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Tour de France

The Tour de France is a professional long-distance bicycle competition, which takes place over three weeks in July of each year. The event was established in 1903, and has been held annually since, with two breaks during the world wars. Its last edition was the 2005 race.

This competition is the top one of its kind in the world. It is one of the three Grand Tours, the other two being the Vuelta a Espana and the Giro d'Italia. Like the Giro after it, this event was intended to popularise a newspaper, which it did. Today this race attended by almost a million spectators, and watched on TV by millions more. L'Auto newspaper declared the first edition of the race in January of 1903. Its circulation tripled after the event, and more than quadrupled two decades later. The newspaper sold a record 854 000 copies in 1933. At the present Société du Tour de France organizes the competition. This organization is associated with the world-famous ASO, which holds shares in l'Equipe. This newspaper is the successor of L'Auto. You can see that little has changed in this regard.

The Tour de France consists of stages, and each one takes a day to complete. The participants are ranked according to a General Classification, and the winner is the one with the top ranking upon completing the last stage. The Tour generally consists of 20 stages with a length of up to 4000 km. There are a number of additional tournaments, and the winners wear jerseys in different colors.

At the beginning the competition was individual, not a team effort as it is today. Most stages are held in France, and some have been held in Spain, Belgium, Italy and Germany in the past. The race traditionally ends on the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris, which has a cobbled surface that is difficult to ride on and makes for an unpleasant finish. The race course is modified each year, switching from an anti-clockwise to a clockwise direction around France. The route of the 2005 Tour passed first through the Alps and then the Pyrenees, while the plans for next year involve just the opposite. Sometimes the route covers points that seem impossible to cross. Among these are the mountain peaks of Hautacam, Mont Ventoux, Col du Tournalet and Alp d'Huez. An expert mountain biker has a good chance of winning the overall race, as Marco Pantani proved in 1998.

A Tour de France for female cyclists was introduced in 1984, known as Le Tour Feminin. Jean-Marie Leblanc is director of the tour at the present. He has held this post since 1989.

Each award is connected to a jersey of a specific color. The overall winner of the race wears a yellow one. This jersey was introduced in 1919. Its distinctive color is a major factor. The racer with the most sprint points wears a green jersey. There is also a polka dot apparel.

Tour de France is not only a famous athletic event, but also a symbol of national pride. A Frenchman who is victorious in this race will receive the unwavering, eternal support and respect of his compatriots. His future is practically secured from that time on. As for the fans, many of them camp out for weeks in advance just to get a better view of the riders.

Lance Armstrong of the United States has won the last seven tournaments from 1999 to 2005. Prior to this was Pantani's famous victory of 1998. The winners were Jan Ullrich of Germany in 1997 and Bjarne Riis of Denmark in 1996. Armstrong is definitely a record-holder with his splendid seven consecutive wins, and the reason he won't win next year is probably because he retired. He is followed by four racers, who have each had five victories in the history of the Tour - Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault of France, Eddy Merckx of Belgium and Miguel Indurain of Spain. Indurain achieved five victories in a row from 1991 to 1995.