Fun Tour De France Facts
Impress your friends.
1 HOW DO TOUR DE FRANCE RIDERS PEE?
LONG, HOT JULY DAYS MEAN THE PROS ARE HYDRATING A LOT ON THE BIKE, which also means bathroom breaks are inevitable. In the first five to 10 minutes of a race, when the pace is more leisurely, “riders pull to the side of the road, pull their shorts down just like you would underwear – you know, pull front down, do your business,” says retired pro cyclist Ted King, who’s ridden the Tour de France several times. During this neutral roll out, King says, there’s plenty of time to catch up and get back into the peloton before the race starts in earnest.
Once the pace picks up, riders still use this tactic to pee while racing. “It’s a lot easier to wait for a lull in the race when a large proportion of the peloton pulls to the side of the road rather than doing it solo, because that solo chase is tough!” King says.
But nature calling doesn’t mean riders even have to slow down. You can also pee off the bike while riding. (Too much information? Maybe, but now you’ll know why riders sometimes look awkward when they’re coasting.) “If peeing to the right, your right leg is in a 6 o’clock position, left at 12. Left hand on the handlebars, right hand holds the shorts down, and coast while relieving yourself,” King advises.
WHO HAS WON THE MOST TOUR DE FRANCE TITLES?
THAT DEPENDS WHETHER YOU’RE COUNTING TITLES THAT HAVE BEEN TAKEN AWAY (cough – Lance – cough). If you’re not, says Christopher Thompson, author of The Tour de France: A Cultural History ,the answer is a four-way tie between Jacques Anquetil, Miguel Indurain, Eddy Merckx, and Bernard Hinault. They’re in good company.
3 HAS THE TOUR EVER NOT HAPPENED, SINCE IT STARTED IN 1903?
ONLY THE TWO WORLD WARS CAUSED THE RACE TO BE PUT ON HOLD, says Thompson. All in all, battles cost the world 11 editions of the Tour: WWI broke out a few days after the 1914 Tour, he says, and didn’t run again until 1919. It went on hiatus again during WWII, from 1940 to 1946, running again in 1947 – two years after the end of the war.
“WWI was a war of attrition, and the French were fighting the whole time. There were several Tour winners who were killed in the trenches,” he says. “But in WWII, France was defeated and occupied quite early, and that was different. There was a government that went along with the Nazis, so there was some racing to prove that things were ‘normal’ under the occupation, but the Tour wasn’t held. Afterwards, France was so devastated by the war that it took a while to get restarted.”
And of course, with the COVID-19 pandemic, we nearly lost the Tour this year.
4 WHY IS THE LEADER’S JERSEY YELLOW?
SIMPLE, SAYS THOMPSON: L’AUTO , THE NEWSPAPER THAT FIRST STARTED AND SPONSORED THE RACE, WAS PRINTED ON YELLOW PAPER, so it was essentially an advertising strategy. (That’s also why the Giro d’italia leader’s jersey is pink – the newspaper that created the Giro was printed on pink paper.)
5 HAS ANYONE EVER DIED IN THE TOUR?
SADLY, FOUR RIDERS HAVE PASSED AWAY OVER THE COURSE OF THE RACE’S HISTORY. In 1910, Adolphe Heliére drowned on a rest day; in 1934, Francisco Cepeda crashed into a ravine on a descent; in 1967, Tom Simpson passed away after a heart attack; and in 1995, Fabio Casartelli was killed after crashing and hitting his head.
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WHAT DO TOUR RIDERS DO ON REST DAYS?
THEY RIDE! At least, they go for short rides to keep their legs from cramping up. Dr Max Testa, former team doctor for a variety of Tour teams including Team BMC, 7-Eleven, and Motorola, says that the short rides (which can be up to three hours!) help keep inflammation at bay and keep muscles ready for another hard day in the saddle.
7 HOW MANY PEOPLE WATCH THE TOUR?
ACCORDING TO THE ORGANISERS, AROUND 3.5 BILLION PEOPLE TUNE IN to watch the Tour each year during the weeks of coverage, in 190 countries, making it the third-largest sporting event in the world. Only the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup attract more.
