How do you win the Tour de France without winning a stage?

Question

I understand that it is your overall time that counts, but I thought if you came in the peloton your time was the same as everyone else's in the same group, and they always seem to finish in one massive group. So how do you get the best time by consistently getting the same time as other people?

Answer 1

you can place high without winning a stage and make time on the field.  lets say you were in a two man break on a climb and gained time over the rest of the pack that put you in yellow.  you might let the other rider win the day for helping you, so you would finish second on the stage, but have the overall lead.  other days like time trials where there is no pack also come into play.  again you could gain time on the race leaders and still not actually win the day.

Answer 2

Yeah, all you have to do is consistently finish ahead of your competitors. While the peleton does finish in a group on flat stages, this never happens on a climbing stage.

Answer 3

You must be ahead of the Peloton for one or more of the races, so that your overall time is less.

from wikipedia

"LeMond won the Tour for the third time in 1990. This Tour saw a group including Claudio Chiappucci, then at the start of his career and relatively unknown, gain a lead of 10 minutes 35 seconds in the first stage, which LeMond steadily chipped away through the mountain stages leaving Chiappucci with a five-second lead before the final individual time trial. LeMond placed fifth in the time trial, beating Chiappucci by more than two minutes and taking the lead of the race. He became one of the few cyclists to win the Tour without winning a stage."

Answer 4

If you are always up with the leaders while others fluctuate and do really good but then die on other stages you could win.  Lance armstrong holds back in the first stages then win one of the mountain stages then takes a few more later on .  he saves himself.  He doesn't have to win he just has to stay towards the top in the first few stages to stay with the group.  If all the leaders up to this point die in the mountains he could stay up with the new people that were in the back before that are now winning.  

Consistancy wins not stage wins.

Answer 5

As well as the wonderful answers given already, there is also the chance of winning time bonuses whilst out on the road. These 'primes' were originally used to spice up the racing on less demanding stages.

The tour runs a bit like the formula 1 car racing thing. You don't have to win any races in order to become world champion, but you have to have scored more points than the other drivers.

In the tour, it's the overall time taken to complete the course that gives the winner. A consistent rider might achieve a lower overall time than a rider that gave their all on one day in order to win a stage and then had no energy for the next few days.

Often towards the end of the tour, teams that probably have no chance of overall victory will mount attacks in order to win a stage.

This gives publicity to the rider, the team and equally importantly the sponsors.

Answer 6

it is never the same person who keeps winning all the stages, some riders do virtually nothing then win a stage easy but their overall time will still be quite high, whereas others just keep in with the peloton and every so often finish a few seconds or minutes in front of the peloton extending their lead without actually winning the stage.