Tour de France Background
The Tour de France, also simply known as The TdF or "The Tour", is a long distance road bicycle stage race for professional cyclists held over three weeks in July in and around France. It is one of the three Grand Tours (the others being the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), and is part of the UCI World Ranking calendar.
The race is broken into day-long segments, called stages. The final stage race always ends in Paris on the Champs-Élysées. Individual times to finish each stage are totalled to determine the overall winner at the end of the race. The rider with the lowest aggregate time at the end of each day wears the Yellow Jersey.
The first Tour de France was held in July 1903. At that time, sixty hardy cyclists set out on their bicycles from the city of Montgeron. After six mammoth stages (including 471 km from Nantes to Paris), only 21 cyclists, led by Maurice Garin, arrived at the end of this first epic race.
Winners Jerseys
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The Maillot Jaune (yellow jersey) is worn by the leader of the General Classification. This is the rider with the fastest overall time since the start of the race. |
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The Maillot Vert (green jersey) is worn by the leader of the Sprinting Classification. This is the rider who has collected the most points at the finish of the stages or at intermediate sprint intervals within a stage. |
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The Maillot à Pois Rouges (king of the mountains jersey) is worn by the leader of the Climbing Classification. This is the rider who has collected the most points by being the first, second, etc over the mountain tops. |
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The Maillot Blanc (white jersey) was introduced in 1975 and is worn by the leader of the Best Young Rider Classification. This is the under-26 rider with the fastest overall time since the start of the race. |
The 2010 Race
The 2010 TdF began in Rotterdam and ended in Paris. It had a length of 3,642 km and consisted of 21 stages over 3 weeks, including a short time-trial on the first day. The longest stage race in 2010 was 227.5 km from Montargis to Gueugnon.
197 riders from 22 teams competed for 4 different jerseys as well as stage wins, team awards and most competitive rider awards. A total of 28 riders didn't finish the race.
The 2010 podium winners were as follows:
- Yellow Jersey - Alberto Contador (Astana) - 91h 58' 48"
- Green Jersey - Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre - Farnese) - 243 pts
- King of the Mountains Jersey - Anthony Charteau (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) - 143 pts
- White Jersey - Andy Schleck (Team Saxo Bank) - 91h 59' 27"
- Best Team Award - Team RadioShack - 276h 02' 03"
The Tour de France was brought to the attention of mainstream North America during Lance Armstrong reign of winning the yellow jersey in seven consecutive years in: 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005.
Official Website
Official Tour de France Website