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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Lebensstil
- Sprache: Englisch
A plain-English guide to the world's most famous-and grueling-bicycle race Featuring eight-pages of full-color photos from recent Tour de France races, this easy-to-follow, entertaining guide demystifies the history, strategy, rules, techniques, equipment, and competitors in what is arguably the most grueling and intriguing multiday, multistage sporting event in the world. Cowritten by the most popular English-speaking cycling commentator on the planet, this book is great reading for both experienced and the new bicycle racing fans alike.
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Seitenzahl: 334
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011
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Tour de France For Dummies®
by Phil Liggett, James Raia, Sammarye Lewis
Foreword by Lance Armstrong
Tour de France For Dummies®
Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2005923417
ISBN-13: 978-0-7645-8449-7
ISBN-10: 0-7645-8449-9
Manufactured in the United States of America
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About the Authors
Phil Liggett, a former competitive amateur cyclist, has attended every Tour de France since 1973 and is universally known as “the Voice of Cycling.” A television commentator since 1978, Liggett has also covered six Summer Olympics and four Winter Olympics. He has been recognized throughout his career with several international broadcasting awards and was nominated for an Emmy in 2003 as Outstanding Sports Personality.
Trained as a journalist in his native Great Britain, Phil worked for Cycling magazine for four years. He has held freelance positions with The Guardian and The Observer and currently writes for the Daily Telegraph in London. He has reported for BBC World Service radio, and in recent years has covered the Tour de France for the Outdoor Life Network. Phil is author and coauthor of several other books, including The Tour de France 1988 and 1989, The Complete Book of Performance Cycling, and The Fastest Man on Two Wheels: In Pursuit of Chris Boardman.
Phil has been married since 1971 to Pat Tipper, a 1968 Olympic speedskater. A masseuse, Pat has worked on five Tours de France for women and managed British teams at World championships and other major races. She currently works as a university lecturer in dance science. The Liggetts live outside of London.
James Raia has been a journalist since 1978. He has worked as a staff writer and columnist for three daily newspapers and has been a fulltime freelance writer since 1987. While traveling to more than a dozen countries on assignment, James has contributed sports, business, travel, and lifestyle articles to numerous newspapers, magazines, news services, and Web sites, including The New York Times, Associated Press, USA Today, Golf Magazine, and The Miami Herald.
James first reported on cycling in 1980 and has covered many domestic and international races, including four World Champion-ships and every Tour de France since 1997. He also publishes two electronic newsletters, Endurance Sports News and Tour de France Times, and a car review column The Weekly Driver, all available on his Web site: www.ByJamesRaia.com. He has provided Tour de France radio commentary for several networks, including National Public Radio. A long-distance runner who lives in Sacramento, California, James has completed more than 75 marathons and ultramarathons.
Sammarye Lewis has many roles in the cycling world, including photojournalist, cycling fan, and event management consultant. Reporting from the Tour for four years as Velogal, she writes a daily online Tour de France journal for Paceline.com, the Web site for Lance Armstrong and his team. She has contributed to Active.com, Athletic Insight.com, CyclingNews.com, and the Daily Peloton.com as well as several print publications. Sammarye is author of the book The Podium Girl Gone Bad — Twisted Tales from the Tour de France. She also created and markets Podium Girl Gone Bad apparel and works in race management and coordinator capacity for the U.S. Pro Cycling Tour.
Sammarye is Web master for the Unofficial Lance Armstrong Fan Club and Discovery Pro Cycling Team Fans Web sites as well as www.velogal.smugmug.com and www.velogal.blogspot.com.
Authors’ Dedications and Acknowledgments
To Trish, my long-suffering wife, who has never seen me in July since 1972, and to David Saunders, a television commentator and journalist who invited me to be his driver on the Tour de France in 1973 and who died in a car crash in 1978.
— Phil Liggett
To Gretchen Gaither, Marilyn Raia, and Elinore Raia, my wife, sister, and mother, for their encouragement and support, and to my deceased father, Anthony Vincent Raia, who taught me about the sportsmanship of life.
