The Tour De France

The 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.