Les Woodland's book Cycling’s 50 Craziest Stories is available in print, Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
The race:
The Tour du Limousin is currently a four-day professional stage race held in Limousin, France in August. Limousin is a region in south-central France, situated largely in the Massif Central.
Being held in the Massif Central, the race is run over hilly roads. Traditionally the first stage starts in Limoges and the final leg finishes also at Limoges.
The first edition of the Tour du Limousin was held in 1968 and was open only to amateurs. It remained an amateur race through 1974.
It became a professional race in 1975, but the 1981 edition was an open race with both amateurs and professionals.
In 2005 the UCI classed the Tour du Limousin as a 2.1 race. It was upgraded to HC for 2011 and 2012, but in 2013 it was reclassed at 2.1. The Tour du Limousin is part of the UCI Europe Tour.
Recent Tour du Limousin podium history:
Year | 1st Place | 2nd Place | 3rd Place | Distance | Average Speed km/hr |
1980 | René Bittinger 16hr 45min 16sec |
Bernard Pineau @ 44sec |
Claude Vicendeau @ 57sec |
645 km | 38.497 km/hr |
1981 | Marc Madiot 16hr 54min 48sec |
Dominique Arnaud @ 1sec |
Pierre-Henri Mentheour @ 2sec |
663 km | 39.199 km/hr |
1982 | Eric Salomon 17hr 29min 13sec |
Marc Madiot @ 4min 44sec |
Pascal Simon @ 4min 45sec |
681 km | 38.943 km/hr |
1983 | Dominique Arnaud 19hr 26min 13sec |
Pierre Bazzo @ s.t. |
Dominique Garde @ 12min 43sec |
739 km | 38.020 km/hr |
1984 | Kim Andersen 18hr 5min 9sec |
Marc Madiot @ 5sec |
Eric Boyer @ 16sec |
715 km | 37.926 km/hr |
1985 | Thierry Marie 17hr 43min 49sec |
Beno Weiss @ 58sec |
Jean-Claude Garde @ 1min 31sec |
699 km | 39.424 km/hr |
1986 | Dominique Gaigne 18hr 27min 47sec |
Ronan Pensec @ 7sec |
Denis Leproux @ s.t. |
712 km | 38.564 km/hr |
1987 | Charly Mottet 16hr 32min 3sec |
Bruno Cornillet @ 2sec |
Marc Gomez @ s.t. |
713 km | 43.123 km/hr |
1988 | Jean-Marc Manfrin 16hr 42min 10sec |
Joey McLoughlin @ s.t. |
Johnny Weltz @ s.t. |
616 km | 36.880 km/hr |
1989 | Thierry Claveyrolat 19hr 28min 25sec |
Christian Chaubet @ 33sec |
Luc Leblanc @ s.t. |
755 km | 38.770 km/hr |
1990 | Martial Gayant 18hr 36min 35sec |
Bruno Cornillet @ 1min 33sec |
Laurent Pillon @ 1min 53sec |
711 km | 38.206 km/hr |
1991 | Michel Vermote 18hr 40min 46sec |
Denis Roux @ 3sec |
Mike Engleman @ s.t. |
711 km | 38.063 km/hr |
1992 | Eric Boyer 15hr 52min 41sec |
Melchor Mauri @ 8sec |
Serge Baquet @ 16sec |
634.3 km | 39.948 km/hr |
1993 | Charly Mottet 17hr 34min 56sec |
Richard Virenque @ 35sec |
Gilles Delion @ 1min 9sec |
649.4 km | 36.935 km/hr |
1994 | Jens Heppner 29 points 17hr 12min 48sec |
Bruno Cornillet 38 points |
Laurent Roux 41 points |
689.5 km | 40.087 km/hr |
1995 | Andrei Tchmil 18hr 31min 30sec |
Jan Ullrich @ s.t. |
Didier Rous @ s.t. |
706 km | 38.111 km/hr |
1996 | Laurent Brochard 17hr 14min 19sec |
Michael Blaudzun @ 4sec |
Pascal Chanteur @ 6sec |
700.5 km | 40.636 km/hr |
1997 | Lauri Aus 16hr 54min 11sec |
Gilles Bouvard @ s.t. |
Cédric Vasseur @ s.t. |
