The Tour de France - Part 2
Understanding a Grand Tour
Many say that the Tour de France is the most challenging of all athletic events, and they may be right. (Note* - there are 3 Grand Tours and they are each exceptional - the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España). The average Tour covers 2100-2200 miles (depending on the course in a particular year) in 21 days of riding over a 23 day period in the heat of July with only 2 rest days. Mountains, long distance stages, time trials and sprints make for a leg breaking, non-stop sufferfest (yeah, that’s a technical cycling term).
There are 23 teams with 8 riders each for a total of 184 riders, and when the entire group is on the road they’re called the peloton (technically translated from French to English it means platoon, but in cycling it means group). There are races within the race also. The main part of the race is for the GC, the General Classification (Yellow Jersey). This is the rider who has finished in the least amount of cumulative time over the 21 stages and is therefore declared the winner of the Tour de France. Then, there’s the Mountain Classification (Polka Dot Jersey), Points Classification (Green Jersey), Best Young Rider (White Jersey) and then there’s a Team Classification which is the team with the lowest combined time of all riders. For now, let’s just focus on the General Classification.
Each day’s race is called a Stage. If you’re the first over the line that day, you’ve won the Stage, which is a huge accomplishment, in any grand tour. If you’re a sprinter there are flat stages where the peloton will finish mostly together and you will see riders sprinting for the line. The mountain stages are the ones that can determine the overall winner as there can be huge time gaps on these days. There are also time trials, sometimes referred to as the race of truth. On these days riders race individually against the clock. Tadej Pogačar won his first TdF on the penultimate day, Stage 20, a time trial beating out his Slovenian countryman Primož Roglič, who was in yellow at the start of the day. This has been the closest Roglič got to winning the tour. According to the reports I’m reading, Roglič will be on the start line Saturday. That’s great!! It’s worth mentioning, Roglič has won 5 Grand Tours - the Vuelta a España 4 times (tying the record) and the Giro d’Italia once. He is also one of the top cyclists, ever.
If you’re in the US you can watch the TdF on Peacock. For the rest of the world, Eurosport is a great option. FloBikes/FloSports will be presenting it also. All the streaming services allow you to watch ‘replays’ whenever you want, which is how I avoid waking at an ungodly hour (plus it lets me forward through each stage at my own pace). There are various YouTube channels that will offer highlights and extended highlights so you don’t need to watch the entire 3-6 hour stage. Search “2025 Tour de France Stage #”.
Instead of me explaining it all, here are a couple of ‘explainer’ videos that I think you’ll enjoy and find informative.