What is a Grand Tour?

Jamie Woodland

What is a Grand Tour? The Giro, Tour de France and Vuelta explained — how three-week stage races work, how you win one, and what the jerseys mean.

Back to blog

Cycling has three Grand Tours: the Giro d'Italia in May, the Tour de France in July, and the Vuelta a España in August. They are the longest, hardest and most prestigious races in the sport — three weeks each, the best riders in the world, and a winner who has to be good at more things than seems entirely fair.

If you're new to the sport, this is the place to start. Get the framework straight once, and every stage you watch afterwards makes more sense.

The three Grand Tours

A Grand Tour is a three-week stage race, and there are three of them. Together they anchor the road season:

  • The Giro d'Italia — Italy, every May. The race leader wears pink (the maglia rosa).
  • The Tour de France — France, every July. The leader wears yellow (the maillot jaune). The biggest of the three, and the biggest annual sporting event on earth.
  • The Vuelta a España — Spain, every August into September. The leader wears red (la roja).

They share the same framework. 21 stages across three weeks, broken up by 2 rest days. 184 riders line up — 23 teams of 8 — and cover roughly 3,500km in total, over whatever mountains the organisers can find. Flat days for the sprinters, rolling days for the breakaway, brutal days in the high mountains, and a time trial or two alone against the clock. Finish all 21 and you've done something most people never will.

"There's more than one way to win one"

How do you win a Grand Tour?

Here's the part that surprises people: there's more than one way to win one.

Cycling is a team sport. Just like in football or rugby, each team hands its riders specific roles based on what they're good at — and over time riders become specialists. Those specialisms map onto what the sport calls Classifications. Win a classification and you've won a piece of a Grand Tour, even if you never cross a line first overall. There are three main ones:

  1. General Classification (the GC). Total time across all 21 stages added up. Lowest cumulative time leads — and the overall GC winner is the one history remembers. This is the big one.
  2. Mountains. Points for being first over categorised climbs. The best pure climbers fight for it — though a clever breakaway rider can steal the points before the favourites ever get there.
  3. Points. Awarded at the stage finishes and at intermediate sprints along the way, weighted towards the flatter days — so it tends to end up on the back of a sprinter.
Bradley Wiggins in the yellow jersey winning the Tour de France general classification
Justine Ghekiere climbing in the mountains at the Tour de France Femmes
Wout van Aert winning a bunch sprint at the Tour de France

At the end of each day the leader of each classification is handed a Leader's Jersey to wear the next day. That's the quiet genius of the whole thing: you can look at the bunch and read the race straight off their backs — who leads overall, who's the best climber, who's the fastest finisher. Each race has its own colours and names for those jerseys, which we break down in the individual guides.

That's the framework. Now pick your race:

Grand Tour FAQs.

How many Grand Tours are there?

Three: the Giro d'Italia in May, the Tour de France in July, and the Vuelta a España in August.

How long is a Grand Tour?

Three weeks — 21 stages and 2 rest days, around 3,500km in total.

Which Grand Tour is the biggest?

The Tour de France: the biggest annual sporting event in the world.

How do you win a Grand Tour?

By winning a classification. The main one is the General Classification — lowest total time across all 21 stages — alongside the Mountains and Points classifications.