HISTORY OF THE RACE
The first Tour de France kicked off on July 1, 1903. It was the brainchild of French journalist Géo Lefèvre, who was a cycling enthusiast and writer for L'Auto magazine.
Lefèvre proposed the idea of an extended cycling race at a crisis meeting for L'Auto, which was experiencing financial difficulties.
The magazine's management team saw potential in a race determined to offer an extreme challenge to the best cyclists of the era. Sixty competitors departed Montgeron, outside Paris, at the inaugural Tour de France. Only 21 lasted the distance to cross the finish line.
WHY ARE THERE SO MANY WINNERS?
There are 20 stages to the race, each designed to test cyclists in a specific way (the flat stages test speed, while the mountain stages test climbing ability). At the end of each stage, scores are calculated and jerseys are allocated to riders leading particular categories.
Yellow Jersey: Awarded to the cyclist in the overall lead position at the end of each stage. The famed yellow jersey gets its colour from the yellow paper L'Auto was printed on.
Green Jersey: Awarded to the best sprinter, scored on points.
Polka Dot Jersey: Worn by the best climber (also known as 'King of the Mountains').
White Jersey: Worn by the best young rider aged 25 or younger.
TOUR ROUTE
2013 marks the 100th Tour de France. It will run from Saturday June 29th to Sunday July 21st 2013. It will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,404 kilometres.
7 flat stages
5 hilly stages
6 mountain stages with 4 summit finishes
2 individual time trial stages
1 team time trial stage
2 rest days
There are two departments in metropolitan France that had never hosted the tour - Corse-du-Sud and Haute-Corse. This will change in 2013.
To launch the hundredth edition of the Tour in an 'exceptional' way, Corsica will host the race start - a first in history. Once back on the mainland, the race will continue entirely in France and not in any foreign countries - which last occurred in 2003.
PRIZE MONEY
Maurice Garin won the first Tour de France race in 1903, and was rewarded with prize money of 6,075 francs.
Today, the race remains lucrative with around 2 million euros in prize money up for grabs. The individual winner of the general classification will claim around 450 000 euros.
MISHAPS AND SCANDALS
Tour cyclists are no strangers to spills and injuries, but many of the worst race-related accidents have happened off course.
The first fatality occurred in 1910, when French racer Adolphe Hélière drowned during a rest day. In recent years, three spectators have also been killed in separate incidents after being hit by publicity vehicles attached to the race.
The race hasn't always been welcomed by towns with open arms. The Capricornian newspaper, receiving a cablegram from London on the race in 1904, reported that year was a particularly tough one for riders. “Near the town of St. Etienne, some persons bearing spite against the competitors had strewn the road with nails and broken bottles,” an article in the paper declared.
Later in the same race, leading competitors were fired at with revolvers, but escaped injury.
A major doping scandal rocked the tour and the cycling world in 1998, when the entire Festina team were banned from the race. A medical exam later showed eight of the nine Festina cyclists used a banned substance.
In 2012, seven-time winner of the Tour de France Lance Armstrong was charged by the US Anti-Doping Agency with having used illicit performance-enhancing drugs. The Agency subsequently announced a lifetime ban from competition on Armstrong.
Earlier this year, Armstrong publicly confessed that he had used banned performance-enhancing drugs throughout much of his cycling career. He was stripped of all titles between 1999 and 2005.
