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