This summer will mark the 111th anniversary of arguably the most famous bike race in the world, the Tour De France. For the first time since its establishment, the Tour will not be ending in the city of Paris due to this year’s summer Olympics.
The Tour De France began as a way to increase sales of a french cycling newspaper, L’Auto. L’Auto began as “L’Auto-Vélo” and was one of two major cycling magazines in France during the early 1900’s. Cycling was a popular mode of transportation during the time and many people followed bicycle racing.
L’Auto and L’Vélo held different races and events in an attempt to gain more notoriety in the cycling world. On January 19th, 1903 L’Auto published their newspaper with a front page announcement about a new bike race: The Tour De France. The headline read: “The Tour de France: the greatest cycle race in the world.” The new race marked the end of the fight between L’Auto and L’Vélo for superiority in bicycle journalism.
Since then, with the exception of 1915-18 (WWI) and 1940-46 (WWII) the Tour has run every year. The tour is always an exciting race to watch due to the athleticism and dynamics of the riders, the organization and difficulty of the stages, and the different classifications of awards riders can win within each stage of the tour.
Cyclists in the Tour de France ride on teams that are part of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). Some of the most recognizable and successful teams recently have been UAE Team Emirates, Jumbo Visma from the Netherlands, and BORA Hansgrohe from Germany. The most famous US team is likely the US Postal team, although US Postal lost their primary sponsor in 2007 and ceased operations.
Teams compete for the Team Classification award. The team classification is determined by adding up the time of the three best riders for each team in each stage and rank them based on fastest finishing time.
The team classification is not the most famous award, however. The general classification (GC) is usually the one most referred to when talking about the “winner” of the Tour De France. For the past two years, Danish cyclist Jonas Vingegaard has won the general classification. Jonas Vingegaard is part of the Jumbo Visma team and was predicted to win this year’s tour, however due to a recent crash, his participation in this year’s Tour is in question.
In the recent race in the Itzulia Basque Country (Tour of the Basque Country) there was a terrible crash involving many cyclists that resulted in numerous serious injuries. DW News reported that the injuries sustained by Vingegaard were a broken collarbone, broken ribs, and a collapsed lung resulting in a hospital stay. As the Tour De France is fast approaching with a start date of June 29th, Jumbo Visma is unsure if Vingegaard will be able to race having lost precious training time and still rehabilitating from the Itzulia crash.
Riders in the tour don’t always set their sights as high as the general classification as there are multiple other classifications they can win stage-to-stage. The red and white polka-dotted jersey is awarded to the “king of the mountains”, a rider demonstrating dominant climbing skills and fitness. These awards are handed out each stage and once at the end to the best climber overall. Climbs in the Tour are ranked in difficulty with points 1-4, 1 being the most difficult and 4 as the least difficult. The inverse of these points are awarded to the riders as they finish a climb and the rider with the most points at the end of the stage will wear the polka-dotted jersey through the next stage.
The green jersey signifies the general points classification (the “Sprinter’s Jersey”) that can be won by earning the most points, most often through sprints. These jerseys have been worn by Slovak rider Peter Sagan, British rider Mark Cavendish, and Belgian rider Eddy Merckx.
Last, but not least is the white jersey, the prize for the most promising young rider. Any rider under 26 years of age is eligible to win the white jersey in the Tour, if they demonstrate promising skill, courage and athleticism.
This year’s Tour is expected to be one full of surprises and turns due to the recent Itzulia crash and the changed course. Make sure to tune in from June 29th to July 21st to see how it all plays out! Will Jonas Vingegaard ride? Will there be any surprise winners of the climbers or points jerseys? There are always some shocking crashes, too! If you end up in France this summer, I would greatly encourage you to try to see a stage and experience the atmosphere that comes with this bike race full of history and energy.