2007 Tour de France

Lore & Background

The decision to launch the 2007 Tour from London was itself a landmark. The opening team time trial in the Olympic Park marked the first time the race had begun on British soil, a gesture that expanded the Tour's geographic imagination and gave the peloton a flat, fast prologue before the real work began. The route then carried the riders through the heart of France, with intermediate sprints and hilly stages designed to whittle the field before the mountains arrived.

The defining narrative was Astana's internal chess match. Contador, still in his early twenties, rode with a ferocity that belied his youth—attacking from the front of the peloton on mountain stages, hunting time in the breakaways, and showing a tactical maturity that made veterans look cautious. Klöden, his experienced German teammate, provided a steady, grinding pressure. The two Astana riders finished within seconds of each other, a result that spoke to the team's coordinated strategy as much as to individual talent. Menchov, on Rabobank, held the third step of the podium and was the most consistent non-Astana contender in the mountains.

The shadow that fell over the 2007 Tour came years later. Investigations into EPO use led to both Contador and Klöden having their 2007 results annulled, a decision that recast the race in the public memory from a clean sporting triumph to a cautionary chapter. Yet for those who watched it live, the mountain stages—Contador's attacks, the long climbs into the Alps—retain their visceral power, a reminder of what the sport looked like at its most unguarded and thrilling.

In Their Own Story

The wind off the Channel had not yet died when the peloton rolled out of the Olympic Park on that July morning. London was still half-asleep, the city's glass towers catching the first hard light, and the riders pedalled through streets that had never before carried the roar of a Tour de France start. A fan in a yellow-and-green jersey pressed against the barriers, phone raised, shouting a name she could not quite remember. Behind her, the peloton's wheels hummed a single continuous note, two hundred and twenty-two riders breathing in unison, the flat sprint to the first feed zone stretching ahead like a grey ribbon. Somewhere in that mass, a twenty-four-year-old Spaniard was already calculating the mountains three weeks away, already feeling the shape of the race in his legs before a single climb had been conquered. The Tour had begun, and the city would not forget the sound.

Reader's Guide

The 2007 Tour de France is unforgettable for one reason above all: it was the year the race left France to begin, rolling out of London's Olympic Park in a team time trial that felt like a new chapter in the Tour's geography. From that flat, fast opening, the route carved through the French countryside, building stage by stage toward the mountains where the real story would be written.

The general classification battle belonged to Astana. Alberto Contador, only twenty-four, attacked with a fearlessness that made the peloton flinch. He hunted time in breakaways, launched solo moves on the Alpine climbs, and rode the race as though the yellow jersey were already his to defend. His teammate Andreas Klöden, the seasoned German, provided a grinding counterweight, and the two Astana riders finished within a hair's breadth of each other. Denis Menchov, on Rabobank, was the strongest voice outside the Astana camp, holding the third step of the podium through the Pyrenees and the Alps.

The drama was not only in the riding. The team's coordinated tactics, the way Astana controlled the tempo and the breakaways, raised questions that the peloton still debates. And years later, the doping investigations that stripped both Contador and Klöden of their 2007 results recast the entire edition. Yet the mountain stages themselves—Contador's ferocious attacks, the long, lonely climbs—remain etched in the memory of anyone who watched, a snapshot of a rider at the peak of his physical courage, before the institutional machinery caught up with him.

Did You Know?

• The 2007 Tour was the first edition to start outside France, opening with a team time trial in London's Olympic Park.
• Alberto Contador was only 24 years old when he won the 2007 Tour, making him one of the youngest winners in the race's history at the time.
• The top two finishers, Contador and Klöden, rode for the same team (Astana), a result that highlighted the squad's dominant control of the general classification.
• Both Contador and Klöden were later stripped of their 2007 Tour de France results following EPO-related doping investigations.