Tour of Greece

The International Tour of Hellas is a road bicycle racing stage race. It consists of five stages and is usually held between April and May.[1] The race was first held in 1968 as the Antiquities Trophy, and was later known as the Tour of Hellas (or Greece). The race was held sporadically from 1968 until 2012. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) made the race part of the UCI Europe Tour in 2005; the race had previously been held as an amateur event.[2] The race was revived in 2022 as a category 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour.[3][4]

International Tour of Hellas
2023 International Tour of Hellas
Race details
DateApril/May
RegionGreece
Local name(s)Διεθνής Ποδηλατικός Γύρος Ελλάδος (in Greek)
Nickname(s)IToH
DisciplineRoad
CompetitionUCI Europe Tour
TypeStage race
Organiser
Web sitewww.hellas-tour.gr
History
First edition1968 (1968)
Editions19
First winner Gerhard Nielsen (DEN)
Most winsNo repeat winners
Most recent Iúri Leitão (POR)

Cycling Greece is the organizing committee for the race in collaboration with the Hellenic Cycling Federation and the local authorities of the hosting cities.

History

Nikos Kapsokefalos envisioned the organization of the first Tour of Hellas, drawing inspiration from the popularity of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia at the time. The first edition of the race was held in 1968, and was known as the Tour of Ancient Monuments. The first stage was held on 7 October, covering 170 kilometres (110 mi) from Athens to Delphi, and the first overall winner was Danish rider Gerhard Nielsen.

The second edition was held in 1981, 13 years after the first edition. That year, Greek riders completed a podium sweep, with Kanellos Kanellopoulos (PO Patras) becoming the first Greek cyclist to win the race.

After several problems, the race, now known as the Tour of Hellas,[5] returned in 2002. The race went on its most recent hiatus after 2012 due to a lack of financial resources and sponsors.

On 13 December 2021, the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports announced that the race, which was rebranded as the International Tour of Hellas, would return in 2022.[6] [7]

Past winners

Sources: [2][8][9]

Year Winner Second Third
1968  Gerhard Nielsen (DEN)  Noël Vantyghem (BEL)  Břetislav Souček (CZE)
1969–1980 Not Held
1981  Kanellos Kanellopoulos (GRE)  Evaggelos Papadakis (GRE)  Ilias Kelesidis (GRE)
1982  Henri Manders (NED)  Pascal Kolkhuis Tanke (NED)  Dragić Borovičanin (YUG)
1983 Not Held
1984  Asiat Saitov (URS)  Evgeni Korolkov (URS)  Vasily Zhdanov (URS)
1985  Jonas Romanovas (URS)  Marat Ganeyev (URS)  Vassili Schpundov (URS)
1986  Roland Königshofer (AUT)  Kanellos Kanellopoulos (GRE)  Stancho Stanchev (BUL)
1987  Olaf Jentzsch (DDR)  Kanellos Kanellopoulos (GRE)  Jan Schur (DDR)
1988  Gintautas Umaras (URS)  Michel Zanoli (NED)  Dan Radtke (DDR)
1989  Frank Kühn (DDR)  Jan Schur (DDR)  Andreas Wartenberg (DDR)
1990–1997 Not Held
1998  Thomas Liese (GER)  Hristo Zaikov (BUL)  Matthew Stephens (GBR)
1999–2001 Not Held
2002  Fraser MacMaster (NZL)  Philippe Schnyder (SUI)  Adam Gawlik (POL)
2003  Vasilis Anastopoulos (GRE)  Svetoslav Tchanliev (BUL)  Ioannis Tamouridis (GRE)
2004  Assan Bazayev (KAZ)  André Schulze (GER)  Maxim Iglinskiy (KAZ)
2005  Valeriy Dmitriyev (KAZ)  Alexandr Dymovskikh (KAZ)  Nebojša Jovanović (SRB)
2006  Pavel Brutt (RUS)  Vladimir Koev (BUL)  René Andrle (CZE)
2007–2010 Not Held
2011  Stefan Schäfer (GER)  Ioannis Tamouridis (GRE)  Markus Fothen (GER)
2012  Robert Vrečer (SLO)  Davide Rebellin (ITA)  Ioannis Tamouridis (GRE)
2013–2021 Not Held
2022  Aaron Gate (NZL)  Lennert Teugels (BEL)  Mark Stewart (GBR)
2023  Iúri Leitão (POR)  Aaron Gate (NZL)  Stanisław Aniołkowski (POL)

Wins per country
Wins Country
3  Soviet Union
2  Germany
 East Germany
 Greece
 Kazakhstan
 New Zealand
1  Austria
 Denmark
 Netherlands
 Russia
 Slovenia
 Portugal

References
  1. "International Tour of Hellas (Grè) - Cat.2.1". Memoire-du-cyclisme.eu (in French).
  2. "Tour of Hellas". FirstCycling. Retrieved 20 April 2022.
  3. "ΔΕΗ International Tour of Hellas". Union Cycliste Internationale. Archived from the original on 20 April 2022. Retrieved 20 April 2022.
  4. "Palmares International Tour of Hellas". www.procyclingstats.com. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
  5. "Home". hellas-tour.gr. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
  6. "The "ΔΕΗ International Tour of Hellas" returns after 10 years". International Tour of Hellas. Cycling Greece. 13 December 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2022.
  7. "Preview statistics for International Tour of Hellas 2022". www.procyclingstats.com. Retrieved 2022-06-08.
  8. "Top-3 per edition". ProCyclingStats. Retrieved 20 April 2022.
  9. "History". International Tour of Hellas. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
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