The Tour de France is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France. It is the oldest of the three Grand Tours and is generally considered the most prestigious.
Bjarne Lykkegård Riis, nicknamed The Eagle from Herning, is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer who placed first in the 1996 Tour de France. For many years he was the owner and later manager of the Oleg Tinkov associated Russian UCI WorldTeam Tinkoff–Saxo. Other career highlights include placing first in the Amstel Gold Race in 1997, multiple Danish National Championships, and stage wins in the Giro d'Italia. On 25 May 2007, he admitted that he placed first in the Tour de France using banned substances, and he was no longer considered the winner by the Tour's organizers. In July 2008, the Tour reconfirmed his victory but with an asterisk label to indicate his doping offences.
HTC–Highroad was a former professional cycling team competing in international road bicycle races. Their last title sponsor was HTC Corporation, a Taiwanese manufacturer of smartphones but dissolved at the end of the 2011 season from a failure to find a new sponsor. High Road Sports was the management company of team manager Bob Stapleton. Past title sponsors include Columbia Sportswear and Deutsche Telekom.
Ivan Basso is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 1999 and 2015 for seven different teams. Basso, nicknamed Ivan the Terrible, was considered among the best mountain riders in the professional field in the early 21st century, and was considered one of the strongest stage race riders. He is a double winner of the Giro d'Italia, having won the race in 2006 for Team CSC and 2010 for Liquigas–Doimo.
L'Étape du Tour de France is an organised mass participation cyclosportive that allows amateur cyclists to race over the same route as a Tour de France stage. First held in 1993, and now organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), it takes place each July, normally on a Tour rest day.
Tinkoff was a Russian-registered professional cycling team from Russia and previously Denmark. It competed in the UCI World Tour. The team was owned by former Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis from 2000 until 2013 and Russian banker Oleg Tinkov from 2013 until it closed in 2016, who provided the teams last sponsor, Russian Tinkoff Bank.
Movistar Team is a professional road bicycle racing team which participates at UCI WorldTeam level and has achieved thirteen general classification (GC) victories in Grand Tours. The title sponsor is the Spanish mobile telephone company Telefónica, with the team riding under the name of the company's brand Movistar.
Georg Totschnig is an Austrian former road bicycle racer who raced professionally between 1993 and 2006. He won the Austrian National Road Race Championships in 1997 and 2003. He also rode at three Olympic Games.
Team Jumbo–Visma is a Dutch professional bicycle racing team, successor of the former Rabobank. The team consists of four sections: ProTeam, Women's Team, Development Team, and cyclo-cross.
Jakob Storm Piil is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer, where he later lived many years in Odense. He is an all-round rider, known for his aggressive style of riding, whose speciality is to pick the right breakaways. He competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics and the 2000 Summer Olympics. He is the cousin of Danish former professional bicycle racer Jørgen V. Pedersen.
Nicki Sørensen is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer, and was directeur sportif of UCI Professional Continental team Aqua Blue Sport and Israel–Premier Tech. He competed in five consecutive editions of the Tour de France from 2001 to 2005. Riding as an all-round rider who rode well in hilly terrain, Sørensen was a valued support for the team leader without many wins of his own.
Allan Johansen is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer.
Matti Breschel is a Danish retired professional road racing cyclist, who competed between 2005 and 2019 for the Rabobank, Tinkoff–Saxo, Astana and EF Education First teams.
Kim Andersen is a former professional Danish road bicycle racer and current cycling team directeur sportif. From 2004 to 2010, he was a directeur sportif for Danish ProTour Team Saxo Bank. From 2011, he holds the same position at the Leopard Trek team.
Brian Holm Sørensen is a retired Danish professional rider in road bicycle racing from 1986 to 1998, who rode for Team Telekom from 1993 to 1997 and was part of the team that brought his fellow Dane Bjarne Riis to victory in the 1996 Tour de France.
Giovanni Lombardi is an Italian former professional road bicycling racer who raced from 1992 to 2006. He started his career as a sprinter, winning multiple stages in the Giro d'Italia. He went on to ride as an important helper for the top sprinter names of Erik Zabel and Mario Cipollini. Most recently, he rode for Team CSC as a helper for Ivan Basso. Lombardi was also an active track racer during wintertime, and has participated in many six-day races, frequently as a partner of Marco Villa. He also competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics and the 1992 Summer Olympics, winning a gold medal at the latter.
Bekim Christensen is a Danish retired professional road bicycle racer. He was regarded as a loyal and hardworking domestique, only winning one minor race himself before his retirement in 2004.
Julian Dean is a former professional road racing cyclist from New Zealand who competed as a professional between 1999 and 2013. He last rode for UCI World Tour team Orica–GreenEDGE, where he now works as an assistant sporting director and mentor. His main achievements include winning the 2007 and 2008 New Zealand National Road Race Championships, finishing 9th in the 2005 World Road Championships in Madrid, and 10th place in the 2002 World Road Championships in Zolder. At the peak of his career he was considered the best lead out rider in the world, and was highly regarded by his teammate and friend Thor Hushovd.
Wout van Aert is a Belgian professional road and cyclo-cross racer who rides for UCI WorldTeam Team Jumbo–Visma. Van Aert is a three-time winner of the men's race at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships, having won in consecutive years in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Kasper Asgreen is a Danish cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Soudal–Quick-Step. Asgreen won the 2021 Tour of Flanders by defeating Mathieu van der Poel in a sprint finish.
