McEwen ha vinto sui campi elisi nel 1999 ed ha portato a casa qualche maglia verde: una leggera differenza
Robbie McEwen has participated on the Tour de France on nine occasions, in 1997 (117th), 1998 (89th), 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. He has had eleven stage wins. In 1999 on Stage 20 he won the sprint finish in Paris on the Champs-Elysées. In 2002 he won Stage 3: Metz - Reims and Stage 20: Melun – Paris. In 2004 he won stage 3 and stage 9. In 2005, he was relegated in stage 3 by race referees after clashing with fellow Australian Stuart O’Grady. He was the victor in stage 5 to Montargis, stage 7 to Karlsruhe in Germany and stage 13 to Montpellier.
As of 2006, McEwen has won the sprinters' green jersey points competition three times in the Tour de France in 2002 and 2004 against rival Australian sprinters, Baden Cooke and Stuart O'Grady, and again in 2006 against Erik Zabel and Thor Hushovd. He was the first Australian to win the overall Sprint Classification of the Tour de France.
In 2002 McEwen won the green jersey with O’Grady third and Cooke fourth in the final sprint rankings. In 2003 Baden Cooke won the green jersey with Robbie McEwen second and Stuart O’Grady seventh in the final sprint rankings.
In 2004 McEwen won the green jersey for a second time defeating Thor Hushovd of Norway 2nd, and Erik Zabel of Germany 3rd, with fellow Australians, O'Grady 4th and Cooke 12th. His win was remarkable when it was revealed that he had suffered fractures to two vertebra early in the Tour and had ridden the rest of the race in serious pain. Three days after the Tour de France he was back on the seat coming second behind Lance Armstrong in a post-Tour criterium race in the Netherlands.