Three former winners of the Tour, François Faber, Octave Lapize and Lucien Petit-Breton had died fighting in World War I. Two other former winners, Philippe Thys and Odile Defraye started the race.[1] The war had been only over for seven months, so most cyclists did not have a chance to train enough for the Tour.[2] For that reason, there were almost no new younger cyclists, and the older cyclists dominated the race.[3]
| No. | Starting number worn by the rider during the Tour | |
| Pos. | Position in the general classification | |
| DNF | Denotes a rider who did not finish |
| No. | Name | Nationality | Pos. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DNF | [4] | |||
| 3 | DNF | ||||
| 4 | DNF | ||||
| 6 | DNF | ||||
| 7 | DNF | ||||
| 15 | DNF | ||||
| 19 | 7 | ||||
| 25 | DNF | ||||
| 26 | DNF | ||||
| 37 | DNF | ||||
| 38 | DNF | ||||
| 39 | DNF | ||||
| 40 | DNF | ||||
| 41 | DNF | ||||
| 42 | 2 | ||||
| 43 | DNF | ||||
| 44 | DNF | ||||
| 45 | 1 | ||||
| 46 | 3 | ||||
| 47 | DNF | ||||
| 48 | DNF | ||||
| 49 | 5 | ||||
| 50 | DNF | ||||
| 51 | DNF | ||||
| 52 | DNF | ||||
| 53 | DNF | ||||
| 54 | DNF | ||||
| 55 | 8 | ||||
| 56 | 9 | ||||
| 57 | 4 | ||||
| 58 | DNF | ||||
| 59 | DNF | ||||
| 60 | DNF | ||||
| 61 | DNF | ||||
| 62 | DNF | ||||
| 63 | 6 | ||||
| 65 | DNF | ||||
| 66 | DNF | ||||
| 67 | DNF | ||||
| 68 | DNF | ||||
| 69 | DNF | ||||
| 70 | DNF | ||||
| 72 | DNF | ||||
| 101 | DNF | ||||
| 102 | DNF | ||||
| 103 | DNF | ||||
| 104 | DNF | ||||
| 105 | DNF | ||||
| 106 | DNF | ||||
| 107 | DNF | ||||
| 108 | DNF | ||||
| 113 | DNF | ||||
| 114 | DNF | ||||
| 115 | DNF | ||||
| 119 | DNF | ||||
| 120 | DNF | ||||
| 123 | DNF | ||||
| 125 | DNF | ||||
| 131 | DNF | ||||
| 133 | DNF | ||||
| 137 | DNF | ||||
| 138 | DNF | ||||
| 143 | DNF | ||||
| 149 | DNF | ||||
| 151 | 10 | ||||
| 152 | DNF | ||||
| 155 | DNF |