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Internet TdF Game: History

This is an overview of the different editions of the Internet Tour de France Game. The first edition of the game was held in 1994.

Participants and winners

The next table lists each edition (column Year) with the number of participants that year (Part), the number of different countries they represented (Coun), the number of stages that took part in the game (Stag), the highest attainable overall score (Max), the number of points collected by the winner (Poin) and the name and the country of the winner.

Year  Part Coun Stag  Max Poin Winner
2009   546   39   18  726  599 Thomas Storrødvann (Norway)
2008   447   30   19  763  673 Tom Denters (The Netherlands)
2007   631   34   19  797  601 Rune Førsund (Norway)
2006   646   37   19  890  781 Arthur Denneman (The Netherlands)
2005   903   43   18  635  535 Amadeus Bike (The Netherlands)
2004  1200   40   18  897  706 Arthur Denneman (The Netherlands)
2003  1351   45   18  729  585 Belinda Ward (USA)
2002  1142   39   18  761  629 Martin Smits (The Netherlands)
2001  1100   39   18  789  651 Reinier van Olderen (The Netherlands)
2000   826   31   18  730  525 Etienne Gaasenbeek (The Netherlands)
1999   817   33   19  820  743 Michael Botzet (Germany)
1998   813   35   19  738  564 Tako Molanus (The Netherlands)
1997  1147   36   20  860  749 Kees Winder (The Netherlands)
1996   461   25   20  832  606 Wieger van Brug (The Netherlands)
1995   241   20   18  846  666 Frank Koper (The Netherlands)
1994    36    4   19  893  520 Marko Borst (The Netherlands)

The reasons for the different numbers of stages used in the game are differences in the number of rest days (currently 2 but 1 before 1999), the inclusion or absence of the team trial (absent in 1996-1999, 2006-) and the presence of a neutralized stage in the editions of 1995 and 1998.

Game veterans

Here is a list of participants that have frequently taken part in the 16 editions of the game:

Plc Eds  Name
 1.  16  Erik TKS, Tako Molanus
 3.  15  Benoît Rey, Erix Schokker, Frank Koper, Gosse Bouma,
         Guus van Zadelhoff, Marcel Spanjer, Nico Wienders
10.  14  Arthur Denneman, Bret Jaeger, David Marshall, Francis Stalpers,
         Marko Tukic, Michael McQuillen, Remco van Veenendaal, Rien Post,
         Robert Beernink
19.  13  Bert Platt, Bojan Kozelj, Chad Lennon, Christoph Kersten, 
         Dex Tooke, Gerard Creemers, Graeme Camp, Jos Droste, 
         Kevin Mathers, Matthias Kersten, Michael Botzet, Steve Smith, 
         Tom Scanlon, Wim Penninx
33.  12  Anton Cozijnsen, Constant Martini, Edwin Saunders, 
         Harrie Wintermans, Hugo Paulissen, Jeroen van Koert, Joel Hull, 
         Ken Charbonneau, Michael Smukler, Michel Oberson, Mike Ross, 
         Randall Cockroft, Ria Molanus, Robin van Koert, Stefano Heyer

Altogether, 47 participants have taken part in the game twelve times or more often. The robot participant Jan Modaal has also been present in all editions of the game. There is an overview of veteran performance up until 2006.

Records

Since the maximum attainable overall score is different in every edition, it would not be fair to make a list of the highest overall scores in the game. An overview of the highest stage scores is kept on a separate page. The current record holders are Bevo Gallagher (USA) and Dimitri van Agterveld (The Netherlands) with 114 points (2006). Dimitri van Agterveld is the only participant in the history of the game that had all members of a stage top ten in his team top ten (in stage 2 of 2006).

Here we keep an overview of stage winners, more in particular those participants that have been able to win stages in different editions of the game:

Plc Eds Stg Name (Years)
  1.  8  14  Erix Schokker (1995:2,1996:3,1998,1999,2001,2002,2007:4,2009)
  2.  5  11  Erik TKS (1994:5,1995:3,2000,2006,2007)
  3.  5   6  Wicher Otten (1999,2001,2002,2007:2,2008)
  4.  3   4  Jose Aarts (2000:2,2008,2009) 
      3   4  Maaike Kuipers (2002:2,2005,2006)
  6.  3   3  Dick Blom (1999,2001,2006)
      3   3  Martin Hoffellner (2005,2007,2009)
      3   3  Tore Högman (2002,2006,2009)
  9.  2   4  Bastin Verweij (2006,2009:3)
 10.  2   3  Bevo Gallagher (2006:2,2008)
      2   3  Rien Post (2001:2,2002)
 12.  2   2  Gary Timberlake (2008,2009)
      2   2  Wim Penninx (1994,1995)
      2   2  Severine Chaumette (2005,2007)
      2   2  Sander Kaspers (1998,2002)
      2   2  Rob Spaans (1998,2007)
      2   2  Reinier van Olderen (2006,2007)
      2   2  Olle Olausson (2003,2006)
      2   2  Jan Matheeuwsen (2004,2006)
      2   2  Berthold B. Journaille (1998,1999)
      2   2  Anton Cozijnsen (1998,2009)

The list contains the rank of the participant (Plc), the number of different editions in which he won a stage (Eds), the total number of stage wins (Stg), the participant's name and the years of the stage wins). Nineteen participants have been able to win stages in more than one edition of the game.

More than 25 participants have won more than one stage in a single edition of the game. Obviously this was easier in the earlier game editions when there were not that many participants. Only two participants have been able to win more than three stages in one year after the first edition of the game in 1994: Erix Schokker of The Netherlands (4 in 2007) and Evert Molanus (5 in 2008).

Only eight participants have managed to hold the overall lead in different editions of the game. Reinier van Olderen won the game in 2001 after leading for eight stages and held the lead for one stage in 2002. Arthur Denneman won the game on the final day both in 2004 and 2006. In 2004 he spend an additional six days on top of the rankings. Brigitte Touw spent one day on top in the overall rankings in 2007 and six in 2006. Rune Førsund won the game in 2007, leading for six stages, and led for nine stages in 2009. Bastin Verweij held the lead both in 2007 (3) and 2009. Rien Post, Erix Schokker Martin Hoffellner are the only participants that have been on the top of the overall rankings in three different editions of the game. Post led in 1999 (for 1 stage), 2001 (1) and 2002 (4). Schokker held the lead in 1996 (7), 2002 (1) and 2007 (1). Hoffellner accomplished this feat in the years 2005 (1), 2007 (1) and 2009 (1).

Two participants have managed to obtain three top ten positions in the final overall rankings of the game: Arthur Denneman (2001:6; 2004:1; 2006:1) and Dimitri van Agterveld (1999:4; 2002:10; 2006:3). Six others appeared in these top tens twice: Bryan Stout (2008:2; 2009:8), Daniel McQuillen (2001:5; 2002:4), Erik-Jan Meles (1999:3; 2000:10), Hans Splinter (1998:3; 2002:5), Michael Botzet (1999:1; 2004:4) and Rob Spaans (1998:3; 2004:8).