The
Tour de France is an annual
bicycle raceBicycle racing is a sport encompassing many forms in which bicycles are used for competition. This racing includes road bicycle racing, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX racing and bike trials and cycle speedway.-History:...
that covers approximately throughout
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
and bordering countries. The race lasts three weeks and attracts cyclists from around the world. The race is broken into day-long segments, called stages. Individual times to finish each stage are totalled to determine the overall winner at the end of the race. The rider with the lowest aggregate time at the end of each day wears a
yellow jerseyThe general classification in the Tour de France is the most important classification, the one by which the winner of the Tour de France is determined. Since 1919, the leader of the general classification wears the Yellow jersey -History:...
.
The course changes every year but it has always finished in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Since 1975, the climax of the final stage has been along the
Champs-ÉlyséesThe Avenue des Champs-Élysées is a prestigious avenue in Paris, France. With its cinemas, cafés, luxury specialty shops and clipped chestnut trees, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées is one of the most famous streets in the world, and with rents as high as USD1.5 million per 1,000 square feet of...
.
The Tour de France is the most well known and prestigious of cycling's three
"Grand Tours"In road bicycle racing, a Grand Tour refers to one of the three major European professional cycling stage races: Tour de France - Tour of France , held in July Giro d'Italia - Tour of Italy , held in May Vuelta a España - Tour of Spain In road bicycle racing, a Grand Tour refers to one of the three...
. The other two Grand Tours are the
Giro d'ItaliaThe Giro d'Italia , also simply known as The Giro, is a long distance road bicycle racing stage race for professional cyclists held over three weeks in May/early June in and around Italy. It is one of the three Grand Tours, and is part of the UCI World Ranking calendar...
(Italy) held every May and the
Vuelta a EspañaThe Vuelta a España is a three-week road bicycle racing stage race that is one of the three "Grand Tours" of Europe and part of the UCI World Ranking calendar.-History:...
(Spain) held every August–September.
Description
The Tour de France is a bicycle race known around the world. It typically has 21 days, or stages, of racing and covers not more than .
The shortest Tour was in 1904 at , the longest in 1926 at .
The three weeks usually include two rest days, sometimes used to transport riders from a finish in one town to the start in another. The race alternates between clockwise and counterclockwise circuits of France. The first counterclockwise circuit was in 1913. The
New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded in 1851 and published in New York City. The largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, "The Gray Lady"—named for its staid appearance and style—is regarded as a national newspaper of record...
said the "Tour de France is arguably the most physiologically demanding of athletic events." The effort was compared to "running a
marathonThe marathon is a long-distance foot race with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres that is usually run as a road race. The event is named after the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens...
several days a week for nearly three weeks", while the total elevation of the climbs was compared to "climbing three Everests."
The number of teams usually varies between 20 to 22, with nine riders in each. Entry is by invitation to teams chosen by the race organiser, the
Amaury Sport OrganisationThe Amaury Sport Organisation is part of the French media group, EPA . It organises sporting events including the Tour de France and Paris-Nice professional cycle road races, and the Dakar Rally. In 2008 it began the Central Europe Rally, a rally-raid endurance race in Romania and Hungary.The Tour...
. Team members help each other and are followed by managers and mechanics in cars.
Riders are judged by the time each has taken throughout the race, a ranking known as the general classification. There may be time deductions for finishing well in a daily stage or being first to pass an intermediate point. It is possible to win without winning a stage, as
Greg LeMondGregory James "Greg" LeMond is a former professional road bicycle racer from the United States and a three-time winner of the Tour de France. He was born in Lakewood, California....
did in 1990. There are subsidiary competitions (see below), some with distinctive jerseys for the best rider.
Riders normally start together each day, with the first over the line winning, but some days are ridden against the clock by individuals or teams. The overall winner is usually a master of the mountains and of these time trials. Most stages are in mainland France, although since the 1960s it has become common to visit nearby countries. Stages can be flat, undulating or mountainous. Since 1975 the finish has been on the
Champs-ÉlyséesThe Avenue des Champs-Élysées is a prestigious avenue in Paris, France. With its cinemas, cafés, luxury specialty shops and clipped chestnut trees, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées is one of the most famous streets in the world, and with rents as high as USD1.5 million per 1,000 square feet of...
in Paris; from 1903 to 1967 the race finished at the
Parc des PrincesThe Parc des Princes is a stadium located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France, currently the home of football team Paris Saint-Germain , with a seating capacity of 48,712. Originally a velodrome, it was the finish of the Tour de France from the first event in 1903 until the track's...
stadium in western Paris and from 1968 to 1974 at the
Piste MunicipaleThe Vélodrome de Vincennes is a stadium in Vincennes, near Paris, France.-History:...
south of the capital.
Origins
The roots of the Tour de France can be traced to the
Dreyfus AffairThe Dreyfus Affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November, 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...
, a
cause célèbreA cause célèbre is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning and heated public debate. The term is particularly used in connection with celebrated legal cases. It is a French phrase in common usage in English...
which divided France at the end of the 19th century over the innocence of
Alfred DreyfusAlfred Dreyfus was a French artillery officer of Jewish background whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense political dramas in modern French and European history...
, a soldier convicted – though later exonerated – of selling military secrets to the Germans. Opinions became heated and there were demonstrations by both sides. One was what the historian
Eugen WeberEugen Joseph Weber was a prominent historian and sociologist.He was born the son of Sonia and Emmanuel Weber, an industrialist...
called "an absurd political shindig" at the
AuteuilAuteuil and Passy are part of the 16th arrondissement of Paris. They are located near the suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.This area is commonly known as one of the richest in Paris, with calm, select and very expensive neighbourhoods, including many mansions...
horse-race course in Paris in 1899. Among those involved was Comte Jules-Albert de Dion, the owner of the
De Dion-BoutonDe Dion-Bouton was a French automobile manufacturer and railcar manufacturer operating from 1883 to 1932. The company was founded by Comte Jules-Albert de Dion, Georges Bouton and his brother-in-law Charles Trépardoux....
car works, who believed Dreyfus was guilty. De Dion served 15 days in jail and was fined 100 francs for his role at Auteuil, which included striking the
President of France (Émile Loubet)Émile François Loubet was a French politician and the 8th President of France.-Early life:He was born the son of a peasant proprietor and mayor of Marsanne . Admitted to the Parisian bar in 1862, he took his doctorate in law the next year...
on the head with a
walking stickA walking stick is a device used by many people to facilitate balancing whilst walking. It may be used as a defensive or offensive weapon, and may conceal a knife or sword as in a swordstick...
.
The incident at Auteuil, said Weber, was "tailor-made for the sporting press." The first and the largest daily sports newspaper in France was
Le VéloLe Vélo was the leading French sports newspaper from its inception on 1 December 1892 until it ceased publication in 1904. Mixing sports reporting with news and political comment, it achieved a circulation of 80,000 copies a day...
, which sold 80,000 copies a day. Its editor,
Pierre GiffardPierre Giffard was a French journalist, a pioneer of modern political reporting, a newspaper publisher and a prolific sports organizer....
, thought Dreyfus innocent. He reported the arrest in a way that displeased de Dion, who was so angry that he joined other anti-Dreyfusards such as
Edouard MichelinÉdouard Michelin was a French industrialist. He was born in Clermont-Ferrand, France. Édouard was co-director of the Michelin company, along with his brother André. In 1889, he improved greatly on the design of the pneumatic tyre for bicycles, making them easier to repair. His company began...
and opened a rival daily sports paper,
L'Auto.
The new newspaper appointed
Henri DesgrangeHenri Desgrange was a French bicycle racer and sports journalist. He set 12 world track cycling records, including the hour record of 35.325 kilometres on 11 May 1893. He was the first organiser of the Tour de France....
as editor. He was a prominent cyclist and owner with Victor Goddet of the
velodromeA velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights...
at the
Parc des PrincesThe Parc des Princes is a stadium located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France, currently the home of football team Paris Saint-Germain , with a seating capacity of 48,712. Originally a velodrome, it was the finish of the Tour de France from the first event in 1903 until the track's...
. De Dion knew him through his cycling reputation, through the books and cycling articles that he had written, and through press articles he had written for the Clément tyre company.
The birth of the Tour
L'Auto was not the success its backers wanted. Stagnating sales lower than the rival it was intended to surpass led to a crisis meeting on 20 November 1902 on the middle floor of L'Autos office at 10 rue du faubourg
MontmartreMontmartre is a hill which is 130 meters high, giving its name to the surrounding district, in the north of Paris in the 18th arrondissement, a part of the Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit and as a nightclub district...
in Paris. The last to speak was the most junior there, the chief cycling journalist, a 26-year-old named
Géo LefèvreGéo Lefèvre was a French sports journalist and the originator of the idea for the Tour de France.He suggested the idea for the Tour at a meeting with Henri Desgrange, editor of the daily newspaper L'Auto as a way to boost circulation. Desgrange recruited Lefèvre from the rival daily sports paper,...
. Desgrange had poached him from Giffard's paper. Lefèvre suggested a six-day race of the sort popular on the track but all around France. Long-distance cycle races were a popular means to sell more newspapers but nothing of the length that Lefèvre suggested had been attempted. If it succeeded, it would help L'Auto
match its rival and perhaps put it out of business. It could, as Desgrange said, "nail Giffard's beak shut."
Desgrange and Lefèvre discussed it after lunch. Desgrange was doubtful but the paper's financial director, Victor Goddet, was enthusiastic. He handed Desgrange the keys to the company safe and said: "Take whatever you need." L'Auto announced the race on 19 January 1903.
The first Tour de France
The first Tour de France was staged in
1903The 1903 Tour de France was the first Tour de France, a cycling race set up and sponsored by the newspaper L'Auto, ancestor of the current daily, L'Équipe. It was run from 1 July to 19 July in six stages over 2428 km, and won by Maurice Garin....
. The plan was a five-stage race from 31 May to 5 July, starting in Paris and stopping in Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux and Nantes before returning to Paris. Toulouse was added later to break the long haul across
southern FranceSouthern France , colloquially known as le Midi is a loosely defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Gironde, Spain, the Mediterranean Sea, Italy, and Switzerland south of the Jura Mountains...
from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Stages would go through the night and finish next afternoon, with rest days before riders set off again. But this proved too daunting and the costs too great for most and only 15 entered. Desgrange had never been wholly convinced and he came close to dropping the idea. Instead, he cut the length to 19 days, changed the dates to 1 July to 19 July, and offered a daily allowance of five francs to any rider in the first 50 who had won less than 200 francs and who had averaged at least 20 km/h on all the stages. That was what a rider would have expected to earn each day had he worked in a factory. He also cut the entry fee from 20 to 10 francs and set the first prize at 12,000 francs and the prize for each day's winner at 3,000 francs. The winner would thereby win six times what most workers earned in a year. That attracted between 60 and 80 entrants – the higher number may have included serious inquiries and some who dropped out – among them not just professionals but amateurs, some unemployed, some simply adventurous.
Desgrange seems not to have forgotten the Dreyfus Affair that launched his race and raised the passions of his backers. He announced his new race on 1 July 1903 by citing the writer
Émile ZolaÉmile François Zola was an influential French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism, an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism, and a major figure in the political liberalisation of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused...
, whose open letter in which every paragraph started" J'accuse ...
" led to Dreyfus's acquittal. Establishing the florid style which he used henceforth, Desgrange wrote:
- With the wide and powerful gesture that Zola lends to his ploughman in
La Terre, L'Auto, a journal of ideas and action, is about to send out over France those tough and uncomplicated sowers of strength, the great professional roadsters.
He continued:
- From Paris to the blue waves of the Mediterranean, from Marseille to Bordeaux, passing along the roseate and dreaming roads sleeping under the sun, across the calm of the fields of the Vendée, following the Loire, which flows on still and silent, our men are going to race madly, unflaggingly.
The first Tour de France started almost outside the Café Reveil-Matin at the junction of the Melun and Corbeil roads in the village of Montgeron. It was waved away by the starter, Georges Abran, at 3:16 p.m. on 1 July 1903. L'Auto – which hadn't featured the race on its front page that morning – reported:
- The men waved their hats, the ladies their umbrellas. One felt they would have liked to touch the steel muscles of the most courageous champions since antiquity. Who will carry off the first prize, entering the pantheon where only supermen may go?
Among the competitors were the eventual winner,
Maurice GarinMaurice-Francois Garin was a road bicycle racer best known for winning the 1903 Tour de France — the first running of the event...
, his well-built rival
Hippolyte AucouturierHippolyte Aucouturier was a French professional road bicycle racer. Aucouturier, a professional between 1900 and 1908, won two stages at the first Tour de France in 1903 and won three stages and finished second in the 1905 Tour de France. He also won Paris-Roubaix twice, in 1903 and 1904...
, the German favourite
Josef FischerJosef Fischer was a German road bicycle racer. He is best known for winning the first edition of Paris-Roubaix in 1896 and Bordeaux-Paris in 1900.- Major achievements :189618991900...
, and a collection of adventurers including one competing as "Samson".
The race finished on the edge of Paris at Ville d'Avray, outside the Restaurant du Père Auto, before a ceremonial ride into Paris and several laps of the Parc des Princes. Garin dominated the race, winning the first and last two stages, at 25.68 km/h. The last rider, Millocheau, finished 64h 47m 22s behind him.
