The Tour de France is the most famous cycling race in the world

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Tour de France - the most famous cycling race in the world, whose history is already about 100 years old. This year, the 99th competition is being held, in which 22 teams (9 cyclists in each) take part. The race is traditionally held in July, during three weeks the athletes will have to overcome the distance of 3497 km, which runs through Belgium, France and Switzerland.

The legendary Tour de France was first established as an advertising project for the French newspaper L'Auto to compete with the then existing Paris-Brest and Bordeaux-Paris cycling races. The success was so strong that the circulation of the newspaper after the end of the Tour de France increased 2, 5 times, in subsequent years the competition annually fueled the interest of readers in the publication. The number of L'Auto subscribers in 30 years has grown from a modest 25 thousand to a truly incredible size: during the competition in 1933, 854 thousand readers bought the newspaper every day! Today, the organizer of the cycling race is the Society of Tour de France, which is part of the media holding, which includes the newspaper and newspaper L'Équipe (this is the new name of L'Auto). The Tour de France is held annually, with a “break” in the competition only during the First and Second World War.

The famous yellow jersey, which the winner receives, can be considered a real symbol of the cycling race. The color of the shirt was not chosen by chance: initially it was associated with the sponsorship of the yellow press, the newspaper L'Auto (the pages of the edition were indeed yellow). In addition to these colors, there are others: the green jersey is received by the cyclist who won the sprint, the white is the best young rider, and the jersey with polka dots is worn by the one who has no equal in races in the mountains! It is noteworthy that the appearance of the pea color is also natural - it corresponded to the design of the Poulain Chocolate chocolate factory, which also sponsored the Tour de France and introduced this award. In addition, the organizers present another distinctive sign - a special number written in white on a red background (instead of black on white). It is awarded to the most aggressive rider, who is selected daily by a panel of experts based on the results of the race.

Of course, not all bicycles are suitable for participating in competitions, on the Culturology website. We have already written not only about the most fashionable bicycles from leading designers, but also about tricycles and even edible ones!