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CHAPTER 1
RACE STRUCTURE
THE COURSE
One of the greatest attractions of the Tour de France is that the course changes every year, visiting different towns, different terrain, and, sometimes, different countries. Indeed, at this point in the race's history, the organizers like to alternate each Tour's opening day between France one year and a nearby country the next. The only parameters for the Tour route are a maximum distance of around 3,500 kilometers, twenty-one separate stages of racing, a maximum distance of 240 kilometers for any stage, and two mandatory rest days. If you look at a map of any recent Tour, you will see that very few stages finish and start in the same place.
The "gap" between stages is called a transfer, with riders being transported by their team buses from a stage finish to their overnight hotel and then to the next day's start location — there's a two-hour travel limit for transfers. To add variety to the race, the organizers strive for a balance between "flat" and climbing stages. In 2018, for instance, the Tour consisted of eight flat stages, five hilly stages, six mountain stages, and two time trials (races against the clock) — one for teams, one for individuals. To spice things up in the opening week, besides the flat stages suitable for sprinters, there were two stages with steep uphill finishes: one stage featuring gnarly sections of cobblestones and a time trial for teams.
The one constant for the Tour route is that the final stage finishes in Paris. From 1903 to 1967, the race ended in the Parc des Princes stadium on its velodrome track (similar to an Olympic running track but with banked turns). When that track was demolished (and replaced with a soccer stadium on the same site), the Tour finish moved across Paris to another outdoor velodrome, in Vincennes, where it was held from 1968 to 1974. It was in 1975 that the final stage was relocated to the Champs-Élysées, in the center of Paris, which is now its permanent home.
FUN FACT
The organizers announce the details of the following year's Tour de France at a flashy presentation in Paris every October, but they actually start to map out the course three years ahead of its unveiling.
HISTORICAL TIDBIT
The first Tour to start outside of France was in 1954, when the Dutch city of Amsterdam hosted the start of the first stage that traversed the Netherlands into Belgium and was watched by tens of thousands of spectators seeing the race for the first time.
KEY PERSON
Frenchman Thierry Gouvenou, a former Tour de France racer, is the current technical director of Tour de France. Responsible for designing the course, he has added spice to the Tour by seeking out new finish locations and previously little-known climbs.
THE PELOTON
Throughout the cycling world, the French word peloton is used to describe the main group of racers. Since 2018, the Tour peloton has consisted of 22 eight-man teams — eighteen from the Union Cycliste Internationale WorldTour (the big-league teams that qualify automatically) and four from UCI ProSeries ranks (smaller teams invited by the organizers, usually including three from France) — giving a starting field of 176. For the thirty years prior to 2018, the race had nine-man teams, which made up a field of 198 riders. The biggest field at the Tour came in 1986, when there were ten-man teams, with 210 starters and 132 finishers. The recent trend to a smaller peloton is an attempt to reduce the number of crashes.
Newcomers to the sport sometimes wonder why the riders generally remain in one large group. The generic answer is that being in the slipstream of others can reduce the workload by as much as 40 percent, which enables riders to conserve energy until they have to make major efforts — whether that's working hard for the team, climbing a hill, making a finishing sprint, or any number of other tasks. Regardless of how riders finish each day — together or many minutes apart — they all start in one peloton the following day. To become a Tour de France competitor takes many years. A rider first progresses through the junior (under-eighteen) and elite amateur (under-twenty-three) ranks before becoming a full professional; and only the very best riders are signed by teams that compete at the Tour. To obtain a UCI WorldTour license, teams have to follow strict regulations on administrative capability, financial solvency, competitive eligibility, and ethical conduct. To remain in the top flight, the teams have to do well in the annual UCI WorldTour point rankings — in which points are awarded to the top sixty finishers in all of the thirty-seven WorldTour races; the Tour de France is the highest-scoring event, with 1,000 points going to the winner.
FUN FACT
Although only a select few professional riders compete in the Tour de France, thousands of amateur cyclists each year ride L'Étape du Tour, which is contested over a single Tour mountain stage one week before the main event.
HISTORICAL TIDBIT
Five years after Jonathan Boyer was the first American to ride the Tour (in 1981), a team sponsored by the US convenience store chain 7-Eleven became the first US-based squad to take part. For its 1986 debut, the team was made up of eight Americans, a Canadian, and a Mexican.
KEY PERSON
The late Dutch cycling official Hein Verbruggen, who was president of the UCI from 1991 to 2005, created the financial and logistical structure for the UCI WorldTour and its elite teams.
FLAT STAGES
Among the most dramatic moments of any Tour de France are the full-tilt, near-50-miles-per-hour mass sprints at the end of the "flat" stages. Most of the teams have a designated sprinter who can contest these mad-dash efforts, with the fastest finishers given super-star status for their often-spectacular victories. The most prestigious flat stage is the final one on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, but winning any of the Tour's eight or nine flat stages brings media glory. Most of these stages are in the Tour's opening week, with fewer such days in the second and third weeks; and even flat stages can feature a few short climbs, so the heavier-built sprinters (and their teams) have to work hard even to contest the final sprint.