The 'last' Tour
Such was the passion that the first Tour created in spectators and riders that Desgrange said the second would be the last. Cheating was rife and riders were beaten up by rival fans as they neared the top of the col de la République, sometimes called the col du Grand Bois, outside St-Étienne. The historian Bill McGann said:
- Desgrange and Lefèvre had a tiger by the tail ... It was a strange Tour and no one is sure exactly what happened. Because the stages were so long, the riders were required to ride at night. Even with Desgrange's men doing what they could to watch the race, cheating was easy. Some were accused of hopping in a car. Others took trains. Moreover, Desgrange's race had lit fires of passion among racing fans that would almost be the ruin of the race.
The leading riders, including the winner Maurice Garin, were disqualified, although it took the Union Vélocipèdique de France until 30 November to make the decision. McGann says the UVF waited so long "well aware of the passions aroused by the race."
Desgrange's opinion of the fighting and cheating showed in the headline of his reaction in L'Auto: THE END. He wrote:
- The Tour de France has just finished and its second edition will, I fear, be the last. It will have died of its own success, of the blind passions which have been unleashed, of the abuse and of the suspicions that have come from ignorant and ill-intentioned people. And yet, however, it seemed to us and it still seems that we had built, with this great event, the most durable and the most imposing monument to cycle sport. We had hoped to each year bring a little more sport across the greater part of France. The results of last year showed that our reasoning was correct and here we are at the end of the second Tour de France, sickened and discouraged, having lived through these three weeks of the worst slander and abuse.
Desgrange's despair did not last. By the following spring he was planning another Tour, longer at 11 stages rather than six -and this time all in daylight to make any cheating more obvious. Stages in 1905 began between 3am and 7:30am.
The race captured the imagination. L'Auto's
circulation rose from 25,000 to 65,000; by 1908 it was a quarter of a million, and during the 1923 Tour 500,000. The record claimed by Desgrange was 854,000 during the 1933 Tour. Le Vélo went out of business.
Early rules
Desgrange and his Tour invented bicycle stage racing. Desgrange experimented with judging by elapsed time and then from 1906 to 1912 by points for placings each day. He allowed riders to have personal pacers on on the last stage in 1903, the first and last in 1905.
He stood out against multiple gears and for many years insisted riders use wooden rims, fearing the heat of braking while coming down mountains would melt the glue that held the tires. They were allowed in 1937.
From 1936 there were as many as three stages in a single day.
His dream was a race of individuals. He invited teams but until 1925 forbade their members to pace each other. He then went the other way and from 1927 to 1929 ran the Tour as a giant team time-trial, teams starting separately with members pacing each other. He demanded riders mend their bicycles without help. He demanded they use the same bicycle from start to end. Exchanging a damaged bicycle for another was allowed only in 1923.
He at first allowed riders who dropped out one day to continue the next for daily prizes but not the overall prize. He allowed teams who lost members in the team time-trial years to recruit fresh replacements.
Above all, he conducted a campaign against the sponsors, bicycle factories, he was sure were undermining the spirit of a Tour de France of individuals. In 1930 he insisted that competitors ride plain yellow bicycles that he would provide, without a maker's name.
Touriste-routiers and regionals
The first Tours were open to whoever wanted to compete. Most riders were in teams which looked after them. The private entrants were called touriste-routiers – tourists of the road – from 1923 and were allowed to take part provided they make no demands on the organisers. Some of the Tour's most colourful characters have been touriste-routiers. One finished each day's race and then performed acrobatic tricks in the street to raise the price of a hotel.
There was no place for individuals in the post-1930s teams and so Desgrange created regional teams, generally from France, to take in riders who would not otherwise have qualified. The original touriste-routiers mostly disappeared but some were absorbed into regional teams.
National teams
The first Tours were for individuals and members of sponsored teams. There were two classes of race, one for the aces, the other for the rest, with different rules. By the end of the 1920s, however, Desgrange believed he could not beat what he believed were the underhand tactics of bike factories. When the
AlcyonThe Alcyon was a French bicycle, automobile and motorcycle manufacturer between 1890 and 1957.- Origins :Alcyon originated from about 1890 when Edmond Gentil started the manufacture of bicycles in Neuilly, Seine. In 1902, this was complemented by motorcycle production and in 1906, the first cars...
team contrived to get
Maurice De WaeleMaurice De Waele was a Belgian professional road bicycle racer.De Waele placed 2nd in the 1927 Tour, an hour and fifty eight minutes Nicolas Frantz and 3rd in 1928, again won by Frantz. However, he is most famous for winning the 1929 Tour de France...
to win even though he was sick, he said "My race has been won by a corpse" and in 1930 admitted only teams representing their country or region.
National teams contested the Tour until 1961. The teams were of different sizes. Some nations had more than one team and some were mixed in with others to make up the number. National teams caught the public imagination but had a snag: that riders might normally have been in rival trade teams the rest of the season. The loyalty of riders was sometimes questionable, within and between teams.
Return of trade teams
Riders in national teams wore the colours of their country and a small cloth panel on their chest that named the team for which they normally rode. Sponsors were always unhappy about releasing their riders into anonymity for the biggest race of the year and the situation became critical at the start of the 1960s. Sales of bicycles had fallen and bicycle factories were closing. There was a risk, the trade said, that the industry would die if factories weren't allowed the publicity of the Tour de France.
The Tour returned to trade teams in 1962, although with further problems. Doping had become a problem and tests were introduced for riders. Riders went on strike near
Bordeauxis a port city on the Garonne River in southwest France, with one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area at a 2008 estimate. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture of the Gironde department...
in 1966 and the organisers suspected sponsors provoked them. The Tour returned to national teams for 1967 and 1968 as "an experiment" The author Geoffrey Nicholson identified a further reason: opposition to closure of roads by a race criticised as crassly commercial He said:
What the Tour did to placate the opposition in 1967 was to play the patriotic card. It scrapped trade teams in favour of national teams ... since a contest between squads in French and Belgian colours would appear less blatantly commercial than one between Ford-France-Gitane and Flandria-Romeo. 'It was being done,' said L'Équipe, the voice of the Tour, 'in response to the noble and superior interests of the race, to the wishes of the public and the desires of the public authorities.'
The sponsors had to accept the change, but did so with ill-grace. The new arrangement, they argued, was basically unfair: they paid the riders' salaries all summer only to be denied publicity from the season's major event. They also pointed to the danger of collusion between trade-team colleagues of different nationalities ... Indeed loyalties were put under so much strain that the experiment was dropped after only two seasons.
The Tour returned to trade teams in 1969 with a suggestion that national teams could come back every few years. It never happened.
Distances
The Tour originally ran around the perimeter of France. Cycling was an endurance sport and the organisers realised the sales they would achieve by creating supermen of their competitors. Night riding was dropped after the second Tour in 1904, when there had been persistent cheating when judges could not see riders. That reduced the daily and overall distance but the emphasis remained on endurance. Desgrange said his ideal race would be so hard that only one rider would make it to Paris.
A succession of doping scandals in the 1960s, culminating in the death of
Tom SimpsonTom Simpson was an English road racing cyclist who died of exhaustion on the slopes of Mont Ventoux during the 13th stage of the Tour de France in 1967...
in 1967, led the
Union Cycliste InternationaleUnion Cycliste Internationale is a cycling association that oversees competitive cycling events internationally. It is the world governing body for jurisdiction in the sport of cycling. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland...
to limit daily and overall distances and to impose rest days. It was then impossible to follow the frontiers, and the Tour increasingly zig-zagged across the country, sometimes with unconnected days' races linked by train, while still maintaining some sort of loop. The modern Tour typically has 21 daily stages and not more than 3,500 km (2,200 miles). The shortest Tour was in 1904 at 2,420 km, the longest in 1926 at 5,745 km.
Advertising caravan
The Tour changed in 1930 to a competition largely between teams representing their countries rather than the companies which sponsored them. The costs of accommodating riders fell to the organisers instead of the sponsors and Henri Desgrange raised the money by allowing advertisers to precede the race.
The procession of often colourfully decorated trucks and cars became known as the publicity caravan. It formalised a situation which had already arisen, companies having started to follow the race. The first to sign to precede the Tour was the chocolate company, Menier, one of those which had followed the race. Its head of publicity, Paul Thévenin, had first put the idea to Desgrange. It paid 50,000 old francs. Preceding the race was more attractive to advertisers because spectators gathered by the road long before the race or could be attracted from their houses. Advertisers following the race found that many who had watched the race had already gone home.
Menier handed out tons of chocolate in that first year of preceding the race, as well as 500,000 policemen's hats printed with the company's name. The success led to the caravan's existence being formalised the following year.
The caravan was at its height between 1930 and the mid-1960s, before television and especially television advertising was established in France. Advertisers competed to attract public attention. Motorcycle acrobats performed for the
CinzanoCinzano is an Italian brand of vermouth, a brand owned since 1999 by Gruppo Campari. It comes in four versions:*Cinzano Rosso, the original, which is amber-coloured with a "delicate yet persistent and characteristic aftertaste";...
apéritif company and a toothpaste maker, and an accordionist, Yvette Horner, became one of the most popular sights as she performed on the roof of a Citroën Traction Avant . The modern Tour restricts the excesses to which advertisers are allowed to go but at first anything was allowed. The writer Pierre Bost lamented: "This caravan of 60 gaudy trucks singing across the countryside the virtues of an apéritif, a make of underpants or a dustbin is a shameful spectacle. It bellows, it plays ugly music, it's sad, it's ugly, it smells of vulgarity and money."
Advertisers pay the Société du Tour de France approximately €150,000 to place three vehicles in the caravan. Some have more. On top of that come the more considerable costs of the commercial samples that are thrown to the crowd and the cost of accommodating the drivers and the staff - frequently students - who throw them. The vehicles also have to be decorated on the morning of each stage and, because they must return to ordinary highway standards, disassembled after each stage. Numbers vary but there are normally around 250 vehicles each year. Their order on the road is established by contract, the leading vehicles belonging to the largest sponsors.
The procession sets off two hours before the start and then regroups to precede the riders by an hour and a half. It spreads 20-25km and takes 40 minutes to pass at between 20 and 60kmh. Vehicles travel in groups of five. Their position is logged by GPS and from an aircraft and organised on the road by the caravan director - Jean-Pierre Lachaud - an assistant, three motorcyclists, two radio technicians and a breakdown and medical crew. Six motorcyclists from the Garde Républicaine, the élite of the gendarmerie - ride with them.
The advertisers distribute publicity material to the crowd. The number of items has been estimated at 11 million, each person in the procession giving out 3,000 to 5,000 items a day. The bank, GAN, gave out 170,000 caps, 80,000 badges, 60,000 plastic bags and 535,000 copies of its race newspaper in 1994. Together, they weighed 32 tons.
Spectators have died in collisions with the caravan (see below).
Strikes, exclusions and disqualifications
Nine teams have abandoned the Tour in their entirety.
In 1907
Emile GeorgetÉmile Georget was a French road racing cyclist and younger brother of cyclist Léon Georget.- Tour de France :*1905 Tour de France : 4th place in the overall ranking...
was placed last in the day's results after changing his bicycle outside a permitted area. Edmond Gentil, sponsor of the rival AlcyonThe Alcyon was a French bicycle, automobile and motorcycle manufacturer between 1890 and 1957.- Origins :Alcyon originated from about 1890 when Edmond Gentil started the manufacture of bicycles in Neuilly, Seine. In 1902, this was complemented by motorcycle production and in 1906, the first cars...
team, withdrew all his riders in protest at what he considered too light a penalty. They included Louis TrousselierLouis Trousselier was a French cyclist.He was born in Levallois-Perret in 1881; some sources say on January 29, others June 29. He died in Paris on April 24, 1939....
the winner in 1905.
In 1912
and in 1913
Octave LapizeOctave Lapize was a French professional road racing cyclist and track cyclist....
withdrew all his La Française team in protest at what he saw as the collusion of Belgian riders.
In 1913
as well, Odile DefrayeOdile Defraye was a Belgian road racing cyclist who won three stages and the overall title of the 1912 Tour de France, which was the last tour decided by a points system instead of overall best time...
pulled out of the race with painful legs and took the whole Alcyon team with him.
In 1937
Sylvère MaesSylvère Maes was a Belgian cyclist, who is most famous for winning the Tour de France in 1936 and 1939.- Palmarès :1932...
of Belgium withdrew all his national team after he considered his French rival, Roger LapébieRoger Lapébie was a French racing cyclist who won the 1937 Tour de France.In addition, Lapébie won the 1934 and 1937 editions of the Critérium National...
, had been punished too lightly for being towed uphill by car.
In 1950
the two Italian teams went home after the leader of the first team, Gino BartaliGino Bartali, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was the most renowned Italian cyclist before the Second World War, having won the Giro d'Italia twice and the Tour de France in 1938...
, thought a spectator had threatened him with a knife.
In 1991
the PDM team went home after its riders fell ill one by one within 48 hours.
In 1998
the Festina team was disqualified after revelations of organised doping within the team.
Riders have occasionally gone on strike or stopped racing briefly.
In 1920
half the field pulled out at Les Sables d'Olonne in protest at Desgrange's style of management.
In 1925
the threat of a strike ended Desgrange's plan that riders should all eat exactly the same amount of food each day.
