Tour de France

Le Tour de France (Tour of France), often referred to as La Grande Boucle, Le Tour or The Tour, is the most famous and prestigious road bicycle race in the world. With the exception of war years, it has been held annually since 1903. It is a long-distance stage race competition for professional cycling teams, traveling through France and other countries over three weeks each July. The winner is the individual who finishes in the least accumulated time.

The Tour de France, Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) and Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain) are the three major stage races and the longest of the UCI Calendar at three weeks each. While the other two European Grand Tours are well-known in Europe, they are relatively unknown outside the continent, and even the UCI World Cycling Championship is familiar only to cycling enthusiasts. The Tour de France, in contrast, has long been a household name around the globe, even among those not generally interested in professional cycling; it is for cycling what the FIFA World Cup is to football in global popularity.

History

The Tour was founded as a publicity event for the newspaper L'Auto (predecessor to the present l'Équipe) by its editor, Henri Desgrange, to rival the Paris-Brest et retour ride (sponsored by Le Petit Journal), and Bordeaux-Paris. [citation needed] The idea for a round-France stage race came from one of Desgrange's youngest journalists, Georges Lefèvre, with whom Desgrange had lunch at what is now the TGI Fridays bar in Montmartre in Paris on November 20, 1902. L'Auto announced the race on January 19, 1903.

It proved a great success for the newspaper; increasing circulation from 25,000 before the 1903 Tour to 65,000 after it; in 1908 the race boosted circulation past a quarter of a million, and during the 1923 Tour it was selling 500,000 copies a day. The record circulation claimed by Desgrange was 854,000, achieved during the 1933 Tour. [citation needed] Today, the Tour is organized by the Société du Tour de France, a subsidiary of Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), which is part of the media group that owns l'Équipe.

The Tour is a "stage race" divided into a number of stages, each being a race held over one day. The time each rider takes to complete each stage is recorded and accumulated. Riders are often awarded time bonuses as well as their prizes for finishing well. Riders who finish in the same group are awarded the same time. Two riders are said to have finished in the same group if there is less than the length of a bike between them. A rider who crashes in the last three kilometres is given the time of the group in which he would have otherwise finished.

The ranking of riders by accumulated time is known as the General Classification. The winner is the rider with the least accumulated time after the final day. It is possible to win the overall race without winning any individual daily stages (which Greg LeMond did in 1990). Winning a stage is considered a great achievement, more prestigious than winning most single day races. Although the number of stages has varied, the modern Tour has consisted of about 20 stages and a total length of 3,000 to 4,000km. There are subsidiary competitions within the race (see below), some with distinctive jerseys for the best rider.

The Tour is contested by teams backed by commercial sponsors, but the event began for individuals; slipstreaming and other tactics were savagely condemned by Desgrange and he accepted their inevitability only during the 1920s. Even when commercial teams had become commonplace in other events, the Tour was contested by national teams from 1930 to 1961 and again in 1967 and 1968, in both cases because the organisers felt that sponsors were detracting from the sporting quality of the race.

Most stages take place in France though it is common to have stages in nearby countries, such as Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom (visited in 1974 and 1994 and start of the 2007 tour). The three weeks usually includes two rest days, sometimes used to transport riders long distances between stages.

In recent years, the Tour has been preceded by a short individual time trial (1 to 15km) called the prologue. Since 1975, the finish has been in Paris on the Champs-Élysées, the only time the city's most symbolic avenue is closed other than for the processions of July 14, the national holiday.

Stages of the Tour can be flat, undulating or mountainous. They are normally contested by all the riders starting together with the first over the line being accorded the victory, but they can also be run as races against the clock for individuals or teams. The time-trials often have a significant effect on the overall outcome because they separate riders by significant margins, whereas in some conventional stages the participants finish together or in a few large groups. The overall winner is almost always a master of the mountain stages and time trials.

The race alternates each year between clockwise and anti-clockwise circuits of France. For example, 2005 was a clockwise direction Tour — visiting the Alps first and then the Pyrenees — while the 2006 race went in reverse order. For the first half of its history, the Tour was a near-continuous loop, often running close to France's borders. Rules intended to restrict drug-taking have since the 1960s limited the overall distance, the daily distance and the number of days raced consecutively, and the modern Tour frequently skips between one city or one region and another.

A feature of the Tour almost from the start has been the mountains. The roads that climb them are now in good condition but at first they were no more than tracks of hard-packed earth on which riders frequently had to get off and push their bicycles. Even into the 1950s and 1960s, the road at the summit of mountains could be potholed and strewn with small rocks.

