boulogne-sur-Mer, 197km

Stage 4: Abbeville to Rouen, 214.5km

Stage 5: Rouen to Saint-Quentin, 205km

Stage 6: Epernay to Metz, 207.5km

Stage 7: Tomblaine to La Planche des Belles Filles, 199km

Stage 8: Belfort to Porrentruy, 157.5km

Stage 9: Arc-et-Senans to Besancon, 41.5km individual time trial

Stage 10: Macon to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, 194.5km

Stage 11: Albertville to La Toussuire-Les Sybelles, 148km

Stage 12: Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Annonay Davezieux, 226km

Stage 13: Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux to Le Cap d’Agde, 217km

Stage 14: Limoux to Foix, 191km

Stage 15: Samatan to Pau, 158.5km

Stage 16: Pau to Bagneres-de-Luchon, 197km

Stage 17: Bagneres-de-Luchon to Peyragudes. 143.5km

Stage 18: Blagnac to Brive-la-Gaillarde, 222.5km

Stage 19: Bonneval to Chartres, 53.5km individual time trial

Stage 20: Rambouillet to Paris Champs-Élysées, 120km