In 1950
much of the field got off their bikes and ran into the Mediterranean at Ste-Maxime. The summer had been unusually hot. Some riders were said to have ridden into the sea without dismounting. All involved were penalised by the judges.
In 1966
riders went on strike near Bordeaux after drugs tests the previous evening.
In 1978
they rode slowly all day and then walked across the line at Valence d'Agen in protest at having to get up early to ride more than one stage in a day.
In 1988
the race went on strike in a protest concerning a drugs test on Pedro DelgadoPedro Delgado Robledo , also known as Perico, is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer. He won the 1988 Tour de France, and the Vuelta a España in 1985 and 1989....
.
In 1991
riders refused to race for 40 minutes because a rider, Urs Zimmerman, was penalised for driving from one stage finish to the start of the next instead of flying.
In 1998
the race stopped in protest at what the riders saw as heavy-handed investigation of drug-taking allegations.
The race has been affected by the actions of others.
In 1968
journalists went on strike for a day after Félix Lévitan had accused them of watching "with tired eyes", his response to the writers' complaint that the race was dull.
In 1982
striking steel workers halted the team time trial.
In 1987
photographers went on strike, saying cars carrying the Tour's guests were getting in their way.
In 1990
the organisers learned of a blockade by farmers in the Limoges area and diverted the race before it got there.
In 1992
activists of the Basque separatist movement bombed followers' cars overnight.
In 1999 demonstrating firemen stopped the race and pelted it with stink bombs.
Organisers
The first organiser was Henri Desgrange, although daily running of the 1903 race was by Lefèvre. He followed riders by train and bicycle. In 1936 Desgrange had a prostate operation. At the time, two operations were needed; the Tour de France was due to fall between them. Desgrange persuaded his surgeon to let him follow the race. The second day proved too much and, in a fever at
CharlevilleCharleville-Mézières is a commune in northern France, capital of the Ardennes department in the Champagne-Ardenne region. Charleville-Mézières is located on the banks of the Meuse River.-History:...
, he retired to his château at Beauvallon. Desgrange died at home on the Mediterranean coast on 16 August 1940. The race was taken over by his deputy,
Jacques GoddetJacques Goddet was a French sports journalist and director of the Tour de France from 1936 to 1986....
.
War interrupted the Tour. The German Propaganda Staffel wanted it to be run and offered facilities otherwise denied, in the hope of maintaining a sense of normality. They offered to open the borders between German-occupied France in the north and nominally independent
Vichy FranceVichy France, or the Vichy regime are the common terms used to describe the government of France from July 1940 to August 1944. This government, which succeeded the Third Republic, officially called itself the French State , in contrast with the previous designation, "French Republic." Marshal...
in the south but Goddet refused.
In 1944, L'Auto
was closed – its doors nailed shut – and its belongings, including the Tour, sequestrated by the state for publishing articles too close to the Germans. Rights to the Tour were therefore owned by the government. Jacques Goddet was allowed to publish another daily sports paper, L'Équipe
, but there was a rival candidate to run the Tour: a consortium of Sports
and Miroir Sprint
. Each organised a candidate race. L'Équipe
and Le Parisien Libéré
had La Course du Tour de France and Sports
and Miroir Sprint
had La Ronde de France. Both were five stages, the longest the government would allow because of shortages. L'Équipes race was better organised and appealed more to the public because it featured national teams which had been successful before the war, when French cycling was at a high.
L'Équipe was given the right to organize the
1947 Tour de FranceThe 1947 Tour de France was the 34th Tour de France, taking place June 25 to July 20, 1947. The total race distance was 21 stages over 4,640 km, ridden at an average speed of 31.412 km/h. It was the first Tour since 1939, having been cancelled during World War II, although some Tour de France-like...
.
L'Équipes finances were never sound and Goddet accepted an advance by Émilion Amaury, who had supported his bid to run the post-war Tour. Amaury was a newspaper magnate whose condition was that his sports editor,
Félix LévitanFélix Lévitan was the third organiser of the Tour de France, a role he shared for much of the time with Jacques Goddet...
should join Goddet for the Tour. The two worked together, Goddet running the sporting side and Lévitan the financial.
Lévitan began to recruit sponsors, sometimes accepting prizes in kind if he could not get cash. He introduced the finish of the Tour at the Avenue des
Champs-ÉlyséesThe Avenue des Champs-Élysées is a prestigious avenue in Paris, France. With its cinemas, cafés, luxury specialty shops and clipped chestnut trees, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées is one of the most famous streets in the world, and with rents as high as USD1.5 million per 1,000 square feet of...
in 1975. He left the Tour on 17 March 1987 after losses by the Tour of America, in which he was involved. The claim was that it had been cross-financed by the Tour de France. Lévitan insisted he was innocent but the lock to his office was changed and his job was over. Goddet retired the following year. They were replaced in 1988 by Jean-Pierre Courcol, the director if L'Équipe, then in 1989 by Jean-Pierre Carenso and then by
Jean-Marie LeblancJean-Marie Leblanc is a French retired professional road bicycle racer who was general director of the Tour de France from 1989 to 2005, when he reached pensionable age and was succeeded by Christian Prudhomme.He became a professional in 1966 and rode...
, who in 1989 had been race director. The former television presenter
Christian PrudhommeChristian Prudhomme is a French sports journalist and general director of the Tour de France since 2005.-Pre-Tour career:...
– he commentated on the Tour among other events – replaced Leblanc in 2005, having been assistant director for two years.
Prudhomme works for the Société du Tour de France, a subsidiary of
Amaury Sport OrganisationThe Amaury Sport Organisation is part of the French media group, EPA . It organises sporting events including the Tour de France and Paris-Nice professional cycle road races, and the Dakar Rally. In 2008 it began the Central Europe Rally, a rally-raid endurance race in Romania and Hungary.The Tour...
(ASO), which since 1993 has been part of the media group Amaury Group that owns L'Équipe.
It employs around 70 people full time, in an office facing but not connected to L'Équipe in the
Issy-les-MoulineauxIssy-les-Moulineaux is a commune in the south-western suburban area of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. On 1 January 2003, Issy-les-Moulineaux became part of the Communauté d'agglomération Arc de Seine along with the other communes of Chaville, Meudon, Vanves and Ville-d'Avray...
area of outer western Paris. That number expands to about 220 during the race itself, not including 500 contractors employed to move barriers, erect stages, signpost the route and other work.
Politics
The first three Tours stayed within France. The 1906 race went into
Alsace-LorraineAlsace-Lorraine was a territorial entity created by the German Empire in 1871 after the annexation of most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and on the east of the Vosges Mountains...
, territory occupied by Germany since the end of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870. Passage was secured through a meeting at Metz between Desgrange's collaborator, Alphonse Steinès, and the German governor. The race passed to the waving of local people, the race director Victor Breyer wrote, but not without trouble at the border. L'Auto reported the difference between the German and French border controls:
- Woken from a deep sleep, obliged to get up in three minutes, the German customs appeared before us correctly dressed in new uniforms. At the French border, by contrast, it was simply distressing. Smelly, covered in mud, their clothes patched and discoloured, backs bent, squashed képi
The kepi is a cap with a flat circular top and a visor or peak . The word came into the English language from French, in which it is written with an acute accent: képi. It can be translated as "small cap"....
s on dirty bodies, the two officials charged with nosing around on behalf of the tax authorities and who represented France revolted us.
The Germans let not only the competitors pass without problem but all the officials and their cars and the amateur enthusiasts who rode with them. "It is distressing," L'Auto said, "to find that it's only the French who can't grasp the simple idea ... of allowing the best representatives of French energy [to cross the border]." The paper offered to start a public appeal to provide better clothes for its frontier officials.
No teams from Italy, Germany or Spain rode in 1939 because of tensions preceding the second world war, and the race was not held again until 1947 (see
Tour de France during the Second World WarThe Tour de France was not held during the Second World War because the organisers refused German requests. Instead, some other races were organized, often with riders who might otherwise have ridden the Tour.-History:...
). The first German team after the war was in 1960, although individual Germans had ridden in mixed teams. The Tour has since started in Germany three times: in Cologne in 1965, in Frankfurt in 1980 and in West Berlin on the city's 750th anniversary in 1987. Plans to enter
East GermanyThe German Democratic Republic was a Communist state that originated from the Soviet Zone of occupied Germany and the Soviet sector of occupied Berlin...
that year were abandoned.
The missing island
The Tour de France has visited every region of European France except
CorsicaCorsica is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
.
Jean-Marie Leblanc, when he was organiser, said the island had never asked for a stage start there. It would be difficult to find accommodation for 4,000 people, he said. The spokesman of the Corsican nationalist party, François Alfonsi, said: "The organisers must be afraid of outrages [attentas
]. If they are really thinking of a possible terrorist action, they are wrong. Our movement, which is nationalist and for self-government [autonomiste] would be delighted if the Tour came to Corsica."
Prizes
Prize money has always been awarded. From 20,000 old
francsThe franc was a former currency of France. Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...
the first year,
prize money has increased each year, although from 1976 to 1987 the first prize was an apartment offered by a race sponsor. The first prize in 1988 was a car, a studio-apartment, a work of art and 500,000 francs in cash. Prizes only in cash returned in 1990.
Prizes and bonuses are awarded for daily placings and final placings at the end of the race. In 2009, the winner received €450,000, while each of the 21 stage winners won €8,000 (€10,000 for the team time-trial stage). The winners of the green and polka-dot jersey competitions each win €25,000, the white jersey competition and the combativity prize €20,000, and €50,000 for the winner of the overall team standings (calculated by adding the cumulative times of the best three riders in each team).
The Souvenir
Henri DesgrangeHenri Desgrange was a French bicycle racer and sports journalist. He set 12 world track cycling records, including the hour record of 35.325 kilometres on 11 May 1893. He was the first organiser of the Tour de France....
, in memory of the founder of the Tour, is awarded to the first rider over the col du Galibier where his monument stands, or to the first rider over the highest col in the Tour. In 2008 it was awarded for traversing the
col de la BonetteCol de la Bonette is a high mountain pass in the French Alps, near the border with Italy. It is situated within the Mercantour National Park on the border of the departments of Alpes-Maritimes and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence....
. A similar award is made at the summit of the col du Tourmalet, at the memorial to Jacques Goddet, Desgrange's successor.
Classification jerseys
Riders aim to win overall but there are three further competitions: points, mountains and for the best young rider. The leader of each wears a distinctive jersey. A rider who leads more than one competition wears the jersey of the most prestigious. The abandoned jersey is worn by the second in the competition. The Tour's colours have been adopted by other races and have meaning within cycling generally. For example, the
Tour of BritainThe Tour of Britain is a cycle race, conducted over several stages, in which participants race from place to place across parts of Great Britain....
has yellow, green, and polka-dot jerseys with the same meaning as the Tour. The
Giro d'ItaliaThe Giro d'Italia , also simply known as The Giro, is a long distance road bicycle racing stage race for professional cyclists held over three weeks in May/early June in and around Italy. It is one of the three Grand Tours, and is part of the UCI World Ranking calendar...
differs in awarding the leader a pink jersey, being organised by
La Gazzetta dello SportLa Gazzetta dello Sport is an Italian newspaper dedicated to coverage of various sports. It was first published on April 3, 1896, allowing it to cover the first modern Olympic Games held in Athens...
, which has pink pages.
Overall leader
The maillot jaune
(yellow jersey) is worn by the general classificationThe general classification in bicycle racing is the category that tracks overall times for bicycle riders in multi-stage bicycle races...
leader. The winner of the first Tour wore not a yellow jersey but a green armband. The first yellow was first awarded formally to Eugène ChristopheEugène Christophe was a French road bicycle racer and pioneer of cyclo-cross. He was a professional from 1904 until 1926. In 1919 he became the first rider to wear the yellow jersey of the Tour de France .Eugène Christophe rode 11 Tours de France and finished eight...
, for the stage from GrenobleGrenoble is a city in south-eastern France situated at the foot of the French Alps where the Drac joins the Isère River. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère. The proximity of the mountains make the city named "Capital of Alps."The history of the...
on 19 July 1919. However, the Belgian rider Philippe ThysPhilippe Thys was a Belgian cyclist and a three-time champion of the Tour de France.-Professional Career:In 1910, Thys won Belgium's first national cyclo-cross championship...
, who won in 1913, 1914 and 1920, recalled in the Belgian magazine Champions et Vedettes when he was 67 that he was awarded a yellow jersey in 1913 when
Henri DesgrangeHenri Desgrange was a French bicycle racer and sports journalist. He set 12 world track cycling records, including the hour record of 35.325 kilometres on 11 May 1893. He was the first organiser of the Tour de France....
asked him to wear a coloured jersey. Thys declined, saying making himself more visible would encourage others to ride against him. He said:
- He then made his argument from another direction. Several stages later, it was my team manager at Peugeot
Peugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest European carmaker.Peugeot's roots go back to 19th-century coffee mill and bicycle manufacturing. The Peugeot company and family is originally from Sochaux, France. Peugeot retains a large manufacturing plant and...
