20 Amazing Facts About Tour De France

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Many of you might have heard about Tour De France and it is one of the best, biggest and amazing contests held anywhere in the world. A lot of theories, facts, stats, and amazing things are associated with the tour. In this post, we will include some amazing and sensational facts regarding the tour.

If you need a really good bike for the tour and planning to buy bike, Norco bikes are best.

  1. The tour was started a century ago in 1903 and it will be the 105th event going to happen this year in 2018.
  2. Originally there were six stages in the early years of the contest but now it has 24 stages with 24 days of time.
  3. A 19 years old person was the youngest participant to win the tour.
  4. The race is also nicknamed ‘La Grande Boucle’ which means ‘the big loop’ and it refers to the route taken by cyclist during the race in France.
  5. As per the reports, a cyclist burns on average 4000 to 5000 calories at every stage of the race and that makes 123,900 calories for the entire race.
  6. In the 1920s, the riders used to share cigarettes because they were meant to open up their lungs before the race started.
  7. Until 1960s alcohol was also allowed to the participants because it helped them reduce the pain of aching limbs. But later on, it was banned because it was a kind of stimulant and boosted energy.
  8. It is the largest sporting event in the world and around 12 million spectators gather along the routing line to view the contests.
  9. According to the official reports, over 3-5 billion people watch the race on TV and media every year.
  10. Maurice Garin was the first winner of Tour De France. He also won in 1904 but was disqualified because he cheated. He was found taking a train for the last stage.
  11. The total number of wins is in the hands of French and that’s 36, more than any other nation.
  12. Unfortunately, four riders have died during the race.
  13. American Greg Lemond and Frenchman Laurent Fignon in 1989 had the closest race and there was a gap of just 8 seconds before the winner and the runner-up.
  14. Each team participating in the race comes with 3,900 nutrition bars, 3,000 water bottles, 80 kg of nuts, raisins, apricots and figs and…20 jars of jam!
  15. On the rest day, cyclists don’t take a rest. Rather they practice in order to prevent lactic acid building up in their muscles and to stay more focused.
  16. There will be 42000 water bottles used by the team in 2018 contest.
  17. Over the course of Tour De France route, the cyclists will sweat enough to flush a toilet 39 times.
  18. There were just ten finishers in 1919, that is the least of all time.
  19. The total prize money awarded to the winnest is $4.3 million.
  20. The 1947 Tour De France winner Jean Robic was said to take water bottles filled with lead at the top of the climbs in order to descend faster.

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