Tour De France

Tour De FranceThe tour de france is the most popular bike race in the world. It is held in July Of every year. In France.More than 200 competitors race for about 3200km in 25-30 days. This race was started back in 1903 by an ex-biker named Henri Desgranges. Who at the time was the owner of a struggling french newspaper. Called L’Auto’s. The reason he started it was because one of the competitors had sponsored a similar race and was doing very well. The prize would also be 2000 francs ($40.00). Scince then it has run every year except for WWI and WWII. From year to year the track of the race changes. It used to all be through France but now it goes through neighbouring countries aswell. The final stretch is raced along the Champs-Elysees. Tons of people gather there to see who will cross the finish line first.

Scince the race is done in stages they take each stage time and add it up at the end. It is not always the person that crosses the finish line first wins the race. Each competitor belongs to a team. Each team has a leader, who is the best biker out of them all. The other team members are called domestics and they are there to help out the leaders in any way they can. By sheilding them from the wind to getting them food and drinks. The prize money is usualy split between members of the team. Throughout the history of the race it has been dominated by Europeans three of them have one the championship five times. Then in 1986 Greg LeMond became the first American to win the race. The champion now is Miguel Infurain of Spain who has won four consecutrive Tours.