Mountain passes such as the Tourmalet in the Pyrenees have been made famous by the Tour de France and they attract large numbers of amateur cyclists every day in summer, anxious to test their fitness on roads used by the champions. The difficulty of climbs is established in a complex formula that rates a mountain by its steepness (the Tourmalet is around 10 per cent most the way), its length (14km for the Tourmalet) and its position on the course. The easiest climbs are graded 4, most of the hardest as 1 and the exceptional (such as the Tourmalet) as unclassified, or "hors-catégorie".

Some recur almost annually. The most famous hors-catégorie peaks include the Col du Tourmalet, Mont Ventoux, Col du Galibier, the climb to the ski resort of Hautacam, and Alpe d'Huez.

From 1984 to 2003 there was a race called La Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale, often considered Tour de France for women.

Tour directors
1903 to 1939 Henri Desgrange
1947 to 1961 Jacques Goddet
1962 to 1986 Jacques Goddet and Félix Lévitan
1987 to 1988 Jean-François Naquet-Radiguet
1988 to 1989 Jean-Pierre Courcol
1989 to 2005 Jean-Marie Leblanc
2005 to present Christian Prudhomme

Classification jerseys
Apart from the overall competition of winning the Tour, each race has two further classifications: the points and the mountain competitions. Tallied at the end of each stage, the current leaders of the three competitions are required to wear a distinctive jersey next day. Jerseys are awarded in a ceremony after each stage, sometimes before trailing riders have finished the stage. When a single rider is entitled to more than one jersey, he wears the most prestigious and the second-placed rider in each of the other classifications wears the corresponding jersey.

For example, in the first week it is common for the overall classification (yellow jersey) and points (sprint) competition (green jersey) to be led by the same rider. In this case the leading rider will wear the yellow jersey and the rider placed second in the points competition will wear the green jersey.

The Tour's jersey colours have been adopted by other cycling stage races, and have thus come to have meaning within cycling generally, rather than solely in the Tour. For example, the Tour of Britain has yellow, green, and polka-dot jerseys with the same meaning as in the Tour de France. The Giro d’Italia differs in awarding the overall leader a pink jersey, having been organized and sponsored by La Gazzetta dello Sport, an Italian sports daily newspaper with pink pages.

Overall leader
Main article: maillot jaune

Seven-time winner Lance Armstrong in the maillot jaune.The maillot jaune (yellow jersey), which is worn by the overall time leader, is the most prized. It is awarded by calculating the total combined race time up to that point for each rider. The rider with the lowest total time is the leader, and at the end of the event is declared the overall winner of the Tour. Desgrange added the yellow jersey in 1919 because he wanted the race leader to wear something distinctive and because the pages of his magazine, L'Auto, were yellow. [citation needed] Additional time bonuses, in the form of a number of seconds to be deducted from the rider's overall time, are available to the first 3 riders to finish the stage or cross an intermediate sprint (see below). As of 2005, the first 3 places to finish are awarded bonuses of 20, 12, and 8 seconds respectively, while the first 3 places at intermediate sprints are awarded 6, 4, and 2 seconds. However, these bonuses are rarely significant enough to cause major upset in the classement géneral (General Classification).

Sometimes a rider takes the overall lead during a stage and gets sufficiently far ahead of the yellow jersey wearer his current lead is greater than his time deficit to the yellow jersey in the general classification; when this happens, this rider may be referred to as being "the yellow jersey on the road". Obviously, no jerseys can be exchanged in this situation, which is why in some other languages the leading rider is referred to as the "virtual yellow".

Points competition
Main article: maillot vert
The maillot vert (green jersey) is awarded for sprint points. At the end of each stage, points are earned by the riders who finish first, second, etc. The number of points for each place and the number of riders rewarded varies depending on the stage - flat stages give 35 points down to 1 point for 25th; medium mountain stages give 25 points down to 1 for 20th; high mountain stages give 20 points down to 1 for the 15th. This is because, generally speaking, the more mountainous a stage is, the less likely is a sprint finish between many riders. Points are also awarded for individual time trials: 15 for the winner down to 1 for 10th. Additional points are available for sprints along the route, often two or three times a day, with the idea of pepping up the race.

King of the Mountains
Main article: Polka dot jersey

Michael Rasmussen wearing the polka dot jersey in 2005.The "King of the Mountains" wears a white jersey with red dots (maillot à pois rouges), referred to as the "polka dot jersey" and inspired by a jersey that the former organiser, Félix Lévitan saw while at the Vélodrome d'Hiver track in Paris in his youth. The vivid design of red dots on a white background is not popular with riders.

