Who became the first non-French winner of the Tour de France in 1909?

François Faber became the first non-French winner of the Tour de France in 1909.

Faber was Luxembourgish, although he was born in France and spent much of his life there. Riding for the Alcyon team, he won the seventh Tour de France after finishing second in 1908. His victory came during one of the race’s harshest early editions, marked by cold, rain, snow and difficult roads.

Faber dominated the middle of the race by winning five consecutive stages, from the second through the sixth. That streak remains one of the most enduring records from the Tour’s pioneering era. In the second stage, he reportedly rode the final 200 kilometres alone after breaking away.

The 1909 general classification was calculated by points rather than accumulated time: the rider with the fewest points won. Faber finished with 37 points, ahead of Frenchman Gustave Garrigou on 57. A common mix-up is to name Belgian Cyrille van Hauwaert, who led the race after winning the opening stage; Faber, however, was the first non-French rider to win the overall Tour.