My sincere appreciation to coauthors Phil Liggett and Sammarye Lewis for their enthusiastic collaboration, and to editors Mikal Belicove and Tere Stouffer for their patience and professionalism. Also, many thanks to Jim Mohan, this book’s technical reviewer, for his insights and corrections.
— James Raia
I would like to thank Mikal Belicove, Acquisitions Editor, for his unwavering support and belief in this book and in me. Thanks also to Tere Stouffer, Project Editor, and the staff at Wiley Publishing, Inc., who worked so hard on this first-of-a-kind book. And special thanks to coauthors Phil Liggett and James Raia, who love the Tour as much as I do.
I would also like to thank the people of France and Belgium for their gracious hospitality and generosity every year. Thanks, too, for their unhesitating assistance during the times when I was hopelessly lost along the Tour route. Merci beaucomp por tout. Vive Le Tour!
— Sammarye Lewis
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development
Project Editor: Tere Stouffer
Acquisitions Editor: Mikal Belicove
Technical Editor: Jim Mohan
Editorial Supervisor: Carmen Krikorian
Editorial Manager: Michelle Hacker
Editorial Assistant: Melissa Bennett
Cover Photos: © Graham Watson Photography Limited
Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)
Composition Services
Project Coordinator: Adrienne Martinez
Layout and Graphics: Joyce Haughey, Stephanie D. Jumper, Clint Lahnen, Melanee Prendergast, Heather Ryan, Julie Trippetti
Special Art: Sammarye Lewis (all photos except front cover)
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Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies
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Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services
Foreword
Since 1993, when I rode and for 12 days in my first attempt at the Tour de France, the annual July event has become my sporting life. Until 1996, I had finished the three-week race to Paris only once, and when I was diagnosed with cancer, the Tour de France became a memory. A much harder battle — that for life itself — began. Life since that black period has taken on a new meaning to me, and the Tour de France has been my target every year since. I returned to racing in 1998, and by 1999, as a fitter and mentally different rider, I returned to the Tour, racing for almost a month in any kind of weather, over any type of terrain. I had around me the best team of riders any Tour leader could wish for (you’ll understand what I mean by that as you read this book).
I am often asked why, as the overall winner, I do not win the last stage into Paris. But as you find out in Tour de France For Dummies, it doesn’t always work that way. Instead, those who feel they can win the Tour go in search of gaining time on the specialist stages, like the time trials or the grueling legs through the mountains. These are the stages where the race is won and lost. Winning the final stage would just be the icing on the cake.
When you look at your television screen and see these stages, where a pack of riders all appear to be pedaling along together, you may wonder where the excitement is. But the truth is, the Tour de France is a happening bigger than any other annual sporting event. Millions of roadside spectators derive pleasure from watching us sweat it out in the heat of a French summer. In fact, for more than 100 years, the race has stopped France in its tracks each July. Elections have even been moved to another date, because the public has wanted to hear only about the race’s progress. During the Tour, France is inundated by a media army numbering more than a 1,000 and an entourage of more than 5,000, all of whom follow the daily events as we journey around France and its neighboring countries. Meanwhile, the 198 starters in the race are gradually reduced to perhaps 100 by the finish in Paris.
In this book, you come to understand an event that appears complex, but is, in the end, pretty simple: The rider who gets back to Paris in the fastest overall time is the winner. British cycling expert Phil Liggett and Americans James Raia and Sammarye Lewis have covered 44 Tours as writers, and Phil has not missed a wheel turning since 1973. Together, they take you through every detail of this great event; after you read it, your next step is to turn up in France and catch that most infectious enthusiam known as Tour Fever.
