Tour de l'Avenir ( en, Tour of the Future) is a French

road bicycle racing Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...

stage race, which started in 1961 as a race similar to the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consist ...

and over much of the same course but for amateurs and for semi-professionals known as independents. Felice Gimondi, Joop Zoetemelk, Greg LeMond, Miguel Indurain, Laurent Fignon, Egan Bernal, and Tadej Pogačar won the Tour de l'Avenir and went on to win 15 Tours de France, with an additional 10 podium placings between them. The race was created in 1961 by Jacques Marchand, the editor of '' L'Équipe'', to attract teams from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and other communist nations that had no professional riders to enter the

. Until 1967, it took place earlier the same day as some of the stages of the Tour de France and shared the latter part of each stage's route, but moved to September and a separate course from 1968 onwards. It became the Grand Prix de l'Avenir in 1970, the Trophée Peugeot de l'Avenir from 1972 to 1979 and the Tour de la Communauté Européenne from 1986 to 1990. It was restricted to amateurs from 1961 to 1980, before opening to professionals in 1981. After 1992, it was open to all riders who were less than 25 years old. Since 2007 it is for riders 23 or younger. Since 2007, the tour has been a national team competition.

Winners

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tour De L'avenir Cycle races in France Men's road bicycle races Recurring sporting events established in 1961 1961 establishments in France Super Prestige Pernod races