1969 Tour de France

The 1969 Tour de France was the 56th edition, held from 28 June to 20 July over 22 stages and 4,117 km, with commercially sponsored teams back in place of the national teams of 1967 and 1968. Eddy Merckx dominated completely: only Roger Pingeon finished within twenty minutes of him, tenth place was almost 53 minutes back and twentieth more than an hour and a quarter. It is the only Tour in which one rider has won the general, points and mountains classifications; Merckx also took the combination classification and the combativity award, and his team won the team prize. He had been thrown off the Giro d'Italia while leading after a positive doping test and was at first barred from the Tour, before the suspension was lifted. Thirteen teams of ten started and there were no rest days.