— Lance Armstrong
Contents
Title
Introduction
About This Book
Conventions Used in This Book
What You’re Not to Read
Foolish Assumptions
How This Book Is Organized
Icons Used in This Book
Where to Go from Here
Part I : A Bicycle Race Unlike Any Other
Chapter 1: Answering All Your Tour Questions
Understanding the Race and the Strategies
Understanding Those Colored Jerseys
Choosing the Right Stuff: From Bikes to Snacks
Spectating During the Tour
Chapter 2: Understanding the Tour de France Race Routes
What’s a Stage, How Many Are There, and How Long Are They?
Choosing the Route and Stage Each Year
Figuring Out Where to Start
Time Trials, Mountains Stages, Prologues, and More
Scouting the New Route: Practice Makes Perfect
Chapter 3: The Races within the Race
Timing: Every Second Counts
Getting to Know Jerseys
Explaining the Overall General Classification
Standing on the Podium (and Kissing the Podium Girls)
The Honor of the Lanterne Rouge
Riding in the Broom Wagon
Part II : How the Race Is Run and Won
Chapter 4: It’s All about the Team
What’s Team Got to Do with It?
Selecting a Team — All Shapes, Sizes, and Skills
Recognizing the Team Behind the Team
Chapter 5: More Tour Rules Than You Ever Want to Know
Knowing Some Important Tour de France Regulations
Who’s Keeping Score and Why?
Chapter 6: Understanding Race Strategies
Here’s the Plan, Man!
Miles to Go Before I Sleep
Heeding Nature’s Call While Riding
Part III : Loving the Ride: A Man and His Bike
Chapter 7: Who Are These Guys and How Do They Do It?
Two Hundred Cyclists: Maintaining Their Bodies
What’s Up, Doc?
Things That Go Bump in the Day
Chapter 8: Spending a Day in the Life of a Rider
Morning, Noon, and Night
Moving On Down the Road
Get Ready, Get Set, Go!
Starting the Race
Lunch for the Bunch
It Ain’t Over ’Til It’s Over
Traveling to the Next Hotel
No Fun-Filled Evenings for the Riders
No Rest for the Weary on Rest Day
Chapter 9: Having the Best Equipment in the Bunch
Using High-Tech Bikes
Wheels Go Round and Round
Shifting Gears
A Helmet Is a Helmet — Not!
Wearing a Kaleidoscope of Kits
Part IV : Watching the Race
Chapter 10: Perfecting the Art of Spectating from Home
Watching in Your Pajamas
Cybering the Tour
Sounding Like an Expert
Chapter 11: Going to the Tour: A Brief Guide
On Your Own or with a Tour Group
Details, Details, Details
Where to Watch
The Thrill of Finishing on the Champs Élysées
Part V : The Part of Tens
Chapter 12: Ten Greatest Riders in Tour History
Jacques Anquetil
Lance Armstrong
Gino Bartali
Fausto Coppi
Bernard Hinault
Miguel Indurain
Greg LeMond
Eddy Merckx
Jan Ullrich
Joop Zoetemelk
Chapter 13: The Ten Most Important Tours in History
1903: Publishing Wars and Garin Make History
1913: Time Changes, Tour Reverses
1919: The Yellow Jersey Debuts
1938: Le Tour: A Team Sport
1969: Eddy Merckx Arrives and Dominates
1986: Greg LeMond and Other Americans in Paris
1989: LeMond Dramatically Wins Again
1999: Armstrong Shocks the World
2003: Armstrong and Ullrich Pedal in Fast Company
2004: Armstrong Rides Into History
Chapter 14: Ten Unique Tour de France Statistics
Young, Restless, and Champion
Old and Leading the Pack
Will You Still Need Me When I’m 32?
