The Tour De France - An Introduction
By Darren Gilbert

For experienced followers of the Tour De France, the colours, speeds and craziness of it all is exciting, inspiring and totally addictive. For those watching for the first time, however, like being dropped in the middle of a city without a map, it’s daunting and confusing.

The Tour De France in every sense is vast…

Comprising twenty two teams, one hundred and ninety eight riders, four different competitions, two and a half thousand kilometres, two of the world’s biggest mountain ranges and a supporting cast of hundreds of team cars, coaches, motorcyclists and helicopters, its numbers dwarf all other sporting events.

Taking three weeks to complete, the Tour draws the world’s biggest live and televisual audience. No event, not even The Olympics or World Cup inspires more people to forget about their everyday life and involve themselves with the drama of sport. In 2004 nearly a million people gathered on one 17km stretch of the Alpe D’huez climb alone. It’s audience figures are even more remarkable when remembered that unlike the World Cup or Olympics, the Tour is an annual event, and far from waning, interest in the Tour grows every year.

HIstory

The Tour was born in 1902 when Geo Lefevre put forward the idea of a cycle race that circum-navigated France to his two friends Henri Desgrange and Victor Goddet. Desgrange and Goddet, editor and accountant of the sporting publication ‘L’Auto’ were looking for ways to boost circulation, and put the attractive, if crazy idea into motion the following year.