Tour de France

Table of contents

1 Overview
2 Winners list
3 Records
4 The Jerseys
5 Annual summarizations
6 Other Tours de France

Overview

The (Le) Tour de France (French for Tour of France), also simply known as Le Tour, is an epic long distance cycling competition for professionals held over three weeks in July in and around France. It has been held annually since 1903, only interrupted by World War I and World War II. The race was founded as a publicity event for the newspaper L'Auto (ancestor of the present l'Équipe) by its editor, Henri Desgrange, to rival the Paris-Brest et retour (PBP) ride sponsored by Le Petit Journal and Bordeaux-Paris sponsored by Le Vélo.

In the early days of the race, it was a near-continuous endurance event. Racers slept by the side of the road and were required to avoid all assistance. Several competitors in the second Tour de France were disqualified for taking a train part of the way. These days, the tour is a "stage race", divided into a number of stages, each stage being a race held over one day. There are service vehicles (motorcycles and cars) that provide information, food, water, and access to mechanics. Some of the vehicles are "neutral" for all the racers and some are team vehicles.

Most stages take place in France though it is very common to have a few stages in nearby countries, such as Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany, but also non-neighbouring countries such as Ireland, England and the Netherlands. The three weeks usually includes two resting days, which are sometimes used to transport the riders long distances between stages.

In recent years, the first stage is preceded by a short individual time trial (1 to 15 km), called the prologue. The traditional finish is in Paris on the Champs-Elysées. In between, various stages occur, including a number of mountain stages, individual time trials and a team time trial. The remaining stages are held over relatively flat terrain. With the variety of stages, sprinters may win stages, but the overall winner is almost always a master of the mountain stages and time trials.

Many places and - especially - mountains occur frequently (sometimes almost annually) in the parcours, and have gained fame on their own. The most famous mountains are those in the hors-categorie (peaks where the difficulty in climbing is beyond catagorization), including the Col du Tourmalet, Mont Ventoux, Col du Galibier, the Hautacam and Alpe d'Huez (more needed).

Other major stage races include the Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) and the Vuelta a Espana (Tour of Spain). The Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and World Cycling Championship comprise the Triple Crown of Cycling.

The yellow jersey ("maillot jaune"), worn by the overall time leader, is most prized. It is awarded by calculating the total time each rider has been riding - i.e. by adding the times taken to complete each stage so far. The rider with the lowest total time is considered the leader, and at the end of the event is declared the overall winner of the Tour. The colour was originally a reference to the newspaper which sponsored the race, which had yellow pages.

The green jersey ("maillot vert") is awarded for sprint points. At the end of each stage, points for this jersey are gained by the riders who finish first, second etcetera. The number of points depends on the type of stage - many for a flat stage, slightly fewer for an intermediate stage, fewer still for a mountainous stage, and the least for time trials. There are also a few points for the riders who are first at some intermediate points, usually about 2 per stage. At those intermediate points (as well as at the finish) there are also bonus seconds for the yellow jersey, but those are so few that they rarely if ever have an influence on the final standings. They do however play a role in the first week, before the mountain stages, as the overall standings are usually less well separated.

The "King of the Mountains" wears a white jersey with red dots (maillot à pois), referred to as the "polka dot jersey". At the top of each climb in the Tour, there are points for the riders who are first over the top. The climbs are divided into categories from 1 (most difficult) to 4 (least difficult) based on their difficulty, measured as a function of their steepness and length. A fifth category, called Hors categorie (outside category) is formed by mountains even more difficult than those of the first category. The first rider over a fourth category climb would be awarded 5 points while the first to complete a hors category climb would win 40 points. Further points over a fourth category climb are only for the top three places while on a hors category climb the first fifteen riders are rewarded. The best climber was first recognised in 1933, the distinctive jersey was not introduced until 1975, the colours being decided by the then sponsor, Poulain Chocolate, to match a popular product.

Two lesser classifications are that for the white jersey, which is like the yellow jersey, but only open for young riders under twenty five years of age, and that for the red number, which goes to the most combative rider. Each day, a group of judges awards points to riders who made particularly attacking moves that day. The rider with most points in total gets a white-on-red (instead of a black-on-white) identification number.

Finally, there is a teams classification. For this classification, the time of the first three riders from each team is added after each stage. The Tour has around 20 teams of 9 riders each (when starting), each sponsored by one or more companies - although at some stages of its history, the teams have been divided instead by nationality.

Tour de France Official Website: http://www.letour.fr

Annual summarizations

2001 - an overview and results list of the Tour de France of 2001
2002 - an overview and results list of the Tour de France of 2002
2003 - an overview and results list of the Tour de France of 2003
2004 - an overview of the Tour de France of 2004

Other Tours de France

Tour de France is also the title of a Kraftwerk song about the race itself. It was released as a single during the 1980s. The song uses "musical onomatopoeia" of bicyclers breathing hard in order to recreate the struggle of riding hard during the race.
The Tour de France automobile was a sports car race held on roads around France. Cancelled due to its being too dangerous, it is now run at reduced speeds for historic cars.