Winning, French Style
Taking the Long Way Home
Pedaling Short, But Not So Sweet
Humbling Experience: 300 Miles of Torture
Speeding Over Hill and Dale
Knowing Your Neighbors: An American in Paris
Climbing Into the Clouds: The Great Peaks of the Tour
Chapter 15: Ten Dramatic Tour de France Moments
Assassins Among Us (1910)
A Tour First: Death in the Peloton (1935)
Poulidor Versus Anquetil (1964)
Merckx Attacked in the Mountains (1975)
Hampsten Conquers L’Alpe d’Huez (1992)
LeMond Rides into History (1989)
Armstrong Salutes Fallen Fabio (1995)
Sitting Down on the Job (1998)
Hamilton Shows His Mettle in the Mountains (2003)
Riding through Hay Fields (2003)
Chapter 16: Ten Great Tour Climbs and Mountaintops
Aspin
Aubisque
Courchevel
Galibier
Glandon
Izoard
L’Alpe d’Huez
La Mongie
Luz-Ardiden
Madeleine
Mont Ventoux
Puy de Dome
Sestrieres
Chapter 17: Ten Other Important Races
Amstel Gold Race
Clasica San Sebastian (San Sebastian Classic)
Giro d’Italia (Tour of Italy)
Liege-Bastogne-Liege
Milan–San Remo
Olympic Road Race
Paris Roubaix
Tour of Flanders
Vuelta a Espana (Tour of Spain)
World Championship (Road Race)
Glossary
: Color insert
Introduction
M aybe Lance Armstrong’s recovery from cancer and his subsequent Tour de France titles piqued your curiosity. Perhaps a television video clip of a massive group of cyclists sprinting furiously on the cobblestone streets of Paris caught your attention.
That’s the way the Tour de France works. A fleeting glimpse of the race triggers an interest. All of a sudden, you want to know more. You’re a fan. Then you’re hooked on everything about the race. You can’t get enough and want to find out all you can. Tour de France For Dummies canhelp. It provides race strategies, details riders’ skills, examines rules and regulations, and explains nuances of the three-week race and its more than 100-year history.
About This Book
Many available Tour de France books highlight its history and champions. From early years, when the race almost ended two years into its tenure, to the legacies of great riders, volumes detail the Tour’s more than 100 years. This book covers that same information, but it’s not only about specific race information. In this book, you also find out about the people and places around the event. Here, you find all the information you need to watch the race in person, view it on television, or surf the Internet for results and rider profiles.
In this book, we also examine the intricacies of bikes and how race equipment has evolved through the years. There’s a century of personalities, technology, history, and legend sprinkled throughout this book — the Tour’s famous icons, infamous characters, and fleeting moments that stand as epic testaments to the great race.
Conventions Used in This Book
The Tour de France resonates with the lexicon of France. As such, French words and phrases used throughout this book are printed in italics. We also help you pronounce them, in case you want to sound like a cycling guru to your friends.
The most critical term to know is peloton (pell-oh-tawn), a French term that means the main pack of riders. This term appears many times throughout this book.
In gray boxes throughout the book, you also find sidebars — short clips of information about interesting cyclists or other Tour information. Skip these if you’re short on time, or head right for them if you want a colorful lowdown on the Tour.
As a global sport, the Tour is followed by millions of fans via the Internet. So, all Web sites listed in Tour de France For Dummies are printed in a special font, like this. In some instances, Internet addresses listed may have needed to break across two lines of text. If that happened, rest assured we haven’t put in any extra characters (such as hyphens) to indicate the break. So, when using one of these Web addresses, just type it exactly the way you see it in this book, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist.
What You’re Not to Read
Technically speaking, the Tour de France is not easy to follow. So, throughout this book, text preceded by a Technical Stuff icon designates specific areas of technical overload. You don’t have to examine technical sections to understand the subject it represents, so feel free to skip these, if you want.
Foolish Assumptions
We make only one assumption about you, dear reader: You have an interest in one of the world’s most enduring and popular sporting events: the Tour de France. You may have watched the race on the Outdoor Life Network or on one of the Tour’s many international television network outlets. Or, you may have seen riders swiftly cruise past an avenue of a French city you were visiting. However you caught the Tour de France bug, this book explains event basics to you (if you’re a newcomer) and also provides additional details about the people, places, and equipment associated with this race (if you already have some familiarity with the event).
How This Book Is Organized
Like all For Dummies books, information in Tour de France For Dummies is divided into five parts. Each part of the book contains several chapters, as follows.
