Alright folks, grab a coffee ’cause this turned out way longer than I planned. So earlier this morning, I’m flipping through cycling feeds on my tablet, right? And I see this question popping up: “Which young guns actually won the Tour de France before hitting 25?” Felt like something I should dig into properly.
First thing first, I grabbed my clunky old laptop—keyboard’s missing the “E” key, dammit—and fired up the browser. Googled straight up “Tour de France youngest winners.” Page loads, and bam, Wikipedia’s right there. Clicked it, obviously.
Started scrolling past all those early 1900s names I can’t even pronounce. Seriously, who decided spelling like that was a good idea? My eyes started glazing over until I hit 1964. Saw this name: Jacques Anquetil. Dude was 23. Made a mental note.
Then my browser froze. Again. Had to restart the whole dang thing. When it came back, lost my place. Scrolled back down… found Eddy Merckx in 1969 at 24. Legend. Everyone knows him.
Kept going. Found Hinault at 23 in 1978. Figured I should start listing these properly. Opened a sticky note app:
- Anquetil – ’64 (23)
- Merckx – ’69 (24)
- Hinault – ’78 (23)
Hit a problem though. Pre-WWII stuff felt sketchy. Like 1904, this Henri Cornet guy supposedly won at 19. Wikipedia says it, but I triple-checked other sites. Yep. Wild. Threw his name on the list with big question marks in my head.
Next big name: Fignon. 1983. Age 22. Youngest since Cornet? Added him.
Got curious about recent times. Scrolled like mad. Took forever. Found Contador—2007, stripped later but still counts? Shrugged and wrote him down at 24.
And Pogačar? Of course. 2020 at 21, then again at 22 and 23. Crazy talent. Highlighted that one bold.
Double-checked every date because Firefox crashed AGAIN halfway through. Nearly threw the laptop. Deep breaths.
Ended up with this rough list by noon:
- Henri Cornet – 1904 (19) ⚠️ feels ancient history
- Jacques Anquetil – 1964 (23)
- Eddy Merckx – 1969 (24)
- Bernard Hinault – 1978 (23)
- Laurent Fignon – 1983 (22)
- Alberto Contador – 2007 (24)
- Tadej Pogačar – 2020 (21), 2021 (22), 2022 (23)
Realized Fignon’s record stood for decades until Pogačar smashed it. That kid’s unreal.
Honestly thought I’d knock this out in ten minutes. Took two hours thanks to crashes, reloads, and falling down rabbit holes about doping controversies. Might need a new laptop before I tackle another “simple” research project.