, (Alphonse) Baugé, who urged me to give in. The yellow jersey would be an advertisement for the company and, that being the argument, I was obliged to concede. So a yellow jersey was bought in the first shop we came to. It was just the right size, although we had to cut a slightly larger hole for my head to go through.["C'était en 1913. J'étais leader du classement général. Une nuit, Desgrange rêva d'un maillot couleur or et me proposa de le porter. Je refusais, car je me sentais déjà le point de mire de tous. Il insista, mais je me montrais intraitable. Têtu, H.D. revint à la charge par la tangente. En effet, quelques étapes plus loin, ce fut mon directeur sportif de la marque Peugeot, M. Baugé, qui me conseilla de céder. On acheta donc dans le premier magasin venu, un maillot jaune. Il était juste aux dimensions nécessaires. Trop juste même, puisqu'il fallut découper une encolure plus grande pour le passage de la tête et c'est ainsi que je fis plusieurs étapes en décolleté de grande dame. Ce qui ne m'empêcha pas de gagner mon premier Tour!"]
He spoke of the next year, when "I won the first stage and was beaten by a tyre by Bossus in the second. On the following stage, the maillot jaune passed to Georget after a crash." The Tour historian Jacques Augendre called Thys "a valorous rider ... well-known for his intelligence" and said his claim "seems free from all suspicion". But: "No newspaper mentions a yellow jersey before the war. Being at a loss for witnesses, we can't solve this enigma."
The first rider to wear the yellow jersey from start to finish was
Ottavio BottecchiaOttavio Bottecchia was an Italian cyclist and the first Italian winner of the Tour de France. He was found dead by the roadside; the reason remains a mystery....
of Italy in 1924. The first company to pay a daily prize to the wearer of the yellow jersey – known as the "rent" – was a wool company, Sofil, in 1948. The greatest number of riders to wear the yellow jersey in a day is three:
Nicolas FrantzNicolas Frantz , born in Mamer, Luxembourg, was a bicycle racer with 60 professional racing victories over his 12-year career . He rode for the Thomann team in 1923 and then for Alcyon-Dunlop from 1924 to 1931.Nicolas Frantz was the son of a prosperous farming family. Frantz could have taken over...
,
André LeducqAndré Leducq was a French cyclist who won the 1930 and 1932 Tour de France.-Career:Leducq was born at Saint-Ouen. He was twice world champion as an amateur before turning professional in 1927. The following year he won Paris-Roubaix and was second in the Tour de France, becoming popular for his...
and
Victor FontanVictor Fontan was a French cyclist who led the 1929 Tour de France but dropped out after knocking at doors at night to ask for another bicycle. His plight led to a change of rules to prevent its happening again...
shared equal time for a day in 1929 and there was no rule to split them.
One rider has won seven times:
- Lance Armstrong
Lance Edward Armstrong is an American professional road racing cyclist who rides for UCI ProTeam . He is also the founder and chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer research and support....
in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 (seven consecutive years).
Four riders have won five times:
- Jacques Anquetil
Jacques Anquetil was a French road racing cyclist and the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times, in 1957 and from 1961 to 1964...
in 1957, 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1964;
- Eddy Merckx
Edouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx , better known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian former professional cyclist. The French magazine Vélo called him "the most accomplished rider that cycling has ever known." The American publication, VeloNews, called him the greatest and most successful cyclist of all...
in 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1974;
- Bernard Hinault
Bernard Hinault is a French cyclist known for five victories in the Tour de France. He is one of only five cyclists to have won all three Grand Tours, and the only cyclist to have won each more than once. He won the Tour de France in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982 and 1985...
in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982 and 1985;
- Miguel Indurain
thumb|Miguel Indurain [[1993 Tour de France ]].Miguel Ángel Indurain Larraya is a retired Spanish road racing cyclist. He is best known for winning the Tour de France from 1991 to 1995, becoming only the fourth person to win the event five times, and the first to win five in a row...
in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995 (the first to do so in five consecutive years).
Three riders have won three times:
- Philippe Thys
Philippe Thys was a Belgian cyclist and a three-time champion of the Tour de France.-Professional Career:In 1910, Thys won Belgium's first national cyclo-cross championship...
in 1913, 1914, and 1920;
- Louison Bobet
Louis Bobet was a French professional road cyclist. He was the first great French rider of the post-war period and the first rider to win the Tour de France in three successive years, from 1953 to 1955...
in 1953, 1954, and 1955;
- Greg LeMond
Gregory James "Greg" LeMond is a former professional road bicycle racer from the United States and a three-time winner of the Tour de France. He was born in Lakewood, California....
in 1986, 1989, and 1990.
Seven riders have won the Tour de France and the
Giro d'ItaliaThe Giro d'Italia , also simply known as The Giro, is a long distance road bicycle racing stage race for professional cyclists held over three weeks in May/early June in and around Italy. It is one of the three Grand Tours, and is part of the UCI World Ranking calendar...
in the same year:
- Eddy Merckx
Edouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx , better known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian former professional cyclist. The French magazine Vélo called him "the most accomplished rider that cycling has ever known." The American publication, VeloNews, called him the greatest and most successful cyclist of all...
three times, in 1970, 1972, 1974
- Fausto Coppi
Angelo Fausto Coppi, , was the dominant international cyclist of the years each side of the second world war. His successes earned him the title Il Campionissimo, or champion of champions...
two times, in 1949, 1952
- Bernard Hinault
Bernard Hinault is a French cyclist known for five victories in the Tour de France. He is one of only five cyclists to have won all three Grand Tours, and the only cyclist to have won each more than once. He won the Tour de France in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982 and 1985...
two times, in 1982, 1985
- Miguel Indurain
thumb|Miguel Indurain [[1993 Tour de France ]].Miguel Ángel Indurain Larraya is a retired Spanish road racing cyclist. He is best known for winning the Tour de France from 1991 to 1995, becoming only the fourth person to win the event five times, and the first to win five in a row...
two times, in 1992, 1993
- Jacques Anquetil
Jacques Anquetil was a French road racing cyclist and the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times, in 1957 and from 1961 to 1964...
one time, in 1964
- Stephen Roche
for Irish soccer player see: Stephen Roche Stephen Roche is a retired professional road racing cyclist...
one time, in 1987
- Marco Pantani
Marco Pantani was an Italian road racing cyclist widely regarded as being one of the best climbers of all time in professional road bicycle racing. The zenith of his career was winning both the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia in 1998...
one time, in 1998
The youngest Tour de France winner was
Henri CornetHenri Cornet was a French cyclist who won the 1904 Tour de France. He is its youngest winner, just short of his 20th birthday.-Background:...
, aged 19 in
1904The 1904 Tour de France was the second Tour de France, held from July 2 to July 24. The route was the same as in 1903, and Maurice Garin seemed to repeated his win of the previous year by a small margin over Lucien Pothier, while Hippolyte Aucouturier won four of the six stages...
. Next youngest was
Romain MaesRomain Maes was a Belgian cyclist who won the 1935 Tour de France after wearing the yellow jersey of leadership from beginning to end....
, 21 in
1935The 1935 Tour de France was the 29th Tour de France, taking place July 4 to July 28, 1935. It consisted of 21 stages over 4,338 km, ridden at an average speed of 30.650 km/h...
. The oldest winner was
Firmin LambotFirmin Lambot was a Belgian bicycle racer who twice won the Tour de France.Born in the small town of Florennes, Lambot worked as a saddler but began racing professionally in 1908. In that year he won the championships of Flanders and Belgium...
, aged 36 in
1922The 1922 Tour de France was the 16th Tour de France, taking place June 25 to July 23, 1922. The 1922 Tour consisted of 15 stages covering a total of . The race was won by the Belgian cyclist Firmin Lambot...
. Next oldest were
Henri PélissierHenri Pélissier was a French racing cyclist from Paris and champion of the 1923 Tour de France. In addition to his 29 career victories, he was known for his long-standing feud with Tour founder Henri Desgrange and for protesting against the conditions endured by riders in the early years of the Tour...
(
1923The 1923 Tour de France was the 17th Tour de France, taking place June 24 to July 22, 1923. It consisted of 15 stages over 5386 km, ridden at an average speed of 24.233 km/h. The race was won by Henri Pélissier with a convincing half hour lead to his next opponent, Italian Ottavio...
) and
Gino BartaliGino Bartali, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was the most renowned Italian cyclist before the Second World War, having won the Giro d'Italia twice and the Tour de France in 1938...
(
1948The 1948 Tour de France was the 35th Tour de France, taking place June 30 to July 25, 1948. It consisted of 21 stages over 4,922 km, ridden at an average speed of 33.443 km/h....
), both 34.
Gino BartaliGino Bartali, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was the most renowned Italian cyclist before the Second World War, having won the Giro d'Italia twice and the Tour de France in 1938...
holds the 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 (36), followed by Belgium (18), Spain (12), United States (10), Italy (9), Luxembourg (4), Switzerland and the Netherlands (2 each) and Ireland, Denmark and Germany (1 each).
See also List of Tour de France winners
Stage points
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. Points are higher for flat stages, as sprints are more likely, and less for mountain stages, where climbers usually win. In the current rules, there are five types of stages: flat stages, intermediates stages, mountain stages, individual time trial stages and team time trial stages. The number of points awarded at the end of each stage are:
Flat stages:
- 35, 30, 26, 24, 22, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points are awarded to the first 25 riders across the finish line.
Intermediate stages:
- 25, 22, 20, 18, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points are awarded to the first 20 riders across the finish line.
High-mountain stages:
- 20, 17, 15, 13, 12, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points are awarded to the first 15 riders across the finish line.
Time-trials:
- 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points are awarded to the top 10 finishers of the stage.
In addition, stages can have intermediate sprints in which 6, 4, and 2 points are awarded to the first three. In case of a tie, the number of stage wins determine the green jersey, then the number of intermediate sprint victories, and finally, the rider's standing in the general classification. The points competition began in 1953, to mark the 50th anniversary. It was called the Grand Prix du Cinquentenaire and was won by
Fritz SchaerFritz Schär was a Swiss cyclist who in 1953 won the first green jersey ever in the Tour de France. He also finished third in the general classification in the 1954 Tour de France....
of Switzerland. The first sponsor was La Belle Jardinière. The current sponsor is Pari Mutuel Urbain, a state betting company.
One rider has won the points competition six times:
- Erik Zabel
Erik Zabel is a former German professional road bicycle racer who last raced for UCI ProTour Team Milram. With over 200 professional career wins he is considered by some to be one of the greatest German cyclists and best cycling sprinters of cycling history...
1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 (consecutive years)
King of the Mountains
The
King of the MountainsThe King of the Mountains is the title given to the best climber in a cycling road race; usually and officially known as the Mountains classification...
wears a white jersey with red dots (maillot à pois rouges), inspired by a jersey that one of the organisers, Félix Lévitan, had seen at the
Vélodrome d'HiverThe Vélodrome d'Hiver , colloquially Vel' d'Hiv', was an indoor cycle track in the rue Nélaton, close to the Eiffel Tower in Paris. As well as track cycling, it was used for ice hockey, wrestling, boxing, roller-skating, circuses, spectaculars and demonstrations. The building was usually referred...
in Paris in his youth. The competition gives points to the first to top designated hills and mountains.
The first Tour de France included one mountain pass – the
Ballon d'AlsaceBallon d'Alsace is a mountain at the border of Alsace, Lorraine, and Franche-Comté. From its top, views include the Vosges, the Rhine valley, and the Black Forest.A road leads over a pass near the peak at 1171 m....
in the
VosgesThis article is about the department of France named Vosges. For the mountain range, see Vosges Mountains.Vosges is a French department, named after the local mountain range. It contains the hometown of Joan of Arc, Domrémy.-History:...
– but several lesser cols. The first was the col des Echarmeaux, on the opening stage from Paris to Lyon, on what is now the old road from Autun to Lyon. The stage from Lyon to Marseille included the col de la République, also known as the col du Grand Bois, at the edge of St-Etienne. True mountains, however, were not included until the
PyreneesThe Pyrenees are a range of mountains in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain...
in
1910The 1910 Tour de France was the 8th Tour de France, taking place July 3 to July 31, 1910. It consisted of 15 stages over 4,737 km , ridden at an average speed of 28.680 km/h....
. In that year the race rode, or more walked, first the
col d'AubisqueThe Col d'Aubisque is a mountain pass in the Pyrenees 30km south of Tarbes and Pau in the department of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques , in the Aquitaine region of France...
and then the nearby Tourmalet. Desgrange once more stayed away. Both climbs were mule tracks, a demanding challenge on heavy, ungeared bikes ridden by men with spare tyres around their shoulders and their food, clothing and tools in bags hung from their handlebars. The assistant organiser, Victor Breyer, stood at the summit of the Aubisque with the colleague who had proposed including the Pyrenees, Alphonse Steinès. Breyer wrote of the first man to reach them:
- His body heaved at the pedals, like an automaton, on two wheels. He wasn't going fast but he was at least moving. I trotted alongside him and asked 'Who are you? What's going on? Where are the others?' Bent over his handlebars, his eyes riveted on the road, the man never turned his head nor uttered one sole word. He continued and disappeared round a turn. Steinès had read his number and consulted the riders' list. Steinès was dumfounded. 'The man is François Lafourcade, a nobody. He has caught and passed all the cracks' ... Another quarter-hour passed before the second rider appeared, whom we immediately recognised as Octave Lapize
Octave Lapize was a French professional road racing cyclist and track cyclist....
. Unlike Lafourcade, Lapize was walking, half leaning on, half pushing his machine. But unlike his predecessor, Lapize spoke, and in abundance. 'You are assassins, yes, assassins!' To discuss matters with a man in this condition would have been cruel and stupid.
