1981 Tour de France - Aftermath

Aftermath

The 1981 Tour de France is seen as the year in which the globalization of the Tour became important. Before, the most cyclists come from France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Luxemburg and the Netherlands, with only occasional success from other European cyclists. Anderson was the first non-European cyclist to lead the Tour de France, and more would follow in the coming years. The plans to make the Tour de France open to amateurs were not forgotten, and it happened in 1983.

Anderson would again wear the yellow jersey in the next year, when he also won the young rider classification.

Hinault won five stages as reigning world champion. This had happened before, most recently in 1979 with Gerrie Knetemann and in 1980 with Jan Raas, but after 1981 it became a rare occurrence. The next time that this happened was in 2002 with Oscar Freire, and after that in 2011 with Thor Hushovd.

Maertens would make his comeback year complete by winning the 1981 UCI Road World Championships later that year, but after that never reached his 1981 level again.