Yet even completely flat stages are no guarantee that all the top sprinters will remain in the peloton until the finish. In fact, some flat stages — when crosswinds or crashes can shred the peloton — have had a major influence on the outcome of the Tour. That was the case with the opening road stage of the 2015 Tour, which started in the Netherlands and was very flat. The highest point on the 166-kilometer course across the Dutch polders was just 6 meters (20 feet) above sea level. Halfway through the stage, a rainstorm blew in from the North Sea, several riders crashed on the slick roads, and strong crosswinds combined with a fierce pace set by two of the sprinters' teams split the peloton apart. Of the day's 198 starters, only twenty-four finished together at the front, including pre-race favorite Chris Froome; there was a gap of almost 90 seconds to the sixty-strong chase group, which included Nairo Quintana and four other favorites. Three weeks later, Froome won the Tour over runner-up Quintana by just 72 seconds — which meant that the race was effectively decided on the flattest stage.
FUN FACT
In the mad dash to the finish line of flat stages, sprinters have been clocked at speeds as high as 75 kilometers per hour (or 47 miles per hour) over the final 200 meters.
HISTORICAL TIDBIT
The fastest road stage in Tour history came in 1999, when the 194.5-kilometer (121-mile) stage 4 from Laval to Blois, in the Loire Valley, was raced at an average speed of 50.355 kilometers per hour (31.289 miles per hour) and won by Italian sprinter Mario Cipollini.
KEY PERSON
Great Britain's Mark Cavendish has won more flat stages than any other Tour de France sprinter. By 2018, he had won thirty stages, which is eight more than the previous record held by Frenchman André Darrigade, who took twenty-two bouquets in the 1950s.
CLIMBING STAGES
The mountain stages of the Tour de France are the most exciting ones for cycling fans, and the most grueling ones for the riders. On mountain passes that can take up to an hour to climb, the peloton splits and the strongest contestants emerge at the front, giving roadside fans a close-up view of riders battling the steep grades. France has five mountain ranges: the Alps in the southeast, the Pyrenees in the southwest, the Massif Central in the middle of the country, and the Jura and Vosges in the northeast. This is where most of the Tour's climbing stages take place, although the race sometimes has summit finishes on outliers, such as Mont Ventoux in the south, the Belgian Ardennes to the north, or the hills of Brittany to the west.
A climbing stage in the Alps or Pyrenees is traditionally about 200 kilometers (125 miles) in distance over four major passes, with the finish in a valley town. Such stages favor riders who not only have climbing strength but also great bike-handling skills that help them gain time on the long, tortuous downhills. The modern trend is for a mountaintop finish preceded by a couple of other major climbs. And, most recently, the organizers have included one or two much shorter mountain stages. In 2018, for example, stage 17 in the Pyrenees was only 65 kilometers (40 miles) in length, but featured over 3,000 meters (almost 10,000 feet) of vertical climbing on three mountain passes, with the finish at 2,215 meters (7,267 feet) above sea level. Thinner air at high altitudes makes the climbing even more challenging for riders needing oxygen to fuel their efforts. On summit stage finishes, a team leader's strongest teammates will take turns in setting a fierce pace on the lower slopes, putting the other competitors under pressure, before their leader attacks in the final kilometers in a bid to win the stage and/or gain time on his opponents.
FUN FACT
On the steepest sections of long mountain descents, riders with the best bike-handling skills have been clocked at speeds as high as 120 kilometers per hour (75 miles per hour).
HISTORICAL TIDBIT
On the first high mountain stage to take place in the Pyrenees, in 1910, while pushing his 40-pound bike up the Col d'Aubisque, a leading rider, upset with what was the day's fourth mountain pass in a 14-hour stage, shouted at the race organizers: "Assassins! You are assassins!"
KEY PERSON
Italian superstar Fausto Coppi dominated the climbing stages of the 1952 Tour, the first one to feature mountaintop stage finishes. Coppi won on all three summits, at L'Alpe d'Huez, Sestriere, and the Puy-de-Dôme, to clinch the overall title.
TIME TRIALS
A time trial is called "the race of truth," because it's a pure test of athletic ability, power, and speed, in which individuals (or teams) race unassisted against the clock. The Tour has three types of time trials at the Tour: the prologue, an opening-day time trial of less than 8 kilometers (5 miles); the regular individual time trial that can be as long as 60 kilometers (37 miles) but is more generally between 20 and 40 kilometers (12 to 25 miles); and the team time trial, of a similar distance, in which each team's eight riders start together and pace each other, with the time of their fifth rider across the line given as the team's stage time.