Desgrange was confident enough after the Pyrenees to include the
AlpsThe Alps are one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east; through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany; to France in the west....
in 1911.
The highest climb in the race was the
col de la BonetteCol de la Bonette is a high mountain pass in the French Alps, near the border with Italy. It is situated within the Mercantour National Park on the border of the departments of Alpes-Maritimes and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence....
in the
2008 Tour de FranceThe 2008 Tour de France was the 95th Tour de France. The event took place from 5–27 July 2008. Starting in the French city of Brest, the tour entered Italy on the 15th stage and returned to France during the 16th, heading for Paris, its regular final destination, which was reached in the 21st stage...
, reaching 2715 m. The highest mountain finish in the Tour was at the
col du GranonCol du Granon is a high mountain pass in the Alps in France. A narrow tarmac road winds steeply up the southern approach. Gravel roads continue beyond the pass, in a military training zone. It hosted the highest ever mountain-top stage finish in the Tour de France - once only - in 1986...
in 1986. The 2413 m pass was reached first by Eduardo Chozas of Spain. Mountains such as the Galibier, Tourmalet, Alpe d'Huez, Madeleine, Ventoux and Aubisque attract amateur cyclists every day in summer to test their fitness on roads used by champions.
The difficulty of a climb is established by its steepness, length and its position on the course. The easiest are graded 4, most of the hardest as 1 and the exceptional (such as the Tourmalet) as beyond classification, or
hors catégorieHors catégorie is a French term used in cycle races to designate a climb that is "beyond categorization", an incredibly tough climb. Most climbs in cycling are designated from Category 1 to Category 4 , based on both steepness and length...
. Famous hors catégorie peaks include the
col du TourmaletCol du Tourmalet is the highest road in the central Pyrenees in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées in France. Sainte-Marie-de-Campan is at the foot on the eastern side and the ski station La Mongie two-thirds of the way up. Luz-Saint-Sauveur is at the bottom of the western side.Tourmalet is also a...
,
Mont VentouxMont Ventoux is a mountain in the Provence region of southern France, located some 20 km north-east of Carpentras, Vaucluse. On the north-side, the mountain borders the Drôme département. It is the largest mountain in the region and has been nicknamed the "Giant of Provence", or "The Bald...
,
col du GalibierCol du Galibier is a mountain pass in the southern region of the French Dauphiné Alps near Grenoble. It is often the highest point of the Tour de France....
, the climb to the ski resort of
HautacamHautacam is a ski resort in the Pyrenees. It is situated in the Hautes-Pyrénées department, in the Midi-Pyrénées region. The winter sports station lies at a height of 1560 meters.- Details of climb :...
, and
Alpe d'HuezAlpe d'Huez is a ski resort at . It is a mountain pasture in the Central French Alps, in the commune of Huez, in the Isère département.-Tour de France:...
.
Climbs rated "
hors catégorieHors catégorie is a French term used in cycle races to designate a climb that is "beyond categorization", an incredibly tough climb. Most climbs in cycling are designated from Category 1 to Category 4 , based on both steepness and length...
" (HC): 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, 7, 6 and 5.
Category 1: 15, 13, 11, 9, 8, 7, 6 and 5.
Category 2: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, and 5.
Category 3: 4, 3, 2 and 1.
Category 4: 3, 2 and 1.
For the last climb of a stage, points are doubled for HC and categories one and two.
The best climber was first recognised in 1933, prizes were given from 1934 and the jersey was introduced in 1975.
One rider has been King of the Mountains seven times:
- Richard Virenque
Richard Virenque
[Richard Virenque's name is pronounced Ree-shah Vee-rahnk. Virenque considers himself a man of the South but pronounces his name in standard French. Confusion is caused by the southern habit of pronouncing "en" as "ang" or "eng", making it Vee-rank...]
in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2003 and 2004.
Two riders have been King of the Mountains six times:
- Federico Bahamontes
Federico Martín Bahamontes is a Spanish former professional road racing cyclist.-Biography:Bahamontes was born in Santo Domingo-Caudilla , of Cuban descent. His family was devastated during the Spanish civil war and Bahamontes' father, Julian, took the family to Madrid as refugees...
in 1954, 1958, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1964
- Lucien van Impe
Lucien van Impe was a Belgian cyclist from 1969 to 1987. He excelled mainly as a climber in multiple-day races such as the Tour de France...
in 1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1981, 1983
Other categories
Since 1975, there has been a
competition for young riders-History:From 1968 to 1975, there was a white jersey awarded in the Tour de France to the lead rider in the combination classification . In 1975, this classification was removed, and replaced by the Best Young Rider Classification...
. From 1975 to 1989 and from 2000, the leader has worn a white jersey (maillot blanc
in French) One rider has won three times:
- Jan Ullrich
Jan Ullrich is a German former professional road bicycle racer. In 1997, he was the first German to win the Tour de France. He went on to take five second places and a fourth in 2004 and third in 2005. He is considered one of the best time-trialists in the history of the sport...
1996, 1997, 1998. In these years however, this classification did not have its own jersey.
The prix de la combativitéThe combativity award, , is a prize given in the Tour de France. It favours constant attackers and since 1981 the winner of the award has not won the whole Tour.- History :...
goes to the rider who most animates the day, usually by trying to break clear of the field. The most combative rider wears a number printed white-on-red instead of black-on-white next day. An award goes to the most aggressive rider throughout the Tour. Already in 1908 a sort of combativity award was offered, when Sports Populaires
and L'Education Physique
created Le Prix du Courage, 100 francs and a silver gilt medal for "the rider having finished the course, even if unplaced, who is particularly distinguished for the energy he has used." The modern competition started in 1958. In 1959, a Super Combativity award for the most combative cyclist of the Tour was awarded. It was initially not rewarded every year, but since 1981 it has been given annually.
The
team prizeThe team classification is a prize given in cycling races to the best team. The best known team classification is in the cycling race Tour de France.-History:In the early years of the Tour de France, cyclists entered as individuals...
is assessed by adding the time 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. The competition has existed from the start; the most successful trade team is
AlcyonThe Alcyon was a French bicycle, automobile and motorcycle manufacturer between 1890 and 1957.- Origins :Alcyon originated from about 1890 when Edmond Gentil started the manufacture of bicycles in Neuilly, Seine. In 1902, this was complemented by motorcycle production and in 1906, the first cars...
, which won from 1909 to 1912 and from 1927 to 1929. The best national teams are France and Belgium, with 10 wins each.
Historical jerseys
There has been an
intermediate sprints classificationThe red jersey was awarded to the leader of the intermediate sprints classification in the Tour de France. The competition was first calculated in 1971, but the jersey was only awarded from 1984...
, which from 1984 awarded a red jersey for points awarded to the first three to pass intermediate points during the stage. These sprints also scored points towards the green jersey and bonuses towards the general classification. The sprints remain, with points for the green jersey. The red jersey was abolished in 1989.
From 1968 there was a combination classification, scored on a points system based on standings for the yellow, green, red, and polka-dot jerseys. The design was originally white, then a patchwork with areas resembling each individual jersey design. This was also abolished in 1989.
Lanterne rouge
The rider who has taken most time is called the
lanterne rougeThe Lanterne Rouge is the competitor in last place in a cycling race such as the Tour de France. The phrase comes from the French "Red Lantern" and refers to the red lantern hung on the caboose of a railway train, which conductors would look for in order to make sure none of the couplings had...
and in past years sometimes carried a small red light beneath his
saddleA saddle is a supportive structure for a rider or other load, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is the equestrian saddle designed for a horse, but specialized saddles have been created for camels and other creatures...
. Such was sympathy that he could command higher fees in the round-the-houses races that followed the Tour. The custom died along with the races. In 1939 and 1948 the organisers sent home the last rider every day, to encourage more competitive racing.
Mass-start stages
Riders in most stages start together. The first kilometres, the départ fictif
, are a rolling start without racing. The real start, the départ réel is announced by the Tour director's waving a white flag.
Riders are permitted to touch, but not push or nudge, and to slipstream (see
draftingDrafting or slipstreaming is a technique where two vehicles or objects align in a close group reducing the overall effect of drag due to exploiting the lead object's slipstream...
). The first to cross the line wins. On flat stages or stages with low hills, which generally predominate in the first week, this leads to spectacular mass sprints.
All riders in a group finish in the same time as the lead rider. This avoids dangerous mass sprints. It is not unusual for the entire field to finish in a group, taking time to cross the line but being credited with the same time. Since 2005, when riders fall or crash within the final 3 kilometers of a stage with a flat finish, they are awarded the same time as the group they were in. This change encourages riders to sprint to the finish for points awards without fear of losing time to the group. The final kilometre has been indicated since 1906 by a red triangle – the flamme rouge – above the road.
Time bonuses for the first three at intermediate sprints and stage finishes were discontinued with the 2008 race.
Stages in the mountains often cause major shifts in the general classification. On ordinary stages, most riders can stay in the peloton to the finish; during mountain stages, it is not uncommon for riders to lose 30 minutes or to be eliminated after finishing outside the time limit.
The first photo-finish was in 1955.
Individual time trials
Riders in a time trial compete individually against the clock, each starting at a different time. The first time trial was between La Roche-sur-Yon and Nantes (80km) in 1934. The first stage in modern Tours is often a short trial, a prologue, to decide who wears yellow on the opening day. The first prologue was in 1967. The 1988 event, at La Baule, was called "la préface".
There are usually two or three time trials. One may be a
team time trialA team time trial is a road-based bicycle race in which teams of cyclists race against the clock .Teams start at equal intervals, usually two, three or four minutes apart...
. The final time trial has sometimes been the final stage, more recently often the penultimate stage.
The launch ramp, a sloping start pad for riders, was first used in 1965, at Cologne.
Team time trial
A team
time trialIn many racing sports an athlete will compete in a time trial against the clock to secure the fastest time. In cycling, for example, a time trial can be a single track cycling event, or an individual or team time trial on the road, and either or both of the latter may form components of...
(TTT) is a race against the clock in which each team rides alone. The time is that of the fifth rider of each team: riders more than a bike-length behind their team's fifth rider are awarded their own times. The TTT has been criticised for favouring strong teams and handicapping strong riders in weak teams. After a four-year absence, the TTT returned in 2009.
The prologue stage in 1971 was a team time trial. The 1939 TTT crossed the Iseran mountain pass between Bonneval and Bourg-St-Maurice.
Famous stages
The race has finished since 1975 with laps of the Champs-Élysées. This stage rarely challenges the leader because it is flat and the leader usually has too much time in hand to be denied. But in 1987,
Pedro DelgadoPedro Delgado Robledo , also known as Perico, is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer. He won the 1988 Tour de France, and the Vuelta a España in 1985 and 1989....
broke away on the Champs to challenge the 40-second lead held by
Stephen Rochefor Irish soccer player see: Stephen Roche Stephen Roche is a retired professional road racing cyclist...
. He and Roche finished in the peloton and Roche won the Tour.
In 1989 the last stage was a time trial.
Greg LeMondGregory James "Greg" LeMond is a former professional road bicycle racer from the United States and a three-time winner of the Tour de France. He was born in Lakewood, California....
overtook
Laurent FignonLaurent Fignon is a French former professional road bicycle racer. He won the Tour de France twice, in 1983 and 1984, and missed winning it a third time, in 1989, by 8 seconds, the closest margin ever to decide the tour...
to win by eight seconds, the closest margin.
The climb of
Alpe d'HuezAlpe d'Huez is a ski resort at . It is a mountain pasture in the Central French Alps, in the commune of Huez, in the Isère département.-Tour de France:...
is a favourite, providing a stage in most Tours. In 2004, a time trial ended at Alpe d'Huez. Riders complained about abusive spectators and the stage may not be repeated. Mont Ventoux is often claimed to be the hardest in the Tour because of the harsh conditions.
To host a stage start or finish brings prestige and business to a town. The prologue and first stage are particularly prestigious. Usually one town will host the prologue (too short to go between towns) and the start of stage 1. In 2007 director
Christian PrudhommeChristian Prudhomme is a French sports journalist and general director of the Tour de France since 2005.-Pre-Tour career:...
said that "in general, for a period of five years we have the Tour start outside France three times and within France twice."
Broadcasting
The Tour was first followed only by journalists from L'Auto
, the organisers. The race was founded to increase sales of a foundering newspaper and its editor, Desgrange, saw no reason to allow rival publications to profit.
The first time papers other than L'Auto
were allowed was 1921, when 15 press cars were allowed for regional and foreign reporters.
The Tour was shown first on cinema newsreels a day or more after the event. The first live radio broadcast was in 1929, when Jean Antoine and Alex Virot of the newspaper L'Intransigeant broadcast for Radio Cité. They used telephone lines. In 1932 they broadcast the sound of riders crossing the col d'Aubisque in the Pyrenees on 12 July, using a recording machine and transmitting the sound later.
The first television pictures were shown a day after a stage. The national TV channel used two 16mm cameras, a Jeep and a motorbike. Film was flown or taken by train to Paris. It was edited there and shown the following day.
The first live broadcast, and the second of any sport in France, was the finish at the Parc des Princes in Paris on 25 July 1948.