8 HOW MUCH PRIZE MONEY DOES THE TOUR DE FRANCE WINNER GET?
THE FOR CURRENT WINNING PRIZE THE MONEY FINAL INDIVIDUAL GENERAL CLASSIFICATION (GC) IS 500 000 EUROS , or roughly R9.3 million. Second place GC is awarded R3.3 million, third place GC walks away with R1.6 million, and so on. Traditionally, winners share their prize money with their teammates. Other top prizes go to stage winners, who get R182 000, and the winners of the points classification and mountains classification, each of whom receives R413 000. Riders can also win money during intermediate sprints, and on certain climbs. There’s even money for the five best teams and the four best young riders.
9 HOW OLD WAS THE OLDEST TOUR DE FRANCE RACER, AND HOW YOUNG WAS THE YOUNGEST?
BOTH DISTINCTIONS OCCURRED IN 1904 : Henri Paret was the oldest competitor at age 50 when he competed in 1904, while 20-yearold Henri Cornet was the youngest. Cornet was also the youngest winner. The oldest winner was in 1922, when 36-year-old Belgian Firmin Lambot took the yellow jersey.
10 WHAT TYRE PRESSURE DO THE PROS RUN AT THE TOUR?
EVERY RACER AND MECHANIC HAS A SPECIFIC (USUALLY TOP-SECRET) TYRE PRESSURE THAT HE OR SHE CONSIDERS TO BE THE BEST, but there are some general guidelines.
“In general, with all of those variables [like weather, and riders’ personal preference], that tyre pressure is 8 to 8.5 bar for the road stages, and then 9.5 to 10 bar for the time-trial stages. Around 115 psi in the front and 125 psi in the back for the road stages, and 130-135 psi for time-trial stages. And we drop that by 10 or 15 for rainy days,” says Geoff Brown, veteran mechanic for teams such as Garminsharp and EF Education First.
They run about 10 psi lower in the front for more control as well, and with tubular tyres, they tend to run slightly lower pressures. Clinchers need to be kept around 110 to 120 psi in order to avoid pinch-f latting.
11 DO RACERS MAKE THEIR STAGE DATA PUBLIC?
SOMETIMES – but don’t count on all of them to spend their evenings uploading. Still, you can keep an eye on some top pros’ Strava accounts: try Egan Bernal, Taylor Phinney, Thibaut Pinot and Andre Greipel – and Laurens ten Dam, shown at left.
12 WHY ISN’T THERE A WOMEN’S TOUR DE FRANCE?
“MANY EUROPEANS DEFINE SPORT – ESPECIALLY A DIFFICULT SPORT LIKE CYCLING – AS A MASCULINE THING , only something hyper-virile men were capable of,” Thompson says. “So even as women were getting into sport – running, tennis – European cycling remained a male monopoly, with rare exceptions.”
There was a women’s Tour in the 80s, but it was short-lived. Today, there is a women’s race during the Tour called La Course, but it’s a one-day-only event. Will this event ever expand in the future? Never say never.
13 HOW MUCH DO TOUR DE FRANCE BIKES WEIGH?
IN THE 1900S, THE BIKES THAT TOUR DE FRANCE CYCLISTS PEDALLED UP AND DOWN MOUNTAINS WEIGHED IN AT A WHOPPING 18KG EACH. In fact, Fiets – a Dutch cycling magazine – has showcased a bike from the 1903 race weighing in at 17.9kg... with a fixed gear. Today, bikes tip the scales at just under 7kg – but no lower, since the UCI’S minimum bike weight is 6.8kg.
14 WHO WAS THE FIRST SOUTH AFRICAN TO RIDE THE TOUR DE FRANCE?
ROBERT HUNTER MADE HIS DEBUT IN THE 2001 TOUR, RIDING FOR LAMPRE-DAIKIN ,and would go on to become the first South African stage winner, for Barloworld in 2007.
Daryl Impey became our second stage winner, in 2019, but holds the distinction of wearing the first-ever Saffer yellow jersey, in 2013 (technically he also won a stage that year in the Team Time Trial, but individual wins rank way higher on the palmares).