Part I: A Bicycle Race Unlike Any Other
The Tour de France is the world’s most popular and prestigious bicycle race. In this part, you find out the event’s history, traditions, and basic elements as a team sport.
In Chapter 1, we discuss how the Tour began and how the race is conducted as a team event — that is, individual riders competing within teams. All details necessary to follow the event, whether you’re watching from the sidelines in France or sitting comfortably on your living room couch, are also featured in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2, specifics are highlighted: from how the race route is chosen each year to the varied unique subcategories of competitions within the overall race.
The Tour is replete with tradition, and in Chapter 3, you get the scoop on race jerseys and find out why certain riders wear jerseys like no one else in the race. You also discover the meaning and nuances of the podium and its awards and honors. Finally, you get a look at other race specialties, like the honor of being in last place and how racers manage to please their sponsors.
Part II: How the Race Is Run and Won
It’s not always apparent on a day-to-day basis, but the Tour is won by an individual who’s part of a team. In this part, all individual riders’ responsibilities are detailed, as are the race’s varied rules and protocol. You’re also introduced to teams’ non-riding personnel — from managers to massage therapists. They orchestrate teams’ daily operations.
Interpersonal relationships are integral to a team’s success in the Tour. In Chapter 4, riders’ individual roles are described as well as the characteristics that make cyclists successful as climbers, sprinters, and team riders. How the race progresses each day — its rules, time limits, drug tests, and race fines — are explained in Chapter 5.
Astute racing strategy helps teams get their star riders to the podium. How it all works is explained in Chapter 6.
Part III: Loving the Ride: A Man and His Bike
It has changed throughout the years, but now nearly 200 riders begin each Tour on the first weekend in July. This part introduces riders and tells you how they do what they do. You find out how the sport’s best athletes prepare and maintain their bodies. You find out how riders train for months — even years — and then persevere while pedaling for more than 2,000 miles around France and other nearby countries.
Chapter 7 explains how riders take care of their bodies before, during, and after every Tour stage. From proper hydration to withstanding sickness and mechanical failures, it’s all part of a Tour rider’s typical day. So, a special chapter (Chapter 8) takes you through a day in the life of a Tour cyclist, including eating teams meals, finding a little relaxation time, getting daily massages, and dealing with fans.
Technology is critical to success at the Tour, so Chapter 9 provides all sorts of information about cyclists’ different bikes and the mechanics who make sure the riders pedal their machines in top mechanical condition. What the riders wear in all kinds of weather conditions is also detailed in Chapter 9.
Part IV: Watching the Race
When you’re a Tour fan, more is better. The race is followed passionately around the globe, and millions of fans attend the race each year and follow it in newspapers, on television, on the radio and TV, and on the Internet.
Whether you’re watching race action from a French roadside or a reclining chair in the family room, Chapter 10 gives you a multitude of information resources. You find out where to watch Tour action at home and where to cybersurf to get instant race updates. If you’re planning to watch the Tour in person, Chapter 11 gives options and suggestions for planning a perfect Tour de France experience.
Part V: The Part of Tens
Every For Dummies book concludes with signature lists of ten items called The Part of Tens. In this book, the Part of Tens includes honorees as best riders in Tour history, ten important editions of the Tour de France, unique Tour statistics, dramatic tour moments, famous race climbs, and a list of other cycling races around the world.
Icons Used in This Book
Small pictures placed in the margins of this book are used to alert you to specific kinds of information. Icons point to cycling terminology, racing nuances, information suited for memorizing, and complicated regulations. Here’s what they mean.
This icon gives you snippets of information, various tricks, and special shortcuts. It also designates cycling jargon. The sport has a vast selection of terms used by those involved with the sport. Use these terms, and your “guru status” appreciably improves.
Facts and figures are integral parts of the Tour de France. This icon identifies information you want to know just as well as you know your phone number or ATM pin number.
Controversial or bizarre sections of the book are designated by this icon. When you see this icon, what follows may be alarming, graphic, or at least out of the ordinary.