Rik van SteenbergenRik Van Steenbergen was a Belgian racing cyclist, considered to be one of the best among the great number of successful Belgian cyclists.-Career:...
of Belgium led in the bunch after a stage of 340km from
NancyNancy is a city in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France, and formerly the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine, and then the French province of the same name.The city is the head of the department...
. The first live coverage from the side of the road was from the Aubisque on 8 July 1958. Proposals to cover the whole race were abandoned in 1962 after objections from regional newspapers which feared the competition. The dispute was settled but not in time and the first complete coverage was the following year.
The leading television commentator in France was a former rider,
Robert ChapatteRobert Chapatte was a former Tour de France rider, the voice of the race on television and radio and the inventor of Chapatte's Law.- Racing career :...
. At first he was the only commentator. He was joined in following seasons by an analyst for the mountain stages and by a commentator following the competitors by motorcycle.
Broadcasting in France was largely a state monopoly until 1982, when the socialist president
François MitterrandFrançois Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand served as the President of France from 1981 to 1995, elected as representative of the Socialist Party . First elected during the May 1981 presidential election, he became the first socialist President of the Fifth Republic and the first left-wing head of...
allowed private broadcasters and denationalised the leading television channel. Competition between channels raised the broadcasting fees paid to the organisers from 1.5 per cent of the race budget in 1960 to more than a third by the end of the century. Broadcasting time also increased as channels competed to secure the rights. The two largest channels to stay in public ownership, Antenne 2 and FR3, combined to offer more coverage than its private rival, Télévision France. The two stations, renamed France 2 and France 3, still hold the domestic rights and provide pictures for broadcasters around the world.
The stations use a staff of 300 with four helicopters, two aircraft, two motorcycles, 35 other vehicles including trucks, and 20 podium cameras.
The sale of international rights has given the Tour the world's largest viewing figures for an annual sports event and the third highest figures for any sports event. The two top events are the
Olympic GamesThe Olympic Games are a major international event of summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes compete in a wide variety of events. The Games are currently held every two years, with Summer and Winter Olympic Games alternating. Originally, the ancient Olympic Games were held in...
and the soccer
World CupThe FIFA World Cup, occasionally called the Football World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
, each held every four years The race was broadcast by 65 stations in 110 countries in 2003, according to the head of television rights at Amaury Sport Organisation, Yann Le Moëner. The company's drive to expand coverage, which by 2003 accounted with ASO's other sports events for 40 per cent of the group's budget, included paying a television channel to take the race in the USA in the 1990s.
Domestic television covers the most important stages of the Tour, such as those in the mountains, from midmorning until early evening. Coverage typically starts with a survey of the day's route, interviews along the road, discussions of the difficulties and tactics ahead, and a 30-minute archive feature. The biggest stages are shown live from start to end, followed by interviews with riders and others and features such an edited version of the stage seen from beside a team manager following and advising riders from his car.
Radio covers the race in updates throughout the day, particularly on the national news channel, France-Info, and some stations provide continuous commentary on long wave.
Culture
The Tour is important for fans in Europe. Millions line the route, some having camped a week to get the best view. The journalist
Pierre ChanyPierre Chany was one of the world's leading cycling journalists. He covered the Tour de France 49 times and was for a long time the main cycling writer for the daily newspaper, L'Équipe....
wrote:
- The Tour de France has the major fault of dividing the country, the smallest hamlets, even families, into rival factions. I know a man who grabbed his wife and held her on the grill of a lighted stove, sitting with her dress pulled up, to punish her for favouring Jacques Anquetil while he admired Raymond Poulidor. The following year, the woman became a Poulidoriste, but too late: the husband had changed his allegiance to Felice Gimondi. The last I heard, they were digging their heels in and the neighbours were complaining.
The Tour de France appealed from the start not just for the distance and its demands but because it played to a wish for national unity, a call to what
Maurice BarrèsMaurice Barrès was a French novelist, journalist, and anti-semite socialist politician and agitator. In his youth a Boulangist deputy, he progressively developed a theory close to Romantic nationalism and shifted to the traditionalist right during the Dreyfus Affair, leading the Anti-Dreyfusards...
called the France "of earth and deaths" or what Georges Vigarello called "the image of a France united by its earth."
The image had been started by the 1877 travel/school book
Le Tour de la France par deux enfantsLe Tour de la France par deux enfants is a French novel/geography/travel/school book. It was written by Augustine Fouillée who used the pseudonym of G. Bruno. She was the wife of Alfred Jules Émile Fouillée...
.
[A school book written by Augustine Fouillée under the name G. Bruno and published in 1877, it sold six million by 1900, seven million by 1914 and 8,400,000 by 1976. It was used in schools until the 1950s and is still available.] It told of two boys, André and Julien, who "in a thick September fog left the town of Phalsbourg in
LorraineLorraine is one of the 26 régions of France. It is the only administrative region with two cities of equal importance, Metz and Nancy. Metz is considered to be the official capital since that is where the regional parliament is situated...
to see France at a time when few people had gone far beyond their nearest town."
The book sold six million copies by the time of the first Tour de France, the biggest selling book of 19th century France (other than the Bible). It stimulated a national interest in France, making it "visible and alive", as its preface said. There had already been a car race called the Tour de France but it was the publicity behind the cycling race, and Desgrange's drive to educate and improve the population, that inspired the French to know more of their country.
The academic historians Jean-Luc Boeuf and Yves Léonard say most people in France had little idea of the shape of their country until L'Auto
began publishing maps of the race. They wrote:
At the start of the 20th century, the French were still largely ignorant (
connaissent encore très mal
) of the geography of their country. Maps were rare and little used, even at school. The physical shape of France and its contours remained an unknown for most Frenchmen ... Efforts to interest school children in the image in general and maps in particular were in vain. The book Tour de France par Deux Enfants didn't have a map of France before its 1905 edition, by which time it had sold seven million copies!
By the maps of France [that it published], the Tour de France became at the same time a teacher, in printing a map of the contours of the country – which was rare at least until the Great War – and populist in portraying France as a hexagonIn geometry, a hexagon is a polygon with six edges and six vertices. A regular hexagon has Schläfli symbol {6}.- Regular hexagon :The internal angles of a regular hexagon are all 120° and the hexagon has 720 degrees T. It has 6 rotational symmetries and 6 reflection symmetries, making up the...
, a France not only amputated from 1903 of its "lost provinces" but also its overseas possessions and CorsicaCorsica is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
, never visited in a century and still missing from maps of the Tour de France.[In times of Empire, and when Algeria was considered not a colony but part of France, there was a tendency to see France as not just metropolitan France]Metropolitan France is the part of France located in Europe, including Corsica. It can also be described as mainland France or as the French mainland and the island of Corsica...
but all its colonies as well. The popular description of France as "the hexagon" wasn't created by the Tour de France but the Tour de France accelerated the process, say Boeuf and Léonard
Eugen Weber, in the foreword to Tour de France: 1903-2003 says:
- The Tour contributed more to France than new-model heroes. It put flesh on the bones of values taught in school but seldom internalized: effort, courage, determination, stoic endurance of pain, and even fair play. It familiarized a nation with its geography. It brought life, activity, excitement into small towns where very little happened; it introduced a festive atmosphere wherever it passed; and it acquainted provincial backwaters with spectacular displays previously available only in big cities. .
The Tour de France has also given the language a word for a popular but persistent loser.
Raymond PoulidorRaymond Poulidor , is a former professional bicycle racer. He was known as the eternal second, because he finished the Tour de France in second place three times, and in third place five times, including his final Tour at the age of 40...
never won the Tour de France but was more popular than his rival,
Jacques AnquetilJacques Anquetil was a French road racing cyclist and the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times, in 1957 and from 1961 to 1964...
, who won five times and unfailingly beat him. Poulidor is now associated with bad luck or a hard life, as an article by Jacques Marseille showed in Le Figaro
when it was headlined "This country is suffering from a Poulidor Complex".
The Tour in the arts
The Tour has inspired several popular songs in France, notably P'tit gars du Tour
(1932), Les Tours de France
(1936) and Faire le Tour de France
(1950). KraftwerkKraftwerk is an influential electronic band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The signature Kraftwerk sound combines driving, repetitive rhythms with catchy melodies, mainly following a Western classical style of harmony, with a minimalistic and strictly electronic instrumentation.The group's simplified...
had a hit with Tour de France"Tour de France" is a song by Kraftwerk. It was first issued in June 1983, peaking at #22 in the UK singles chart. It is notable for the use of sampled voices and mechanical sounds associated with cycling that were used to supplement a simple electro-percussion pattern – an approach Kraftwerk have...
in 1983 – described as a minimalistic "melding of man and machine" – and produced an album, Tour de France SoundtracksTour de France Soundtracks is the tenth and most recent studio album by the German electronic group Kraftwerk. The album was recorded for the 100th anniversary of the first Tour de France bicycle race, although it missed its original release date during the actual Tour. The cover art is similar to...
in 2003, the centenary of the Tour. The race inspired Queen'sQueen were an English rock band. Formed in London in 1970 following the demise of the band Smile, Queen consisted of vocalist Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, bassist John Deacon and drummer Roger Taylor. The band became popular with audiences via their hit songs, live performances,...
1978 single Bicycle Race"Bicycle Race" is a single for the English rock band Queen. It was released on their 1978 album Jazz and written by Queen's frontman Freddie Mercury. The song is unusual for a Queen single in that it shows off the band's humorous side. Among other comic moments it has a middle eight which features...
as it passed Freddie Mercury'sFreddie Mercury was a British musician, best known as the frontman of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his vocal prowess and flamboyant performances...
hotel.
In films, the Tour was background for Cinq Tulipes Rouges
(1949) by Jean Stelli, in which five riders are murdered. La Course en Tête
(1974) followed Eddy Merckx and was selected for the Cannes Film FestivalThe Cannes Film Festival , founded in 1946, is one of the world's oldest and most prestigious film festivals. The private festival is held annually at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, in the resort town of Cannes, in the south of France.The 62nd edition started 13 May and ended 24 May 2009...
. A burlesque in 1967, Les Cracks
by Alex Joffé, with Bourvil et Monique Tarbès, also featured him. Patrick Le Gall made Chacun son Tour
(1996). The comedy, Le Vélo de Ghislain Lambert
(2001), featured the Tour of 1974.
In 2005, three films chronicled a team. The German Höllentour
, translated as Hell on Wheels
, recorded 2003 from the perspective of Team Telekom. The film was directed by Pepe Danquart, who won an Academy Award for live-action short film in 1993 for Black Rider
(Schwarzfahrer
). The Danish film Overcoming
by Tómas Gislason recorded the 2004 Tour from the perspective of Team CSCTeam Saxo Bank is a professional cycling team from Denmark which competes in the road bicycle racing series the UCI ProTour...
.
Wired to Win : Surviving the Tour de France chronicles Française des Jeux riders
Baden CookeBaden Cooke is an Australian professional racing cyclist for UCI Professional Continental team Vacansoleil. In 2010 he will race for Pro Tour squad Team Saxo Bank on a one year contract....
and Jimmy Caspar in 2003. By following their quest for the green jersey, won by Cooke, the film looks at the working of the brain. The film, made for IMAX theaters, appeared in December 2005. It was directed by Bayley Silleck, who was nominated for an
Academy Award for documentary short subjectThis is a list of films by year that have received an Oscar together with the other nominations for best documentary short subject. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are announced and presented early in the following year.-1940s:*1941...
in 1996 for
Cosmic VoyageCosmic Voyage is a 1996 short documentary produced in the IMAX format, directed by Bayley Silleck, produced by Jeffrey Marvin, and narrated by Morgan Freeman. The film was presented by the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum,...
.
A fan, Scott Coady, followed the 2000 Tour with a handheld video camera to make The Tour Baby!, which raised $160,000 to benefit the Lance Armstrong FoundationThe Lance Armstrong Foundation is a United States 501 nonprofit organization that provides support for people affected by cancer, founded in 1997 by cancer survivor and champion cyclist Lance Armstrong...
, and made a 2005 sequel,Tour Baby Deux!.
Vive Le Tour
by Louis MalleLouis Malle was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. He has worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. His films include Ascenseur pour l'échafaud , Atlantic City , and Au revoir, les enfants .- Early years in France :Malle was born into a wealthy industrialist family in Thumeries,...
is an 18-minute short of 1962. The 1965 Tour was filmed by Claude LelouchClaude Lelouch is a French film director, writer, cinematographer, actor and producer.- Biography :Born in the 9th arrondissement of Paris to a Jewish family of Algerian origin, Lelouch won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1966 for Un homme et une femme , as well as two oscars...
in Pour un Maillot Jaune
. This 30-minute documentary has no narration and relies on sights and sounds of the Tour.
In fiction, the 2003 animated feature Les Triplettes de Belleville
(The Triplets of Belleville) ties into the Tour de France.
AmélieAmélie is a 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Audrey Tautou. Its original French title is Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain . Written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant, the film is a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre...
has clips from several Tours, including one in which a horse joins the peloton.
Doping
Allegations of doping have plagued the Tour almost since 1903. Early riders consumed
alcoholEthanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a psychoactive drug, best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages and in modern thermometers. Ethanol is one of the oldest recreational drugs...
and used
etherDiethyl ether, also known as ether, ethyl ether and ethoxyethane, is a clear, colorless, and highly flammable liquid with a low boiling point and a characteristic odor. It is the most common member of a class of chemical compounds known generically as ethers. It is an isomer of butanol...
