| The Tour de France is the BIG one; it's the World cup | | | | times, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and then Spaniard |
| and the Olympics all in one. It has it all, the high | | | | Miguel Indurain all equalled him. Then the American, |
| mountains, the wind swept northern planes and the | | | | Lance Armstrong started to win in 1999 and didn't stop |
| heat of the south. It also has the world's media, all the | | | | until he had won it a record seven times in a row. This |
| top teams and riders and millions of cycling mad fans | | | | is all the more amazing as he is a cancer survivor and |
| watching. The other "Grand Tours" of Italy and Spain | | | | was given a 50/50 chance of life; he beat the cancer |
| are as exciting, sometimes more so, but they don't | | | | and went on to beat all comers in the Tour de France. |
| have the thing the Tour has, that unique Tour ness, | | | | The course. |
| that unique French ness. | | | | The race starts in a different town every year and |
| How it started. | | | | every other year it starts outside France, the choice of |
| It all started in 1903, when the French daily paper, | | | | stage towns is a combination of money and sporting |
| L'Auto wanted to sell more than its competitor, Le | | | | considerations, the towns will pay for a start or a finish, |
| Vélo, who at that time was the only paper | | | | but they need to be near a mountain or a cobbled |
| reporting on cycle racing. It was suggested to the | | | | road or be near other town who want to host the |
| papers director, Henri Desgrange that they should | | | | Tour. The Towns pay to be the centre of interest for |
| organise a bike race all round France. The first race | | | | a day, the Tour also brings in a lot of money in tourism |
| was 2,428 kilometres split into six stages and was run | | | | and the Towns collect much more than they pay and |
| off at 25.29 kilometres per hour and out of the 60 | | | | the world will remember the name of the Town, for at |
| starters 21 finished and the race was lead from start | | | | least a day. |
| to finish by Maurice Garin. | | | | The riders. |
| The Heroes. | | | | All the best riders want to win the Tour de France, but |
| Over the years there has been a lot of heroes in the | | | | they cant, from the 200 or so starters there is a |
| Tour de France, you could say all the riders are | | | | possible five or six riders who can win, the rest are |
| heroes, to win the race once is hard, but to win it five | | | | either helping their team leaders or sprint or mountain |
| times is phenomenal. Only five men have done this, | | | | specialists who want to win stages or points or |
| and one of these has won it seven times. French rider | | | | mountain jerseys, this keeps the race active and |
| Jacques Anquetil was the first to win the race five | | | | interesting from beginning to end. |