In this table the overall times for both the winner and the combined stage winners are shown. The difference between these is shown in the "Deficit"column. This is one of many possible ways to compare the styles of various winners and the context in which they operated because it indicates the extent to which each was close to the action every day. I have included it as a diversion from winners being judged by the size of the gap to their runner-up. A small deficit shows that the winner was well placed on each stage and always close to the action. This had to be be a product of his tactics and ability and also of the overall tightness of the race. A big deficit shows that he allowed other riders to gain ground on various stages(or was unable to prevent this). He could have done this because they were no danger in the overall classification. It may be that the race between the leading contenders overall could have been happening a long way behind the leaders on the day. Or it might have been because it was a turbulent race full of ups and downs. The scale from small deficit to big should not be read from either end as a scale of merit but rather as just another way of looking at the subject and a contribution to pub talk. A distorting factor is the giving of a bonus of one minute to a race-leader on each day on which he retained the jersey. This practice, which was common internationally at this time, was discontinued after 1959. Time bonuses were given to stage winners and placed riders up to 1972 and these also distort the deficit.They also gave an incentive for a leader who was not confident of his sprinting ability to let a non-challenger overall sweep up the bonuses which otherwise might be taken by the challenger for overall. In 1960 the overall winner was 9 seconds faster than the combined stage winners. As this is an impossibility I can only suggest that a mistake was made in calculating general classification times on some stage. The extremes in each column are highlighted in red and green.
		Stage Winners'		Winner's
Year	Kms.	Time	Average	Time	Average	Deficit	Winner
1953	320.0	09:20:39	34.2	09:20:39	34.2	Nil	Colm Christle
1954	1450.0	39:57:23	36.3	40:03:29	36.2	0:06:06	Joe O Brien
1955	1376.4	37:36:58	36.6	37:47:19	36.4	0:10:21	Gene Mangan
1956	1321.8	37:07:03	35.6	37:15:37	35.5	0:08:34	Paudie Fitzgerald
1957	1404.8	39:54:03	35.2	40:00:57	35.1	0:06:54	Frank Ward
1958	1494.0	40:43:44	36.7	40:47:35	36.6	0:03:51	Mick Murphy
1959	1486.0	43:12:27	34.4	43:18:20	34.3	0:05:53	Ben McKenna
1960	1385.6	35:48:00	38.7	35:47:51	38.7	(0:00:09)	Paddy Flanagan
1961	1474.2	42:44:44	34.5	43:05:19	34.2	0:20:35	Tom Finn
1962	1344.0	36:03:13	37.3	36:06:36	37.2	0:03:23	Sé O Hanlon
1963	1277.0	33:57:44	37.6	34:09:17	37.4	0:11:33	Z. Glowaty
1964	1163.0	32:04:28	36.3	32:19:54	36.0	0:15:26	Paddy Flanagan
1965	1156.8	32:19:56	35.8	32:27:20	35.6	0:07:24	Sé O Hanlon
1966	1021.6	24:54:34	41.0	25:02:38	40.8	0:08:04	Sé O Hanlon
1967	1065.0	25:43:15	41.4	25:50:07	41.2	0:06:52	Sé O Hanlon
1968	1497.0	37:16:24	40.2	37:33:01	39.9	0:16:37	Milan Hrazdira
1969	1320.0	24:32:42	38.2	24:48:55	37.9	0:16:13	Brian Connaughton
1970	1415.0	36:43:44	38.5	36:58:12	38.3	0:14:28	A. Gysiatnikov
1971	1357.0	37:29:57	36.2	37:37:06	36.1	0:07:09	Com Nulty
1972	1358.4	36:42:50	37.0	36:58:33	36.7	0:15:43	John Mangan
1973	1464.2	40:55:31	35.8	41:04:16	35.7	0:08:45	Mike O Donaghue
1974	1164.0	29:14:51	39.8	29:21:32	39.6	0:06:41	Peter Doyle
1975	1100.0	29:02:04	37.9	29:08:59	37.7	0:06:54	Paddy Flanagan
1976	1200.2	31:55:37	37.6	32:05:31	37.4	0:09:54	F. Steuten
1977	1258.0	32:24:38	38.8	32:46:30	38.4	0:21:52	Y. Lavyrushkin
1978	1226.6	30:12:14	40.6	30:22:34	40.4	0:10:20	Séamus Kennedy
1979	1248.3	31:16:38	39.9	31:26:23	39.7	0:09:45	Stephen Roche
1980	1278.4	30:55:12	41.3	31:02:31	41.2	0:07:19	Billy Kerr
1981	1263.4	30:33:44	41.3	31:14:02	40.4	0:40:18	Jamie McGahan
1982	1333.8	33:32:35	39.8	33:46:22	39.5	0:13:47	Dermot Gilleran
1983	1298.0	32:23:45	40.1	32:34:00	39.9	0:10:15	Philip Cassidy
1984	1316.0	31:23:49	41.9	31:31:45	41.7	0:07:56	Stephen Delany
1985	1289.0	31:31:43	40.9	31:47:25	40.5	0:15:42	N. Kosiakov
1986	1196.3	31:02:22	38.5	31:17:24	38.2	0:15:02	Stephen Spratt
1987	1242.5	30:50:31	40.3	31:00:11	40.1	0:09:40	Paul McCormack
1988	1450.7	34:22:30	42.2	34:28:41	42.1	0:06:11	Paul McCormack
1989	1367.0	34:37:48	39.5	35:03:07	39.0	0:25:19	D. Ozolse
1990	1211.0	29:22:21	41.2	29:30:16	41.0	0:07:55	Ian Chivers
1991	1282.0	32:55:46	38.9	33:06:56	38.7	0:11:10	Kevin Kimmage
1992	1247.0	32:45:26	38.1	33:06:56	37.7	0:21:30	Stephen Spratt
1993	1291.9	30:35:01	42.2	30:41:20	42.1	0:06:19	Eamonn Byrne
1994	1292.2	30:14:40	42.7	30:19:22	42.6	0:04:42	Declan Lonergan
1995	1289.8	31:32:38	40.9	31:45:24	40.6	0:12:46	Paul McQuaid
1996	1344.0	32:09:35	41.8	32:22:05	41.6	0:12:30	Tommy Evans
1997	1255.7	30:01:38	41.8	30:09:11	41.6	0:07:43	Andrew Roche
1998	1260.8	29:38:35	42.5	29:44:49	42.4	0:06:14	Ciarán Power
1999	1287.4	30:51:43	41.7	30:56:04	41.6	0:04:21	Philip Cassidy
2000	1280.0	31:16:21	40.9	31:23:40	40.8	0:07:19	Julian Winn
2001	1114.0	25:51:58	43.1	25:52:31	43.0	0:00:33	Paul Manning
2002	1176.7	28:14:20	41.7	28:15:42	41.6	0:01:22	Ciarán Power
2003	1187.8	29:02:43	40.9	29:10:10	40.7	0:07:27	C. Newton
2004	1147.4	27:14:37	42.1	27:17:12	42.0	0:02:35	David McCann
2005	1094.8	26:32:35	41.2	26:32:39	41.2	C. Newton