Except for prologues, when riders start at one-minute intervals, riders in longer individual time trials start up to three minutes apart. For these stages, riders start in reverse order of general classification, so the race leader (the Yellow Jersey) is the last one to start. If a rider is caught by one starting behind him, the slower rider is not allowed to sit in the other's slipstream but is obligated to ride at least 25 meters behind him. Special aerodynamic bikes are used for time trials, usually with a full-disc rear wheel and triathlon-style handlebars that point forward to narrow the rider's profile and improve the bike's penetration through the air. Air resistance is the largest force a time trialist has to overcome, so teams do extensive wind-tunnel testing to ensure their riders' positions on the bike are as aerodynamic as possible. Time trials are of great importance in determining the outcome of the Tour. For instance, in 2011, the day before the finish, Australian Cadel Evans was third overall, almost a minute behind race leader Andy Schleck of Luxembourg. Then, in stage 20, a 42.5-kilometer (26.4-mile) time trial, Evans defeated Schleck by 2 minutes, 38 seconds to win the Tour.
FUN FACT
The fastest average speed in an individual time trial, 55.446 kilometers per hour (34.452 miles per hour), was set by Australian Rohan Dennis in the 13.8-kilometer (8.6-mile) opening stage of the 2015 Tour in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The fastest team time trial speed was also set by Australians, riding for the Orica-GreenEdge team — 57.841 kilometers per hour (35.940 miles per hour) — on a 25-kilometer (15.5-mile) course at Nice in 2013.
HISTORICAL TIDBIT
The Tour's first-ever individual time trial, in 1934, was a 90-kilometer (56-mile) stage from La Roche-sur-Yon to Nantes, won at an average speed of 35.5 kilometers per hour (22 miles per hour) by overall race winner Antonin Magne.
KEY PERSON
Spanish cyclist Miguel Induráin won five consecutive Tours from 1991 through 1995, mainly thanks to his time-trial dominance.
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
All twenty-one stages of the Tour de France are separate races — with tremendous prestige attached to winning a stage — but the nucleus of the Tour is the General Classification (GC). After each stage, every rider's finish time (less any time bonuses won and after any time penalties incurred) is added to his accumulated time from the previous stages to calculate his GC time. The rider with the lowest overall time is the overall leader, who wears the yellow jersey. When riders finish a stage in a separate group, they are given the same time as that group's first man across the line. Should any rider be delayed in the final 3 kilometers (roughly 2 miles) of a stage by a mechanical problem or crash, he is given the same finishing time as the group he was with when the incident occurred. Riders who have dropped behind have to finish within a strict time limit or they are eliminated from the Tour.
The time limits are based on the difficulty of the course and the average speed. For instance, on a flat stage raced at 45 kilometers (about 28 miles) per hour, the time limit is 10 percent of the stage winner's time; it can be as high as 20 percent for a fast mountain stage, while it's 25 percent for all time trials. All these calculations may sound somewhat complicated — and in the pre-computer age the judges could take a long time to finalize the GC — but today's technology makes this process almost instantaneous. Sometimes, especially in the early stages of the Tour, two or more riders may have an identical lowest overall time. In that case, to identify the race leader, the judges factor in the hundredths of a second recorded in any preceding time trial or (prior to a time trial taking place) add up the stage placings of each of the riders, with the one having the lowest number being awarded the yellow jersey.
FUN FACT
The fewest-ever number of finishers in the Tour was just ten riders (from sixty-seven starters) in 1919. The last rider on GC, Jules Nempon of France, had an accumulated time more than twenty-one hours behind winner Firmin Lambot of Belgium.
HISTORICAL TIDBIT
The smallest-ever winning margin in the Tour was just eight seconds, recorded in 1989 by American Greg LeMond in his victory over Frenchman Laurent Fignon after 3,285 kilometers (2,041 miles) and twenty-one stages of racing.
KEY PERSON
Géo Lefèvre was a French cycling journalist and race official who oversaw the judging and timing of the first Tour de France. He created the time-based GC system that was used for the first two Tours and then for every Tour since 1913.
RULES, BONUSES & PENALTIES
The sport's international governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), sets the rules and regulations for all road cycling stage races, including the Tour de France. The UCI also appoints the race judges and officials (known as commissaires, their French name) who form the race jury and make the key decisions at the Tour. The judges interpret the photo-finish results for all the road stage finishes (where time bonuses of ten, six, and four seconds are awarded to the top three each day) and the intermediate sprints (which carry bonuses of three, two, and one second in the opening week). They also have to tabulate each stage result and the overall standings in the individual and team general classifications, the points competition, the King of the Mountains contest, and Best Young Rider award.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Speed Read Tour de France"
by .
Copyright © 2019 John Wilcockson.
Excerpted by permission of The Quarto Group.
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