697.5 km | 41.265 km/hr |
1998 | Vincent Cali 18hr 4min 59sec |
Bobby Julich @ 38sec |
Jacky Durand @ 47sec |
716 km | 39.595 km/hr |
1999 | Stéphane Heulot 16hr 44min 51sec |
Grzegorz Gwiazdowski @ s.t. |
Lauri Aus @ 7sec |
702 km | 41.917 km/hr |
2000 | Patrice Halgand 16hr 51min 58sec |
Jean-Cyril Robin @ 2sec |
Stéphane Heulot @ 8sec |
706 km | 41.859 |
2001 | Franck Bouyer 17hr 8min 46sec |
Patrick Jonker @ 6sec |
David Moncoutié @ 18sec |
701.7 km | 40.925 |
2002 | Patrice Halgand 16hr 48min 57sec |
Guido Trentin @ 2sec |
Pierrick Fédrigo @ 31sec | 715.4 km | 42.543 |
2003 | Massimiliano Lelli 17hr 28min 30sec |
Laurent Lefèvre @ 2sec |
Thor Hushovd @ 47sec |
695.7 km | 39.811 |
2004 | Pierrick Fédrigo 16hr 57min 11sec |
Patrick Calcagni @ 46sec |
Franck Renier @ 48sec |
705.1 km | 41.591 |
2005 | Sébastien July 17hr 29min 15sec |
Samuel Dumoulin @ 1min 48sec |
Leonardo Bertagnolli @ 1min 57sec |
713.6 km | 40.806 |
2006 | Leonardo Duque 17hr 53min 9sec |
Pierrick Fédrigo @ 1sec |
Yukiya Arashiro @ 5sec |
714.2 km | 39.931 |
2007 | Pierrick Fédrigo 17hr 59min 57sec |
Oscar Pereiro @ 6sec |
Anthony Charteau @ 27sec |
719.8 km | 39.990 |
2008 | Sébastien Hinault 17hr 28min 15sec |
Allan Davis @ 1sec |
Yukiya Arashiro @ s.t. |
712.8 km | 40.799 |
2009 | Mathieu Perget 17hr 17min 3sec |
David Arroyo @ 3sec |
Xavier Florencio @ 23sec |
715.9 km | 41.418 |
2010 | Gustav-Erik Larsson 14hr 32min 31sec |
Sebastian Langeveld @ 20sec |
Nicolas Vogondy @ 43sec |
610.5 km | 41.982 |
2011 | Björn Leukemans 18hr 21min 48sec |
Matthieu Ladagnous @ 7sec |
Florian Guillou @ 13sec |
712.3 km | 38.789 |
2012 | Yukiya Arashiro 16hr 48min 30sec |
Jérémy Roy @ s.t. |
Fabien Schmidt @ 2sec |
711.1 km | 42.306 |
2013 | Martin Elmiger 18hr 6min 53sec |
Yukiya Arashiro @ 3sec |
Andrea Di Corrado @ 18sec |
715.4 km | 39.493 |
2014 | Mauro Finetto 17hr 27min 52sec |
Björn Leukemans @ 7sec |
Davide Rebellin @ 11sec |
706.9 km | 40.477 |
2015 | Sonny Colbrelli 17hr 55min 41sec |
Jesus Herrada @ s.t. |
Rudy Molard @ 2sec |
715.4 km | 39.904 |
2016 | Joey Rosskopf 17hr 14min 33sec |
Sonny Colbrelli @ 1sec |
Hubert Dupont @ 4sec |
704.2 km | 40.83 km/hr |
2017 | Alexis Vuillermoz 17hr 26min 42sec |
Elie Gesbert @ s.t. |
Francesco Gavazzi @ 19sec |
707.4 km | 40.550 km/hr |
2018 | Nicolas Edet 17hr 36min 12sec |
Marco Canola @ 4sec |
Anthony Roux @ 8sec |
702.1 km | 39.886 km/hr |
2019 | Benoît Cosnefroy 18hr 14min 14sec |
Lilian Calmejane @ 15sec |
Guillaume Martin @ 17sec |
709.3 km | 38.893 km/hr |
2020 | Luca Wackermann 17hr 22min 11sec |
Jake Stewart @ 2sec |
Rui Costa @ 4sec |
702.3 km | 40.434 km/hr |
2021 | Warren Barguil 17hr 0min 35sec |
Franck Bonnamour @ s.t. |
Pierre-Luc Perichon @ 6sec |
709.2 km | 41.705 km/hr |
2022 | Alex Aranburu 16hr 46min 28sec |
Diego Ulissi @ 10sec |
Greg van Avermaet @ 18sec |
717.6 km | 42.779 km/hr |
2023 | Romain Grégoire 17hr 8min 3sec |
Benoit Cosnefroy @ 38sec |
Michael Storer @ 50sec |
717.4 km | 41.870 km/hr |
2024 | Alex Baudin 16hr 40min 38sec |
Orluis Aular @ 22sec |
Axel Zingle @ 24sec |
718.4 km | 43.077 km/hr |
.