The Tour de France is the world’s largest annual sporting event comprising of almost 200 riders, covering in excess of 3,400kms over 21 race days and reaches a television audience of 3.5 billion viewers each year.
The flag was dropped to start the first edition of the tour at 3:16 pm July 1, 1903, after an elaborate plan from local newspaper L’Auto to create a cycling race across France that would capture the hearts and imaginations of the French (and also increase their readership).
The Tour de France primarily navigates its way around France but surrounding countries including Andorra, Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland have all featured in the race route at some point.
The Tour de France is simply referred to as ‘The Tour’ or ‘Le Tour’ and is the second of three Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia the first and La Vuelta a Espana the third) on the WorldTour calendar. The Tour is the oldest of the trio, and widely renowned as the most prestigious of the three.
Stage locations change from year to year but the format remains consistent; a mixture of flat and mountainous stages, time trials in the form of individual and team, and since 1975, a finishing stage on the Champs-Élysées in the heart of Paris.
The Jerseys
Each year the rider with the lowest accumulated time for the 21 stages wins the Tour de France and collects the Maillot Jaune (yellow jersey). In addition to the overall winner, there are three other sought-after classifications to reward riders for their efforts; the mountains (red polka dot jersey), points (green jersey) and young rider classifications (white jersey).
In addition to these individual classification accolades, there is also a team’s classification and a most combative rider award for the rider who showed the largest fighting spirit across each stage of the tour.
If a rider is leading in two or more classifications they will wear the most predominant jersey with the second or third place rider in the other category wearing that jersey. For example, if a rider was leading the general classification and mountain classification, they would wear the yellow jersey and the second placed rider in the mountains classification would wear the red polka dot jersey.
General classification
The general classification is the overall competition awarded to the rider with the lowest accumulated time across the 21 stages. The 2019 edition of Le Tour is the 100th time the most coveted prize in professional cycling, the Maillot Jaune has been contested. The colour yellow was chosen to pay homage to the yellow paper L’Auto newspaper was printed on. Riders wearing the yellow jersey will often have custom details on their bike to not only show off their standing in the race but also showcase sponsors products associated with the race leader.
Previous winners of the Tour will have a yellow armband permanently on their cycling kit to signify their victory.
Mountains classification
The leader in the mountains classification is represented by the Maillot à Pois rouges or polka dot jersey. Points in the classification are awarded for reaching the top of selected categorised climbs with points allocated to riders first across the top.
Points allocated to each climb differ depending on the difficulty of the climb. The most difficult climbs otherwise known as 'HC' or 'Hors Categorie' climbs (a French term meaning beyond categorization) are awarded the most amount of points. Category 1, 2, 3 and 4 climbs will have decreasing points allocated to them and fewer positions available to earn points.
Stages that finish on a summit will earn the riders double points and double prize money. As with all the other classifications, riders must finish the Tour in order to take home the title.
Points classification
The leader in the points classification is represented by the Maillot Vert or green jersey. It’s commonly known as the sprinters' jersey. Points are awarded at the finish line or at specific locations along each stage, commonly known as intermediate sprint points. Points accumulate along the way and the rider with the most amount of points at the end of the Tour wins the classification. It’s a jersey hotly contested amongst the sprinters, who typically carry a little too much muscle mass to be competitive in the mountains.
Best Young Rider classification
The Best Young Rider classification was added in 1975 and works exactly the same way as the general classification but only riders 25 years old or under are eligible to win. The young rider with the lowest accumulated time will wear a white jersey signifying their lead in the classification. Amazingly, four riders have been able to do the double and win the best young rider and the general classification in the same year: Laurent Fignon, Jan Ulrich, Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck.
Prior to 1975, in place of the white jersey was the Combination Classification. This was handed out to the rider with the highest position across the general classification, points and mountains classification.
Teams classification
The Teams Classification is won by the team with the lowest accumulated time, a result of adding the times of the three best cyclists per team on each stage. The team leading the classification will wear yellow numbers instead of the traditional white numbers. You’ll often also see the leading team proudly wearing yellow helmets.
Most combative rider
The most combative rider is awarded by a panel of judges to a rider that has stood out on each stage of the tour. Handed out on completion of each stage, a rider might win the award because they were in the breakaway all day, was the last rider to attack or did something else notable during the stage. Michael Matthews famously won the most combative jersey on stage five of the 2015 Tour after finishing the stage despite two broken ribs he suffered as a result of a crash on stage 3. The most combative rider from the stage will wear a red number the following stage.
