The History of The Tour De France

It goes for 23 days and has 21 different stages, each day being a different leg of the whole race which covers 3,500 km. The route is spread out all over France and sometimes goes into other countries too. There are teams who ride in Le Tour and each team is filled with elite cyclists who have many years of training. However long it takes the rider to complete the stage, it is added on to their total time overall and then it is decided who the winner of the event is.

How it Started

At this time in the 1900s the most popular newspaper was called Le Vélo. The people of France were divided over the debate whether soldier, Alfred Dreyfus sold secrets to the German Government, a 50/50 argument between guilty or innocent. Le Vélo believed that Dreyfus was innocent but some of the bigger companies thought that Dreyfus was guilty including Dion car manufacturers who owned papers: L’Auto and L’Équipe. People were leaning towards not guilty and L’Auto and L’Équipe needed more readers to support them so then they had come up with an idea:

To increase sales, L’Auto and L’Équipe started the Le Tour De France. There was to be a five week race from May to July and they advertised it but only 15 people replied. Realising that this was a bit full-on, L’Auto and L’Équipe shortened the ride to 19 days and then 60 people joined.

Coloured Jerseys

In 1913, ride director, Henri Desgrange, presented the winner of Le Tour with a yellow jersey to notice the leader at the stage in the race. There are also other achievements during Le Tour which are: most points, mountain climber and best young rider. The leaders of the four competitions wear a distinctive jersey.

Yellow Jersey – Given to the current leader of Le Tour and the winner

Green Jersey – Awarded for sprint points (most points jersey)

Polka Dot Jersey – King of the Mountains (best mountain climber)

White Jersey – Best young rider

Statistics

•   Lance Armstrong has won the tour 7 consecutive times: 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005.

•   France has won the most tours with 36, Belgium 18, Spain 11, United States 10, Italy 9, Luxembourg 4, Switzerland and Netherlands 2 each and Denmark and Germany 1 each.

•   One rider, Eddy Merckx, has won the points competition, King of the Mountains and the tour in the same year (1969)!!!

•   In early races, the competitors were spread evenly throughout the whole race so at the end, time gaps were much bigger. But now most of the riders stay in a massive pack and the gap times between winning and losing are not that far away.

Accidents

Unfortunately, many riders are in danger if they are going fast on a bike and if they crash it could mean dying.

•   1910: French cyclist Adolphe Helière drowned during a rest day at the French Riviera.

• 1935: Spaniard Francisco Cepeda died after plunging down a ravine.

•   1967: Englishman Tom Simpson died of heart failure after climbing Mount Ventoux.

• 1995: Italian Fabio Casartelli crashed at 88km/h while descending the Col de prset de A’spet.