This essay examines the part that non-French riders have played in the cultural construction of the Tour. It is argued that riders such as the Italian Fausto Coppi and the British rider Tom Simpson played key symbolic roles in the post-war 'European period' of the Tour. Both were seen as examples of a forward-looking European cosmopolitanism, in which France sought to play an important role. In contrast to this, since the 1980s the number of foreign riders in the Tour has risen, and the event has taken on a more 'globalized' aspect. However, hostility in France to economic globalization has been reflected in a somewhat ambivalent reaction to the success of the American rider Lance Armstrong.