The competition is calculated by points awarded to the first riders at the top of designated hills and mountains, the greatest number of points being awarded for the hardest ascents. Although the best climber was first recognised in 1933, the jersey was not introduced until 1975.

Other classifications
There are three lesser classifications, though only one awards the leader with a jersey. The maillot blanc (white jersey) is for the best-placed rider less than 25 years old on January 1 of the year the Tour is ridden.

The "prix de combativité" goes to the rider who has done most to animate the day's racing, usually by trying to break clear of the field. The rider with most points wears a number printed white-on-red instead of black-on-white. At the end of the Tour, an award is given to the rider who was thought to be the most aggressive bike racer throughout the entire three week tour.

The team prize is assessed by adding the times of each team's best three riders each day. The competition does not have its own jersey but since 2006 the leading team has worn numbers printed black-on-yellow instead of black-on-white. The number of riders in a team has varied widely but is now normally nine. Until 1930, teams represented countries, groups of countries or French regions. From 1930, but with the exception of 1967 and 1968 when there was a return to geographical teams, riders have been entered by commercial teams.

As in all road races, national and world champions wear not their ordinary team colours but their world or national championship jerseys when competing in the appropriate race: the time-trial champion in the time-trial, the road race in massed stages.

Historical jerseys
Previously, there was a red jersey for the standings in non-stage-finish sprints: points were awarded to the first three riders to pass two or three intermediate points during the stage. These sprints also scored points towards the green jersey and bonus seconds towards the overall classification, as well as cash prizes offered by the residents of the area where the sprint took place. The sprints remain, with all these additional effects, the most significant now being the points for the green jersey. The red jersey was abolished in 1989. [citation needed]

There was also a combination jersey, scored on a points system based on standings for the yellow, green, red, and polka-dot jerseys. The design was a patchwork, with areas resembling each individual jersey design. This was abolished in the same year as the red jersey.

Deaths
1910: French racer Adolphe Helière drowned at the French Riviera during a rest day.

1935: Spanish racer Francisco Cepeda died after plunging down a ravine on the Col du Galibier.

1967: July 13, Stage 13: English rider Tom Simpson died of heart failure on the ascent of Mont Ventoux. Amphetamines and alcohol were found on Simpson's jersey and in his bloodstream. His death prompted tour officials to begin a program of drug testing.

1995: July 18, stage 15: Italian racer Fabio Casartelli crashed at approximately 88 km/h descending the Col de Portet d'Aspet. Casartelli received massive head trauma from a concrete block and died on the scene.He did not have a helmet, although it is unlikely wearing one would have saved him at that speed.
Apart from the deaths of riders, another two fatal accidents have also occurred.

1957: July 14, motorcycle rider Rene Wagter and his passenger journalist for Radio Radio-Luxembourg Alex Virot slipped on road metal (gravel) off a road without railing in the mountains near Ax-les-Thermes.

1958: An official, Constant Wouters, died after an accident with sprinter Andre Darrigade in the 6th stage of the tour.

Competition winners

One rider has won the Tour a record seven times:

Lance Armstrong (USA) in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 (seven consecutive years).

Four other riders have won the Tour five times:

Jacques Anquetil (France) in 1957, 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1964;

Eddy Merckx (Belgium) in 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1974;

Bernard Hinault (France) in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982 and 1985;

Miguel Indurain (Spain) in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995 (the first to do so in five consecutive years).

Three other riders have won the Tour three times:

Philippe Thys (Belgium) in 1913, 1914, and 1920;

Louison Bobet (France) in 1953, 1954, and 1955;

Greg LeMond (USA) in 1986, 1989, and 1990.

Gino Bartali holds the record of longest time span between titles, having earned his first and last Tour victories 10 years apart (in 1938 and 1948).

Riders from France have won most Tours (36), followed by Belgium (18), United States (11), Italy (9), Spain (8), Luxembourg (4), Switzerland and the Netherlands (2 each) and Ireland, Denmark and Germany (1 each).

One rider has won the points competition a record six times:

Erik Zabel (Germany) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 (six consecutive years)
One rider has won the "King of the Mountains" a record seven times:

Richard Virenque (France) in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2003 and 2004.
Two riders have won the "King of the Mountains" six times:

Federico Bahamontes (Spain) in 1954, 1958, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1964
Lucien Van Impe (Belgium) in 1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1981, 1983

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Tour de France. (2007, January 11). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:28, January 17, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tour_de_France&oldid=99881256