From radio communications along the race course to lists of prohibited over-the-counter and prescription drugs, the Tour is replete with technical details. The icon designates percentages, various mileage totals, and other Tour statistics and highlights.
Where to Go from Here
If you want to know how and why cities host Tour de France stages, turn to Chapter 2. Ever wonder how much money Tour cyclists win for claiming a stage or winning a jersey competition? Check out Chapter 4. And if you’re thinking about attending the Tour or want to watch it on television, details to both possibilities are in Chapter 10.
You can turn to any chapter in Tour de France For Dummies and get specific Tour information. If you’re watching a stage and there’s a quick, significant development, look for the topic in the Table of Contents or index, find your subject and flip to the appropriate chapter. That’s the format trademark of For Dummies books. You can read chapters as self-contained minibooks. Of course, you can also start with Chapter 1, if you wish, and read straight through to the end.
Part I
A Bicycle Race Unlike Any Other
In this part . . .
I n this part, you discover Tour de France basics — its history, race rules, strategy, and how the three-week event operates. From watching the race at home to traveling to witness it in person, this part provides specifics on how to spectate and understand the different kinds of cycling that make up the Tour.
This part also details cyclists’ different jerseys and why some cyclists wear identical outfits, while a handful of other riders wear vastly different jerseys. You’re also introduced to finish-line customs and to various nuances and race traditions.
Chapter 1
Answering All Your Tour Questions
In This Chapter
Sizing up the Tour
Getting to know teams and riders
Knowing the Tour’s fashion statements
Eating to ride — everyday
Gearing up and packing up to watch the race
E very July, daily life changes in France, and has for the past 100 years or so. That’s when the Tour de France — a fast-moving circus of cyclists — makes its way around the country. The Tour consists of nearly 200 riders from a couple dozen countries pedaling through fields of sunflowers and vineyards and climbing into thin mountain air.
Why do cyclists want to do this? This chapter tells you why. You discover how and why the Tour began and how to understand race operations and strategies. You get all Tour basics: what equipment riders are using, what apparel they’re wearing, and what they’re eating and drinking. You also find out how they do what they do, every day, for three weeks. You find out how, as a Tour de France fan, you can follow the Tour in person, watch it on television, or follow every kilometer of the race on your laptop computer.
Understanding the Race and the Strategies
Condensed to its basic premise, the Tour de France is a simple athletic contest: The cyclist who completes a strenuous and often perilous course of more than 2,000 miles in the lowest total time wins.
Yet, the event is so much more. Steeped in history, tradition, and racing lore, the Tour defines endurance and global sportsmanship. Unlike professional sports played in stadiums and arenas filled with fans who’ve paid for tickets, the Tour stands alone in the sports world. Its arena extends past countries’ borders, and for fans, it’s the best bargain in sports, because it’s free.
For riders, it’s a job with an equally simple equation. While progressing along the course like chess pieces on wheels, riders face the limits of endurance. They battle inclement weather and attempt to outwit and outrace each other while using the same strategy — conserve energy as much as possible for the times when it’s needed most.
Working together
Riders participating in the Tour compete at the top of the sport. The Tour is the Super Bowl, Stanley Cup, World Series, Winston Cup, and NBA Championship of bicycle racing. Functioning as a team sport (see Chapters 4 and 6 for details), the race features teams of nine cyclists selected from a larger group of teammates. Reaping the benefits of synergy, teams work as units, and each rider has varying responsibilities. As riders make their way around France and into neighboring countries, teams that use sound racing strategies tend to have the most success — for the group and for the team captain.
Winning individually
Individuals win stages and one rider claims the overall title. Winning a Tour de France stage is the career highlight for many cyclists. Every day, one rider is victorious, and he climbs onto the finish podium after a stage win and hears fans’ cheers and receives various accolades. But a rider’s individual triumph, at least to some degree, is the result of selfless teammates. It’s rare for a cyclist to win a stage without acknowledging teammates who’ve put him in a position to ride to a triumph.
