Test Your Knowledge of the Tour de France

Summary of Cycling Competition:

• The Tour de France is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race held primarily in France.

• It consists of 21 stages, each a day long, over the course of 23 days, coinciding with the Bastille Day holiday.

• The race was first organized in 1903 to increase sales for the newspaper L'Auto and is currently run by the Amaury Sport Organisation.

• The race has been held annually since its first edition in 1903 except when it was stopped for the two World Wars.

• The Tour is a UCI World Tour event, with mostly UCI WorldTeams, with the exception of the teams that the organizers invite.

• The modern editions of the Tour de France consist of 21 day-long segments (stages) over a 23-day period and cover around 3,500 kilometers (2,200 mi).

• There are usually between 20 and 22 teams, with eight riders in each.

• The rider with the lowest cumulative finishing times is the leader of the race and wears the yellow jersey.

• There are other contests held within the Tour: the points classification, the mountains classification, young rider classification, and the team classification.

• The race was created in 1903 and was started to increase sales for the newspaper L'Auto.

• The first Tour de France was staged in 1903, with only 15 competitors entering.

• The format of the race changed over time, and by the end of the 1920s, Desgrange believed he could not beat what he believed were the underhand tactics of bike factories.A Brief History of the Tour de France

• The Tour de France was sequestrated by the state for publishing articles too close to the Germans during the war.

• L'Équipe won the right to organise the 1947 Tour de France, but its finances were never sound, and it accepted an advance by Émilion Amaury, whose sports editor, Félix Lévitan, joined Goddet for the Tour.

• The format of the race settled on between 20 and 25 stages, with most stages lasting one day, and the scheduling of 'split' stages continued well into the 1980s.

• The 1953 Tour de France saw the introduction of the Green Jersey 'Points' competition, while national teams contested the Tour until 1961.

• Doping had become a serious problem, culminating in the death of Tom Simpson in 1967, after which riders went on strike. The Union Cycliste Internationale introduced limits to daily and overall distances, imposed rest days, and tests were introduced for riders.

• The Tour returned to trade teams in 1962, and in the same year, Émilion Amaury became financially involved in the Tour.

• The early 1970s was dominated by Eddy Merckx, who won the General Classification five times, the Mountains Classification twice, the Points Classification three times, and posted a record of 34 stage victories.

• During this era, race director Felix Lévitan began to recruit additional sponsors, sometimes accepting prizes in kind if he could not get cash.

• From the late 1970s and into the early 1980s, the Tour was dominated by Frenchman Bernard Hinault, who would become the third rider to win five times.

• The 1998 Tour de France was shaken by the Festina Affair doping scandal, and the 1999 edition was billed as the ‘Tour of Renewal’ as the sport tried to clean up its image following the doping fiasco of the previous year.

• The early 2000s saw Lance Armstrong win seven consecutive Tour de France victories, but the doping problem continued to get worse.

• The 2011 Tour de France was won by Cadel Evans, the first Australian to win the Tour, while the 2012 edition was won by the first British rider to ever win the Tour, Bradley Wiggins.Summary of Tour de France History and Classifications

• The French government revealed that close to 90% of riders tested in the 1998 Tour de France retroactively tested positive for EPO.

• New winners were declared in 2006 and 2010, but in the case of Armstrong, there was no alternate winner named.

• Team Sky dominated the peloton from 2012 to 2019, with Froome winning three tours in a row, followed by Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal.

• Tadej Pogačar of UAE Team Emirates broke Team Sky's streak in 2020 and repeated his overall victory in 2021, becoming the youngest rider to achieve two Tour victories.

• Jonas Vingegaard won the 2022 Tour de France, while Pogačar secured second place and Thomas secured third place.

• The oldest and main competition in the Tour de France is known as the "general classification", for which the yellow jersey is awarded.

• The mountains classification is awarded a distinctive white jersey with red dots to the leader.

• The points classification leader green jersey is worn by the rider who has the greatest number of points.

• The young rider classification is restricted to riders under 26 years old who have aspirations for the general classification.

• There are several minor and discontinued classifications that are competed for during the race, including the most combative rider and the team classification.

• The lanterne rouge is the rider who has taken the most time.

• Prize money has always been awarded, with the winner receiving €450,000 in 2009.Overview of the Tour de France

• The Tour de France is an annual men's multiple stage bicycle race primarily held in France, with occasional visits to nearby countries.

• The race was first held in 1903 and has been held annually since then, apart from during the two World Wars.

• The race is typically 21 stages long, with one stage per day.

• The route of the race changes each year and is decided by the race organizers, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO).

• The race is divided into different types of stages, including flat, hilly, and mountain stages, with different rules and points awarded for each stage.

• There are also time trials, where riders race individually against the clock.

• The winner of the race is the rider with the lowest cumulative time over all stages.

• The race awards various prizes for different achievements, including a prize for the winner of each stage, the overall winner (who wears the yellow jersey), the best sprinter, and the best climber.

• The race is preceded by a publicity caravan, where advertisers throw out free samples to spectators along the race route.

• The race has been broadcast on various media since its inception, including radio, television, and cinema newsreels.

• The race has occasionally started or finished outside of France, including in nearby countries and as far away as the United States.

• The race has a long and storied history, with many famous stages and riders over its more than 100-year history.