An annual multi-stage bicycle race for men, the Tour de France primarily takes place in France with rare stops in adjacent countries.
As with the other Grand Tours (the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta an Espana), it consists of 21 stages, each lasting one day, spread over a period of 23 days, including the Bastille Day holiday. The oldest and frequently considered to be the most prestigious Grand Tour.
The race is currently managed by the Amaury Sport Organisation, which was founded in 1903 to improve sales for the newspaper L’Auto. With the exception of the two World Wars, the event has been run annually since the first edition in 1903.
The Tour de France began with the launch of two rival sports periodicals in the country. The first and largest daily sports magazine in France, Le Vélo, sold 80,000 copies daily.
In contrast, a group of journalists and merchants led by Comte Jules-Albert de Dion, Adolphe Clément, and Édouard Michelin launched the magazine L’Auto in 1899.
The rival paper first appeared as a result of the Dreyfus Affair, a cause célèbre (in which the “anti-Dreyfusard” de Dion was implicated) that tore France apart at the end of the 19th century over Alfred Dreyfus’ innocence as a French army officer accused of selling military secrets to the Germans but later cleared.
Where do the Tour de France riders sleep at night?
Stages in the Tour de France need frequent movement. The cyclists spend the night in hotels close to the event and travel aboard highly cutting-edge, futuristic buses.
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