Understanding Those Colored Jerseys
Riders on each team are required to wear the same color jersey (as discussed Chapter 3). Each team’s jersey features logos of sponsors who pay the riders’ salaries. The result is a kaleidoscope of moving billboards on wheels. Some teams’ uniforms feature subtle colors; other teams opt for brighter colors. Some teams’ uniforms look surprisingly similar, further adding to the blur of the often fast-moving peloton (the main pack of riders).
A few riders wear special jerseys. Throughout the race, the reigning World Champion wears his team colors, but on a special jersey with horizontal stripes. National current road champions wear team jerseys featuring their country’s colors.
Four other cyclists also wear different colored jerseys each day (see Figure 1-1).
The yellow jersey represents the race leader.
The green jersey represents the race’s best sprinter.
The polka dot jersey designates the race’s finest climber.
The white jersey designates the highest-ranked rider in the overall competition age 25 or younger.
Figure 1-1: Winners wearing their jerseys on the podium at the 2004 Tour de France. From left, Robbie McEwen, Lance Armstrong, Richard Virenque, and Vladimir Karpets.
In most instances, cyclists wearing specialty jerseys like to wear them as long as they can during the race. But the colored jerseys of the Tour change often, and the anticipation of those costume changes each day helps make the Tour a race of many races. See Chapter 3 for additional details on special jerseys.
Choosing the Right Stuff: From Bikes to Snacks
Since the Tour began, the equipment that riders use and the methods they employ for keeping themselves nutritionally prepared to ride have changed a lot and not very much at the same time. Bikes still have two wheels, two brakes, two pedals, a frame, handlebar, gears, and a saddle. Riders still wear cycling shoes. But technology (see more in Chapter 9) has catapulted current Tour bikes into the forefront of aerodynamic efficiency. Tour cyclists’ machines were once steel. Aluminum, titanium, and carbon fiber materials are now in the mix. Gearing options have also dramatically improved since front and rear derailleurs became common in the 1950s.
Cyclists ate bread and pasta in the Tour’s early days, just as they do today. But riders’ nutrition (discussed in Chapters 7 and 8) is now a science. Tour cyclists drank alcohol like water during the race’s infancy, and it was many a rider’s delight to smoke cigarettes. And while a celebratory sip or two of champagne is still traditional during the Tour’s final stage, there’s no smoking. The infamous tales of riders lighting each other’s cigarettes are now only billows of smoke in Tour lore.
Pedaling through decades of technology
Imagine Tour riders in 1903 riding a saddle that included synthetic gels for comfort. What would those pioneering Tour riders think of today’s clipless pedals and aerodynamic handlebars that allow cyclists to ride in tucked positions like downhill racers?
Tour riders now use equipment built by computer-generated formulas. It’s tested in wind tunnels and perfected by a battery of engineers and mechanics. Just like the riders of yesteryear, competing in the Tour today includes a man-versus-machine dynamic. Riders are hard on their bikes; bikes are hard on riders. Throughout the Tour’s history — from ancient bikes to state-of-the art machines — one constant has remained: Something will go wrong with riders’ bikes during the race. Whether riders use steel or titanium frames, mechanical problems occur every day at the Tour de France, and always when riders least expect them.
Tour de France teams employ riders, managers, physicians, masseurs, trainers — and cooks. While riding an average of more than 100 miles per day, Tour cyclists eat nearly constantly. It’s rare when they can adequately keep up with their bodies’ nutritional requirements. Team cooks do their best to keep riders properly nourished. Cooks prepare riders’ meals for breakfast, dinner, and a prerace meal, when the Tour’s starting time allows. But it’s not just quantity that counts, rather the quality of the quantity. As endurance athletes, riders need specific amounts of carbohydrates, protein, and fat. If the equation isn’t right, it can mean the difference between riders’ successes and failures.