, to dull the pain. Over the years they began to increase performance and the
Union Cycliste InternationaleUnion Cycliste Internationale is a cycling association that oversees competitive cycling events internationally. It is the world governing body for jurisdiction in the sport of cycling. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland...
and governments enacted policies to combat the practice.
In 1924,
Henri PélissierHenri Pélissier was a French racing cyclist from Paris and champion of the 1923 Tour de France. In addition to his 29 career victories, he was known for his long-standing feud with Tour founder Henri Desgrange and for protesting against the conditions endured by riders in the early years of the Tour...
and his brother
CharlesCharles Pélissier was a French racing cyclist, professional between 1922 and 1939, who won 16 stages in the Tour de France. The number of eight stages won in the 1930 Tour de France is still a record, shared with Eddy Merckx and Freddy Maertens...
told the journalist
Albert LondresAlbert Londres was a French journalist and writer. One of the inventors of investigative journalism, he criticized abuses of colonialism such as forced labour. Albert Londres gave his name to a journalism prize for French journalists.- Biography :Londres was born in Vichy in 1884...
they used
strychnineStrychnine is a very toxic , colorless crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine causes muscular convulsions and eventually death through asphyxia or sheer exhaustion. The most common source is from the seeds of the...
,
cocaineCocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system and an appetite suppressant...
,
chloroformChloroform is the organic compound with formula CHCl
3. This colourless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid is a trihalomethane. It is also considered somewhat hazardous...
,
aspirinAspirin , also known as acetylsalicylic acid , is a salicylate drug, often used as an analgesic to relieve minor aches and pains, as an antipyretic to reduce fever, and as an anti-inflammatory medication....
, "horse ointment" and other drugs. The story was published in
Le Petit ParisienLe Petit Parisien was a prominent French newspaper during the French Third Republic.It was published between 1876 and 1944, and its circulation was over 2 million after the First World War.-Publishing:...
under the title Les Forçats de la Route ('The Convicts of the Road')
On 13 July 1967, British cyclist
Tom SimpsonTom Simpson was an English road racing cyclist who died of exhaustion on the slopes of Mont Ventoux during the 13th stage of the Tour de France in 1967...
died climbing
Mont VentouxMont Ventoux is a mountain in the Provence region of southern France, located some 20 km north-east of Carpentras, Vaucluse. On the north-side, the mountain borders the Drôme département. It is the largest mountain in the region and has been nicknamed the "Giant of Provence", or "The Bald...
after taking
amphetamineAmphetamine is a psychostimulant drug that is known to produce increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and appetite. Amphetamine is related to drugs such as methamphetamine and dextroamphetamine, which are a group of potent drugs that act by increasing levels of...
. In 1998, the "Tour of Shame",
Willy VoetWilly Voet is a Belgian sports physiotherapist. He is most widely known for his involvement in the Festina affair in the 1998 Tour de France ....
, soigneur for the
Festinathumb|right|Festina watchesFestina is a watch manufacturer. It was founded in 1902 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.The manufacture's motto was Festina Lente . In 1984, Spanish industrialist Miguel Rodriguez, already owner of Lotus watches bought Festina and created the group Festina Lotus S.A....
team, was arrested with
erythropoietinErythropoietin, or its alternative erythropoetin or EPO, is a glycoprotein hormone that controls erythropoiesis, or red blood cell production...
(EPO),
growth hormoneGrowth hormone is a protein-based poly-peptide hormone. It stimulates growth and cell reproduction and regeneration in humans and other animals. It is a 191-amino acid, single-chain polypeptide hormone that is synthesized, stored, and secreted by the somatotroph cells within the lateral wings of...
s,
testosteroneTestosterone is a steroid hormone from the androgen group. In mammals, testosterone is primarily secreted in the testes of males and the ovaries of females, although small amounts are also secreted by the adrenal glands. It is the principal male sex hormone and an anabolic steroid.In men,...
and amphetamine. Police raided team hotels and found products in possession of
TVMTVM was a Dutch road bicycle racing team. It folded in 2000, two years after suffering a doping scandal.- Names :- Riders :...
. Riders went on strike. After mediation by director
Jean-Marie LeblancJean-Marie Leblanc is a French retired professional road bicycle racer who was general director of the Tour de France from 1989 to 2005, when he reached pensionable age and was succeeded by Christian Prudhomme.He became a professional in 1966 and rode...
, police limited their tactics and riders continued. Some riders had abandoned and only 96 finished the race. It became clear in a trial that management and health officials of the Festina team had organised the doping.
Further measures were introduced by race organisers and the
UCIUnion Cycliste Internationale is a cycling association that oversees competitive cycling events internationally. It is the world governing body for jurisdiction in the sport of cycling. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland...
, including more frequent testing and tests for
blood dopingBlood doping is the practice of boosting the number of red blood cells in the bloodstream in order to enhance athletic performance. Because they carry oxygen from the lungs to the muscles, more RBCs in the blood can improve an athlete’s aerobic capacity and endurance.-Methods:The term blood...
(
transfusionsBlood transfusion is the process of transferring blood or blood-based products from one person into the circulatory system of another. Blood transfusions can be life-saving in some situations, such as massive blood loss due to trauma, or can be used to replace blood lost during surgery...
and
EPOErythropoietin, or its alternative erythropoetin or EPO, is a glycoprotein hormone that controls erythropoiesis, or red blood cell production...
use). An independent organisation, the
World Anti-Doping AgencyThe World Anti-Doping Agency , , is an independent foundation created through a collective initiative led by the International Olympic Committee . It was set up on November 10, 1999 in Lausanne, Switzerland to promote, coordinate and monitor the fight against drugs in sport...
(WADA), was created. In 2002, the wife of
Raimondas RumšasRaimondas Rumšas , a professional road bicycle racer since 1996, who came third in the 2002 Tour de France....
, third in the
2002 Tour de FranceThe 2002 Tour de France started in Luxembourg on July 6, 2002, and ended in Paris on July 28. France was visited counter-clockwise, so the Pyrenees were there before the Alps...
, was arrested after
EPOErythropoietin, or its alternative erythropoetin or EPO, is a glycoprotein hormone that controls erythropoiesis, or red blood cell production...
and anabolic steroids were found in her car. Rumšas, who had not failed a test, was not penalised. In 2004,
Philippe GaumontPhilippe Gaumont is a former French professional road racing cyclist. He is notorious for having confessed to extensive doping and explaining a lot of the tricks of the trade.-Racing results:...
said doping was endemic to his
CofidisCofidis is a French company, one of the Otto Group's financial services providers.Founded in 1982 by 3 Suisses International in cooperation with Cetelem, Cofidis specializes in the consumer credit business of the 3 Suisses Group....
team. Fellow Cofidis rider
David MillarDavid Millar is a British road racing cyclist. He has won three stages of the Tour de France and two of the Vuelta a España. He was the British national road champion and the national time trial champion, both in 2007...
confessed to
EPOErythropoietin, or its alternative erythropoetin or EPO, is a glycoprotein hormone that controls erythropoiesis, or red blood cell production...
after his home was raided. In the same year,
Jesus ManzanoJesús María Manzano Ruano is a former Spanish professional road racing cyclist. He is famous as the whistleblower of systematic doping in Spanish cycling and his statements led the Guardia Civil to conduct the Operación Puerto investigation around the sport doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.-Cycling...
, a rider with the Kelme team, alleged he had been forced by his team to use banned substances.
Doping controversy involving unproven allegations have surrounded
Lance ArmstrongLance Edward Armstrong is an American professional road racing cyclist who rides for UCI ProTeam . He is also the founder and chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer research and support....
, although he has never tested positive or been formally accused of doping. In August 2005, one month after Armstrong's seventh consecutive victory, L'Équipe published documents it said showed Armstrong had used EPO in the 1999 race. Armstrong denied using EPO. At the same Tour, Armstrong's urine showed traces of a glucocorticosteroid hormone, although below the positive threshold. He said he had used skin cream containing
triamcinoloneTriamcinolone is a synthetic corticosteroid given orally, by injection, inhalation, or as a topical ointment or cream.-Uses:Triamcinolone is used in the post-operative period of certain cosmetic surgery procedures, notably...
to treat
saddle soresA saddle sore is a skin ailment on the buttocks due to, or exacerbated by, riding on a bicycle saddle. It often develops in three stages: skin abrasion, folliculitis , and finally abscess....
. Armstrong said he had received permission from the UCI to use this cream.
The 2006 Tour had been plagued by the
Operación Puerto doping caseThe Operación Puerto doping case is a Spanish doping case against doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and a number of accomplices, started in May 2006...
before it began, favourites such as
Jan UllrichJan Ullrich is a German former professional road bicycle racer. In 1997, he was the first German to win the Tour de France. He went on to take five second places and a fourth in 2004 and third in 2005. He is considered one of the best time-trialists in the history of the sport...
and
Ivan BassoIvan Basso is an Italian professional road bicycle racer who is currently racing with Italian UCI pro tour team Liquigas. Basso, nicknamed Ivan the Terrible, is among the best mountain riders in the professional field of the 2000s, and is considered one of the strongest stage race riders...
banned by their teams a day before the start. Seventeen riders were implicated. Then the American rider
Floyd LandisFloyd Landis is an American cyclist, from California. He currently rides for UCI Continental team OUCH Pro Cycling Team. He is an all-around rider, with special skills in climbing and time-trialing, and is extremely good on the descent. Landis turned professional in 1999 with the Mercury Cycling...
tested positive test for
testosteroneTestosterone is a steroid hormone from the androgen group. In mammals, testosterone is primarily secreted in the testes of males and the ovaries of females, although small amounts are also secreted by the adrenal glands. It is the principal male sex hormone and an anabolic steroid.In men,...
after he won stage 17; this was confirmed in his "B" sample result, published on 5 August 2006. On 30 June 2008 Landis lost his appeal to the
Court of Arbitration for SportThe Court of Arbitration for Sport is an international arbitration body set up to settle disputes related to sports...
.
On 24 May 2007,
Erik ZabelErik Zabel is a former German professional road bicycle racer who last raced for UCI ProTour Team Milram. With over 200 professional career wins he is considered by some to be one of the greatest German cyclists and best cycling sprinters of cycling history...
admitted using EPO during the first week of the 1996 Tour, when he won the maillot vert (green jersey). Following his plea that other cyclists admit to drugs, former winner
Bjarne RiisBjarne Lykkegård Riis , nicknamed the Eagle from Herning , is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer who won the 1996 Tour de France, and is now the team owner and manager of Danish UCI ProTour outfit Team Saxo Bank...
admitted in
CopenhagenCopenhagen ; ) is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban area with a population of 1,167,569 and a metropolitan area with a population of 1,875,179...
on 25 May 2007 that he used EPO regularly from 1993 to 1998, including when he won the 1996 Tour. His admission meant the top three in 1996 were all linked to doping, two admitting cheating.
On 24 July 2007
Alexander VinokourovAlexander Nikolaevich Vinokourov, also written Alexandre Vinokourov, is a Kazakhstani professional road bicycle racer. He is often referred to as "Vino" and is an all-rounder...
tested positive for a blood transfusion (
blood dopingBlood doping is the practice of boosting the number of red blood cells in the bloodstream in order to enhance athletic performance. Because they carry oxygen from the lungs to the muscles, more RBCs in the blood can improve an athlete’s aerobic capacity and endurance.-Methods:The term blood...
) after winning a time trial, prompting his Astana team to pull out and police to raid the team's hotel. Next day
Cristian MoreniCristian Moreni is an Italian road racing cyclist who rode for Cofidis, le Crédit par Téléphone in the UCI ProTour....
tested positive for
testosteroneTestosterone is a steroid hormone from the androgen group. In mammals, testosterone is primarily secreted in the testes of males and the ovaries of females, although small amounts are also secreted by the adrenal glands. It is the principal male sex hormone and an anabolic steroid.In men,...
. His Cofidis team pulled out.
The same day, leader
Michael RasmussenMichael Rasmussen is a Danish professional road bicycle racer who last rode for the Dutch team Rabobank. In the 2007 Tour de France, Rasmussen, while in the yellow jersey, had his contract terminated by the Rabobank team and was removed from the Tour. The team cited internal code violations...
was removed for "violating internal team rules" by missing random tests on 9 May and 28 June. Rasmussen claimed to have been in Mexico. The Italian journalist
Davide CassaniDavide Cassani is a former road cyclist from Italy. He now works as a cycling commentator on Italian television.He was born in Faenza. In 1982 he made his professional debut with Termolan-Galli...
told Danish television he had seen Rasmussen in Italy. The alleged lying prompted his firing by Rabobank.
On 11 July 2008
Manuel BeltránManuel Beltrán Martinez is a professional road bicycle racer from Spain. Beltrán won his first professional race at the 1997 Giro d'Italia, winning stage 19. His finishes in the Tour de France are somewhat misleading as he was a lieutenant for his team leader...
tested positive for EPO after the first stage.
On 17 July 2008, Ricardo Riccò tested positive for
continuous erythropoiesis receptor activatorMethoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin beta is the active ingredient of a drug marketed by Hoffmann-La Roche under the brand name Mircera. Mircera is a long-acting erythropoietin receptor activator indicated for the treatment of patients with anaemia associated with chronic kidney disease. It is the...
