Tour de France is a men’s bicycle race that ranks among the most popular sporting events in the world. The race varies in length from year to year. It always runs more than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers), winding throughout France and sometimes neighboring countries. The Tour is held over a three-week period, usually each July. Some years the race begins in June and ends in July. The race attracts 175 to 200 of the world’s finest cyclists.
The Tour de France is one of the most physically demanding of all athletic competitions. It includes exhausting climbs through the Pyrenees and Alps mountains, as well as races on level terrain and time trials. The Tour takes cyclists through many villages and towns. Thousands of spectators line the roads to cheer the racers.
The Tour de France consists of about 20 individual races, called stages, that begin and end the same day. A winner is declared for each daily stage. The champion is the cyclist with the lowest total time after all stages are completed. The overall race leader at the end of each stage puts on an honorary yellow jersey. He wears the jersey during competition for as long as he maintains the lead. The Tour usually ends in Paris.
Competitors race in teams. Most teams are sponsored by large companies who finance cyclists for the publicity value. Teams develop racing strategies that allow one cyclist to race for the championship while his teammates support him.
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Cyclists in the Tour de France
The first Tour de France was held in 1903. The race is restricted to male cyclists. A Tour de France for women was held from 1984 to 1989 and has been held again since 2022.
Stars of the Tour de France have included Eddy Merckx of Belgium; Miguel Indurain and Alberto Contador of Spain; Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault of France; Chris Froome of the United Kingdom; and Greg LeMond, Lance Armstrong, and Floyd Landis of the United States. LeMond was the first American to win the event, taking the title in 1986, 1989, and 1990. Armstrong won the title a record seven straight times, from 1999 through 2005. Landis was the third Tour champion from the United States, winning in 2006. However, Landis was stripped of the championship in 2007 after a panel found him guilty of using synthetic testosterone, an illegal substance, during the race. Landis was the first man in the history of the race to lose the championship because of a doping offense. In 2012, Armstrong was stripped of the seven championships he won and banned from cycling for life for doping offenses. No winner was declared for the races from 1999 through 2005.
See also Bicycle; Bicycle racing.
