El Tour - Tour De France

Tour De France

It is an annual bicycle competition that takes place in France and surrounding countries.
This race goes between clockwise and anticlockwise circuits and transportation is sometimes available to get from a finished point to a new start point. It usually lasts 21 days and cyclists get to rest for two days. Because of its amazing demand It is considered, perhaps the most mentally and physically exhausting sport event on Earth.

There is always technical and medical support for each team following each cyclist through the whole of the race. There are 9 riders per team that support each other and the number of teams oscilate between 20 and 22.

There are many different ways for judges to score cyclists´ performance, being the basic one the time taken through the race.

History

It is well-known that many cycling competitions were held in France before the Tour de France, but none of such magnitude. The idea was conceived by a reporter, Geo Lefevre, who wanted to create this competition in order to promote sports newspaper l´Auto better, by creating the largest stage-by cycling competition he was very positive he could not only give the best promotion to the newspaper but even take competition out of business.

The first Tour took place on 1st of July, 1903 in Montgeron, a location near Paris, with 60 cyclists and it was Maurice Garin, a French cyclist who won the competition. It was in 1903 and through the Tour de France that the first cycling competition on stages took place in history.

It first took place in 1903 covering a total distance of 2.428 km, now this tour covers a total distance of 3600 km and it is the most important bicycle race in the world.

Dates

According to up-to-date information for 2011 the Tour de France will start on Saturday, July 2nd and finish on Sunday, July 24th, it will be structured on 21 stages in order to cover a distance of 3 471 km.

As usual the race will have 2 days for rest and there won´t be any bonus points on intermediate sprints. The stages will be: One team time-trial stage, three medium-level mountain stages, six mountain stages, ten flat stages and finally one individual time-trial stage.

These are the stages:

July 2nd: Paso del Gois-Mont des Alousettes July 3rd: Les Essarts-Les Essarts
July 4th: Olonne-sur-Mer-Redon
July 5th: Lorient-Mûr-de-Bretagne
July 6th: Carhaix-Cap Fréhe
July 7th: Dinan-Lisieux
July 8th: Le Mans-Châteauroux
July 9th: Aigurande-Super-Besse Sancy
July 10th: Issoire-Saint-Flour
July 12th: Aurillac-Carmaux
July 13th: Blaye-les-Mines-Lavaur
July 14th: Cugnaux-Luz Ardiden
July 15th: Pau-Lourdes
July 16th: Saint-Gaudens-Plateau de Beille
July 17th: Limoux-Montpellier
July 19th: Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux-Gap
July 20th: Gap-Pinerolo
July 21st: Pinerolo-Galibier
July 22nd: Modane-Alpe d'Huez
July 23rd: Grenoble-Grenoble
July 24th: Créteil-París

Winners for the past 10 years

2001
Overall Points Mountains Youth	United States Germany France Spain	Lance Armstrong Erik Zabel Laurent Jalabert Óscar Sevilla
2002
Overall Points Mountains Youth	United States Australia France Italy	Lance Armstrong Robbie McEwen Laurent Jalabert Ivan Basso
2003
Overall Points Mountains Youth	United States Australia France Russia	Lance Armstrong Baden Cooke Richard Virenque Denis Menchov
2004
Overall Points Mountains Youth	United States Australia France Russia	Lance Armstrong Robbie McEwen Richard Virenque Vladimir Karpets
2005
Overall Points Mountains Youth	United States Norway Denmark Ukraine	Lance Armstrong Thor Hushovd Michael Rasmussen Yaroslav Popovych
2006
Overall Points Mountains Youth	Spain Australia Denmark Italy	Óscar Pereiro Robbie McEwen Michael Rasmussen Damiano Cunego
2007
Overall Points Mountains Youth	Spain Belgium Colombia Spain	Alberto Contador Tom Boonen Mauricio Soler Alberto Contador
2008
Overall Points Mountains Youth	Spain Spain Spain Luxembourg	Carlos Sastre Óscar Freire Carlos Sastre Andy Schleck
2009
Overall Points Mountains Youth	Spain Norway Italy Luxembourg	Alberto Contador Thor Hushovd Franco Pellizotti Andy Schleck
2010
Overall Points Mountains Youth	Spain Norway Italy Luxembourg	Alberto Contador Alessandro Petacchi Anthony Charteau Andy Schleck

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