, a variant of EPO, after the fourth stage.
In October 2008, it was revealed that Ricco's teammate and Stage 10 winner
Leonardo PiepoliLeonardo Piepoli is an Italian professional road racing cyclist. He most recently rode for the Saunier Duval-Prodir Team on the UCI ProTour, but had his contract suspended in July 2008 during the Tour de France amid allegations of the use of the blood boosting drug EPO in the team.-Career:He is a...
, as well as
Stefan SchumacherStefan Schumacher is a German professional road racing cyclist. First professionally employed with Team Telekom in 2002, he was released the following year...
– who won both time trials – and
Bernhard Kohlthumb|Bernhard Kohl wears the polka dot jersey of the
Tour the France at the city centre criterium in
Wels on 30 July 2008Bernhard Kohl is an Austrian former professional road bicycle racer and recognized climbing specialist...
– third on general classification and King of the Mountains – had tested positive.
Deaths
Cyclists who have died during the Tour de France:
- 1910: French racer Adolphe Helière drowned at the French Riviera
The Côte d'Azur, often known in English as the French Riviera, is the Mediterranean coastline of the south eastern corner of France, extending from Menton near the Italian border in the east to either Hyères or Cassis in the west....
during a rest day.
- 1935: Spanish racer Francisco Cepeda plunged down a ravine on the Col du Galibier
Col du Galibier is a mountain pass in the southern region of the French Dauphiné Alps near Grenoble. It is often the highest point of the Tour de France....
.
- 1967: 13 July, Stage 13: Tom Simpson
Tom Simpson was an English road racing cyclist who died of exhaustion on the slopes of Mont Ventoux during the 13th stage of the Tour de France in 1967...
died of heart failure during the ascent of Mont Ventoux. AmphetamineAmphetamine is a psychostimulant drug that is known to produce increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and appetite. Amphetamine is related to drugs such as methamphetamine and dextroamphetamine, which are a group of potent drugs that act by increasing levels of...
s were found in Simpson's jersey and blood.
- 1995: 18 July, Stage 15: Fabio Casartelli
Fabio Casartelli was an Italian cyclist and an Olympic gold medalist, who died in a crash on the descent of the Col de Portet d'Aspet, France, during the 15th stage of the 1995 Tour de France.He was born in Como, Italy....
crashed at 88 km/h (55 mphmph is a three-letter acronym that refers to miles per hour, a measurement of speedMPH may also refer to:* Master of Public Health, a Master's degree in public health...
) while descending the Col de Portet d'AspetThe Col de Portet d'Aspet is a mountain pass in the central Pyrenees in the department of Haute-Garonne in France. It is situated on the D618 road between Aspet and St. Girons. At 1069 m, it connects the Ger and Bouigane valleys, on the slopes of the Pic de Paloumère .-Details of climb:Starting...
.
Another seven fatal accidents have occurred:
- 1934: A motorcyclist giving a demonstration in the velodrome of La Roche Sur Yon, to entertain the crowd before the cyclists arrived, died after he crashed at high speed.
- 1957: 14 July: Motorcycle rider Rene Wagter and passenger Alex Virot, a journalist for Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg may refer to:*Radio Luxembourg , a Long Wave commercial radio station that began broadcasting from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in 1933...
, went off a mountain road near Ax-les-ThermesAx-les-Thermes is a commune in the Ariège department in the Midi-Pyrenees region of south-western France. It lies at the confluence of the Ariège River with three tributaries, 26 miles SSE of Foix by rail...
.
- 1958: An official, Constant Wouters, died after an accident with sprinter André Darrigade
André Darrigade was a French professional road bicycle racer between 1951 and 1966. Darrigade, a road sprinter won the 1959 world championship and 22 stages of the Tour de France. Five of those were on the first day. The record has never been equalled.-Origins:André Darrigade was born at Narosse,...
at the Parc des PrincesThe Parc des Princes is a stadium located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France, currently the home of football team Paris Saint-Germain , with a seating capacity of 48,712. Originally a velodrome, it was the finish of the Tour de France from the first event in 1903 until the track's...
.
- 1964: Twenty people died when a supply van hit a bridge in the Dordogne
Dordogne is a départment in south-west France. The départment is located in the region of Aquitaine, between the Loire valley and the High Pyrénées named after the great river Dordogne that runs through it...
region, resulting in the highest tour-related death toll.
- 2000: A 12-year-old from Ginasservis
Ginasservis is a village and commune in the Var département of south-eastern France....
, known as Phillippe, was hit by a car in the Tour de France publicity caravan.
- 2002: A seven-year-old boy, Melvin Pompele, died near Retjons
Retjons is a commune in the Landes department in Aquitaine in south-western France....
after running in front of the caravan.
- 2009: 18 July, Stage 14: A spectator in her 60s was struck and killed by a police motorcycle while crossing a road along the route near Wittelsheim
Wittelsheim is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.-References:*...
.
Statistics
One rider has been King of the Mountains, won the points competition, and the Tour in the same year -
Eddy MerckxEdouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx , better known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian former professional cyclist. The French magazine Vélo called him "the most accomplished rider that cycling has ever known." The American publication, VeloNews, called him the greatest and most successful cyclist of all...
in 1969.
The most appearances have been by
Joop ZoetemelkHendrik Gerardus Jozef "Joop" Zoetemelk is a retired professional racing cyclist from The Netherlands. He started the Tour de France 16 times and finished every time, a record. He won the race in 1980 and also came eighth, fifth, fourth and second...
with 16, which includes 1 win of GC, 12 top ten finishes and no abandonments. Three riders, (
Lucien van ImpeLucien van Impe was a Belgian cyclist from 1969 to 1987. He excelled mainly as a climber in multiple-day races such as the Tour de France...
(one Tour win), Guy Nulens, and
Viatcheslav EkimovViatcheslav Vladimirovich Ekimov , nicknamed Eki, is a Russian former professional racing cyclist...
have made 15 appearances; van Impe and Ekimov finished all 15 whereas Nulens abandoned twice.
In the early years of the Tour, cyclists rode individually, and were sometimes forbidden to ride together. This led to large gaps between the winner and the number two. Since the cyclists now tend to stay together in a
pelotonThe peloton , field, bunch or pack is the large main group in a road bicycle race. Riders in a group save energy by riding close near other riders...
, the margins of the winner have become smaller, as the difference can only originate from time trials, breakaways or on mountain top finishes. In the table below, the ten smallest margins between the winner and the second placed cyclists at the end of the Tour are given. The largest margin, by comparison, remains that of the first Tour in 1903: 2h 49m 45s between Maurice Garin and
Lucien PothierLucien Pothier was a successful early twentieth century French racing cyclist who participated in the 1903 Tour de France and finished second....
.
| Winning Margin |
Year |
Opponents |
| 8" |
1989 |
Greg LeMond – Laurent Fignon |
| 23" |
2007 |
Alberto Contador – Cadel Evans |
| 32" |
2006 |
Óscar Pereiro – Andreas Klöden |
| 38" |
1968 |
Jan Janssen – Herman Van Springel |
| 40" |
1987 |
Stephen Roche – Pedro Delgado |
| 48" |
1977 |
Bernard Thévenet – Hennie Kuiper |
| 55" |
1964 |
Jacques Anquetil – Raymond Poulidor |
| 58" |
2008 |
Carlos Sastre – Cadel Evans |
| 1'01" |
2003 |
Lance Armstrong – Jan Ullrich |
| 1'07" |
1966 |
Lucien Aimar – Jan Janssen |
Stage wins
Six riders have won 20 or more stages: – 34 – 28 – 25 (including half-stages) – 25 – 25 – 22
Three riders have won 8 stages in a single year: (1930, in addition to seven second places) (1970, 1974) (1976)
Stage towns
Some cities and towns have hosted 25 or more stage starts and finishes :
- Paris – 135 (most recent finish: 2009)
- Bordeaux
is a port city on the Garonne River in southwest France, with one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area at a 2008 estimate. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture of the Gironde department...
– 79 (most recent: 2006)
- Pau – 61 (most recent: 2007)
- Luchon – 50 (most recent: 2006)
- Metz
Metz is a city in the northeast of France, capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. It is located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers....
– 40 (most recent: 2002)
- Grenoble
Grenoble is a city in south-eastern France situated at the foot of the French Alps where the Drac joins the Isère River. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère. The proximity of the mountains make the city named "Capital of Alps."The history of the...
– 38 (most recent: 2005)
- Perpignan
Perpignan is a commune and the capital of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France...
– 36 (most recent: 2009)
- Caen
Caen is a commune in north-western France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region...
– 35 (most recent: 2006)
- Nice
Nice is a city in southern France located on the Mediterranean coast, between Marseille, France, and Genoa, Italy, with 347 060 inhabitants in the 2006 estimate...
– 35 (most recent: 1981)
- Briançon
Briançon is a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in south-eastern France. It is the sub-prefecture of the department.At 1,350 meters it is the second highest city in Europe after Davos...
– 34 (most recent: 2009)
- Marseille
Marseille , formerly known as Massalia , is the 2nd most populous French city as well as the oldest city in France...
– 34 (most recent: 2009)
- Bayonne
Bayonne is a city and commune in south-western France at the confluence of the Nive and Adour rivers, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, of which it is a sub-prefecture....
– 32 (most recent: 2003)
- Nantes
Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, while its metropolitan area is the eighth with 804,833 inhabitants at a 2008 estimate....
– 30 (most recent: 2008)
- Belfort
Belfort is a town and commune of north-eastern France, préfecture of the Territoire de Belfort département in the Franche-Comté région. Population : 50,417...
– 29 (most recent: 2000)
- Montpellier
Montpellier is a city in southern France. It is the capital of the Languedoc-Roussillon region, as well as the Hérault department.-Population:...
– 29 (most recent: 2009)
- Brest
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in north-western France.Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, Brest is an important seaport and naval base. The 1999 census recorded 303,484 inhabitants of the Brest metropolitan area, while the...
– 28 (most recent: 2008)
- L'Alpe d'Huez – 26 (most recent: 2008)
- Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in southwest France on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. With 1,102,882 inhabitants as of Jan...
– 25 (most recent: 2008)
- Roubaix
Roubaix is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It is located near the cities of Lille and Tourcoing and the Belgian border.-Sights:...
– 25 (most recent: 1994)
Stage speeds
The fastest massed-start stage was in 1999 from Laval to Blois (194.5 km), won by
Mario CipolliniMario Cipollini , often abbreviated to "Cipo", is an Italian professional road cyclist most noted for his sprinting ability, the longevity of his dominance and his colourful personality. His nicknames include Il Re Leone and Super Mario...
at 50.355 kmh. The fastest full-length time-trial is
David ZabriskieDavid Zabriskie is a professional road bicycle racer from the United States who rides for . His main strength is individual time trials and his career highlights include stage wins in all three Grand Tour stage races and winning the US National Time Trial Championship five times...
's opening stage of 2005, Fromentine – Noirmoutier-en-l'Ile (19 km) at 54.676 kmh.
Chris BoardmanChris Boardman is a former English racing cyclist who won an individual pursuit gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics and broke the world hour record three times as well as wearing the yellow jersey on three separate occasions at the Tour de France. He is known as a specialist in the individual...
rode faster during the 1994 prologue stage, Lille-Euralille (7.2 km), with 55.152 kmh. The fastest stage win was by the 2005 Discovery Channel team in a team time-trial. It completed the 67.5 km between Tours and Blois at 57.32 kmh.
Successful breakaways
The longest successful post-war breakaway by a single rider was by
Albert BourlonAlbert Bourlon is a former French professional road bicycle racer. He was born in Sansergues. In 1947, Bourlon won the 14th stage of the Tour de France. Almost directly from the start, he broke away, and rode solo for 253km, the longest solo in post-war Tour de France history.- Palmarès :1947-...
in the
1947 Tour de FranceThe 1947 Tour de France was the 34th Tour de France, taking place June 25 to July 20, 1947. The total race distance was 21 stages over 4,640 km, ridden at an average speed of 31.412 km/h. It was the first Tour since 1939, having been cancelled during World War II, although some Tour de France-like...
. In the stage Carcassone-Luchon, he stayed away for 253 km. It was one of seven breakaways longer than 200 km, the last being
Thierry MarieThierry Marie is a former French cyclist. Marie had a very good prologue: he won the Tour de France prologue three times in his career, and because of that he wore the yellow jersey in those three years, for seven days in total.- Major victories :1982198819891992- Tour de France :*1985 - 67th*1986...
's 234 km escape in 1991. Bourlon finished 16 m 30s ahead. This is one of the biggest time gaps but not the greatest. That record belongs to José-Luis Viejo, who beat the peloton by 22 m 50s in the 1976 stage Montgenèvre-Manosque. He was the fourth and most recent rider to win a stage by more than 20 minutes.
See also
- Giro d'Italia
The Giro d'Italia , also simply known as The Giro, is a long distance road bicycle racing stage race for professional cyclists held over three weeks in May/early June in and around Italy. It is one of the three Grand Tours, and is part of the UCI World Ranking calendar...
- Vuelta a España
The Vuelta a España is a three-week road bicycle racing stage race that is one of the three "Grand Tours" of Europe and part of the UCI World Ranking calendar.-History:...
- List of Tour de France winners
- La Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale
- List of doping cases in cycling
External links