Spectating During the Tour
Unlike stadium and arena sporting events, there are no official attendance figures for the Tour de France. Many kilometers of the course are nearly spectator free. But at each stage’s starting and finishing lines, on mountain climbs, and along the final-day cobblestones of Paris, watching the Tour (see more on this in Chapter 10) is a way of life. Millions of spectators attend the race every year (see Figure 1-2), some of whom camp for days to reserve key viewing perches. Millions more enthusiasts around the world watch the event live and on a tape-delayed basis. Radio listenership is global and massive. Cycling-specific Web site traffic grows exponentially during the Tour.
Figure 1-2: Spectators waiting in the rain for the finish of Stage 5 in Chartres, Tour de France 2004.
Watching the Tour from home
Tour fans in France who don’t attend the race in person are still fortunate. The event is broadcast live on the French national network every day (see Chapter 10). Most stages are organized to finish around 5 p.m. in France, the prime viewing hour.
Dozens of countries have similar broadcasts, including, since 2001, daily live coverage on the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), the first North American network to offer live daily coverage.
Searching for Tour information
Daily European newspapers provide vast Tour information. It’s front-page news and often dominates sports section coverage. L’Equipe, the French daily sports newspaper, is a Tour sponsor, so it publishes specialty magazines on the Tour and provides the public with an overwhelming amount or race information — from race reports to rider profiles, from road closures to columnists’ strong opinions. The International Herald Tribune and USA Today’s international edition provide major English newspaper coverage.
The Tour’s online presence (see Chapter 10) has reached its saturation point. The official Tour Web site, www.LeTour.fr features near-immediate details of every stage. Commercial sites — from newspapers’ online editions to specialty magazines’ sites — battle for fast and more comprehensive Tour news coverage. Many sites feature riders’ daily diaries from inside the peloton, while blogs, cycling forums, and chat rooms burst with activity.
Making the trip to the Tour
By plane, train, automobile, or bicycle, attending the Tour has become an increasingly popular way for cycling fans seeking a vacation to get their fill. Most major international airlines fly into Orly International Airport and Charles de Gaulle International Airport, the two major Paris airports. With rare exception, the start of the Tour is within a few hours’ drive or train ride from either of these airports. July is the busiest time of year for travel to France, so make airline, hotel, and car rental reservations by early spring — at the latest.
Traveling with a tour group is another increasingly popular option. Numerous retired Tour riders have lent their names to tour outfits that provide on-course training rides, varying accommodation options, and catered meals. Regardless of the travel method, Tour visitors should firmly adhere to one well-known Tour spectators’ creed: Get there early and prepare to stay late.
Chapter 2
Understanding the Tour de France Race Routes
In This Chapter
Staging the race, day to day
Riding in peaks and valleys
Pedaling fast, faster, and fastest
Hosting the race and entering a bidding war
C oordinating the Tour de France each year takes years of planning. Law enforcement agencies, government officials, tourism departments, and many businesses all cooperate. And when it all comes together, this huge traveling sporting event — and the carnival surrounding it — envelopes France for three weeks.
This chapter details how the Tour is methodically planned and how the event advances on a day-to-day basis. Where does the route go — and why? Why is the race divided into stages? How do teams know about each day’s route?
What’s a Stage, How Many Are There, and How Long Are They?
Although there’s no theatrical stage, each day’s race at the Tour de France is called a stage, and each one offers plenty of theatrics. Riders encounter and endure miles of country and mountain roads throughout France and other countries, including Germany, Italy, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The accumulation of its stages makes the Tour de France what is called a stage race.
No set number of stages is required in the Tour each year. But in recent years, at least 20 stages and a total of approximately 3,300 kilometers (2,047 miles) have comprised the race. The cyclist with the lowest cumulative time after the 20 stages wins.
Individual stage mileage and total race mileage are secondary in importance to the route cyclists take each day to get from start to finish. For example, a shorter mountainous stage is generally more difficult than a flat stage that’s twice the length. How race organizers choose to design each year’s race course keeps the more than 100-year-old race fresh and appealing to long-time fans and to event newcomers.