An overall winner is awarded at the end of the tour, decided by the panel of judges.
The Tour by the numbers
For 2019, the Tour is made up of 22 teams, each with eight riders, for a total of 176 riders.
Each year 3.5 billion people tune in to watch the Tour over the 21 stages via 188 broadcast countries and 121 different channels. The coverage comprises of almost 5,000 hours of content which grows every year. On top of the enormous television audience, over 12 million spectators are expected to line the route.
The closest ever winning margin of the Tour was by Greg LeMond over Laurent Fignon in 1989 by a mere 8 seconds! Contrastingly, the largest winning margin set back in 1903 between Maurice Garin and Lucien Pothier was 2hr 49min 45 seconds.
The total prize pool for the 2018 Tour de France was a whopping €2.29 million. The winner (Geraint Thomas) received €500,000 while every rider that participated in the Tour at least went home with €400 in addition to their salaries.
The fastest ever average speed for a stage of the Tour is 50.4kph, Mario Cipollini taking the honours that day. As if that wasn't fast enough, the fastest ever average speed for an individual time-trial at the Tour is 55.4kph, Australian Rohan Dennis achieving the record on stage 1 in 2015.
Mark Cavendish holds the record for the most stage wins (not including time trials) at 30, while Eddy Merckx holds the most amount of total stage wins with 34 (16 of them time trials). Thanks to his remarkable winning record, Eddy Merckx has worn the leader's yellow jersey for 96 stages of the Tour, the most of any rider in history.
39.59kph was the average speed on the 2018 Tour, which is over 2 kph slower than the fastest ever Tour average speed. That record is held by Ivan Basso who averaged 41.79kph in 2005.
Little Known Facts
The first Tour de France in 1903 was won at an average speed of 25.68 km/h and the longest stage that year was 471km.
The yellow jersey only became part of the Tour de France in 1919.
If any riders are involved in a crash within the final 3km of a stage, they will all be given the same finishing time. This rule came into place to improve the safety of stage finishes.
In 1905, stages of the Tour were changed to take place within daylight hours to prevent the rampant cheating and bullying of riders. Even in the early days, the event was so prestigious riders were cheating to epic proportions in order to win the race. Some riders were even forcefully removed from their bikes and beaten by rival fans.
The Lantern Rouge is the name given to the last place rider of the Tour. The name was adopted from the term “red lantern”, in reference to the red light on the back of a vehicle.
Riders these days receive unprecedented support through fellow riders, team soigneurs, and event organisers, but spare a thought for riders pre-1930 who had to finish the tour on the bike they started with and perform all their own maintenance and repairs.
The “cannibal” nickname has never been more appropriate for Eddy Merckx then in 1969 when he won the King of Mountains, Most Combative award, Points Competition and the General Classification.
The riders duties are not over once they cross the finish line in Paris. Post Tour de France riders attend criterium races in the Netherlands and Belgium where thousands of fans turn out to see them up close. Riders are well paid for their attendance and look forward to a more relaxed (and often staged!) form of racing following a hectic three weeks at the Tour.
Four riders stand above everyone else with five Tour de France victories: Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. Lance Armstrong held the record for the most tour victories with 7 before being stripped of all his titles following a lifetime ban for doping.
The longest Tour in history was 5,745km in 1926.
The 2019 Edition
The 2019 Tour de France starts on Saturday, July 6th in Brussels, Belgium with a 194.5km flat stage. The traditional Champs-Élysées finish will take place on Sunday, July 28.
The 106th edition of the Tour will cover 3,480km over 21 stages consisting of eight flat stages, seven mountain stages, four hilly stages, one team trial, one individual time trial and two rest days.
Time trials will be influential in deciding the general classification winner, 54.4km in total split into 27.2km on stage 2 and a lumpy 27.2km on stage 13.
Time bonus seconds are back up for grabs. Time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds allocated for the first three finishers of each “normal” stage. A new point scale for the Points classification will also be in place with more emphasis placed on winning a stage.
Defending champion Geraint Thomas will be back to try and win his second Tour de France title, but he will have strong competition from Adam Yates, Jakob Fuglsang, Egan Bernal, Mikel Landa, Thibaut Pinot, Richie Porte, and Romain Bardet.
In 2018, Julien Alaphilippe won the mountains classification, Peter Sagan won the Points classification, Pierre Latour won the Best Young Rider's classification, and Movistar took home the Teams classification.
Imagery courtesy of CorVos
BikeExchange is your one-stop shop this grand tour season, check out our dedicated Tour de France page for great sale deals, daily stage results, related content and more!
