How a Canadian snagged North America’s first Tour de France yellow jersey 40 years ago

July 5, 2026 is a special date. It will mark 40 years since a Canadian, Coquitlam, B.C.’s Alex Stieda, went on an audacious breakaway and secured the yellow jersey. For a brief moment, Stieda led the Tour de France. He was the first Canadian as well as the first male North American to do so.

This episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast features a close look at Stieda’s historic ride. The discussion starts with his early years in cycling. (“What? Were you bad at hockey?”) In 1980, he won the Tour de l’Abitibi. He took the bronze medal in individual pursuit at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Australia. Then it was on to the 1984 L.A. Olympics for track cycling.

By 1986, he had turned pro. That year, his team, the groundbreaking U.S. outfit 7-Eleven, got an invitation to the Tour de France. For the first official stage of the event, Stieda cooked up a plan that he kept mostly to himself. Find out, from the Canadian Cycling Hall of Famer himself, how it all went down.