Philippe Thys was a Belgian cyclist and three times winner of the Tour de France.
Thys in 1913
Thys, celebrating his 1913 Tour de France win
Philippe Thys at the 1922 Critérium des As
In road bicycle racing, a Grand Tour is one of the three major European professional cycling stage races: Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España. Collectively they are termed the Grand Tours, and all three races are similar in format, being three-week races with daily stages. They have a special status in the UCI regulations: more points for the UCI World Tour are distributed in Grand Tours than in other races, and they are the only stage races allowed to last longer than 14 days, and these differ from major stage races more than one week in duration.
Image: Jacques Anquetil 1966
Image: Felice Gimondi 1966
Image: Eddy Merckx Molteni 1973
Image: Bernard Hinault 1978 (cropped)