Speaker: Simply put the Tour de France is the biggest cycling event of the season. Traditionally
held in the month of July Le Tour sees the best riders in the world battle across 21 stages around
France for the ultimate prize in cycling, the yellow jersey. Now, if you've not watched any bike
racing before the Tour can seem pretty confusing. Three weeks of racing, different winners every
day, and a lot of different colored jerseys, it's hard to follow. We're gonna break it down in this
beginner's guide to the Tour de France. [music]
What is the Tour? Well, the Tour de France is one of three grand tours of cycling and
it is the biggest, most prestigious race on the calendar. No questions asked. As a grand tour,
the Tour de France consists of 21 individual stages spread across three weeks and each stage
is timed which is how the race leader and eventual overall winner is decided.
The rolling total amount of accumulated time is known as the general classification. In addition
to the general classification or the GC as it's commonly referred to. The first rider across the
line on each stage is crowned the stage winner. The Tour usually includes two rest days where
there's no racing that takes place although the riders do go out and take a spin to keep the
legs moving. They take these days off to ensure that the riders are able to recover 100% so that
they can race as hard as they can in the coming days to make the race as exciting as possible.
The Tour has been running since 1903 with the only interruptions being from World War I
and World War II making the 2020 race the 107th edition. Le Tour takes place in France however
occasionally the route does start in a neighboring country such as Belgium, The Netherlands, United
Kingdom, and elsewhere. The first few stages of the race typically take place in that country
but then they make their way over towards France for the start which is known as the Grand Depart.
[music] All right, the Tour
de France stages fall into one of five different categories. First up flat stages. These stages
usually have minimal climbing and are used to move the race between mountain ranges across the French
countryside. They're typically won by specialists that we call sprinters who will reach speeds in
excess of 70 kilometres per hour as they barrel towards the finish line in a super-fast finish.
Then we've got the mountainous stages. The mountain stages of the Tour are the main event
and the part of the race that everyone wants to be a part of, spectators and racers. These are
spread between the French Alps and the Pyrenees and these stages rack up thousands of meters of
climbing over the course of the three weeks. They can either end on the top of a huge mountain as a
summit finish or sometimes after a big hairpin descent after a big climb. These stages always
are really exciting and they typically are big deciding factors in the general classification.
Time trials. If you want to win the Tour de France you need to be a good
time trials. It's called the race against the clock because it's an individual effort in a time
stage where each riders go off in short one-minute intervals, one after another. Riders typically use
specific aerodynamic bikes and gear so that they can ride at their own pace as fast as possible.
Time trials can take place on any kind of terrain from super flat courses to rolling terrain and
even pure hill climbs. Time trials present a great opportunity for general classification contenders
to put significant time into their rivals. Team time trials are held in the same format as
individual time trials but they're raced by the entire team. Each team rolls out and rides in a
p-sign formation, imagine birds migrating in that big V format. This helps break the wind and keep
the pace super high to get to the finish line as fast as they can as a crew. The whole team
will start together and the final time that's awarded is to the fifth rider over the line,
but they typically start with eight riders. If they have eight riders minus three that's five.
They typically have three riders do what we used to call a turn and burn. Where they'll go as deep
as they absolutely possibly can peeling off just before the finish line to let the rest of the team
go on without them. Those riders will roll in on their own pace often minutes after in a sacrifice
for their team leader. The team time trial when done correctly looks like a well-oiled machine,
has huge advantages over other squads that struggle with this kind of event.
The overall winner of the Tour de France is an individual rider with the lowest cumulative time
at the end of the 21st stage which since 1975 has finished on the iconic Champs-Elysees in Paris.
[music] The massive group of riders at the
Tour is known as the peloton. The peloton is made up of 22 teams of 8 riders each giving a total of
176 riders at the start. Each team is made up of the best riders possible, making the tour a who's
who of cycling superstars every single year. These 22 teams include every single top tier World TTour
team as well as a handful of wild card second-tier Pro-Continental teams. The Pro-Continental teams
tend to have up-and-coming riders and they're considered to be smaller although super big teams.
This is a good chance for those teams, the Pro-Continental teams to show off their sponsors
at the biggest race of the season. To pit themselves against the big World Tour teams
and potentially make themselves appealing to the talent scouts that will look to sign them up
to the World Tour level in the coming season. Pro-Continental riders tend to animate the
race in breakaways to give their sponsors a lot more exposure as much as possible.
Teams will be centered typically around one or two riders designated as the team's leaders.
Teams typically commit to either a sprinter who will aim to win individual stages or a general
classification contender whose aim is to win the Tour de France overall. As well as the leader,
the rest of the team is made up of domestiques which literally translates to servants.
Domestiques ride in support of their team leader sacrificing their own chances of leadership and
helping the team achieve their goals. Domestiques often ride at the front of the bunch to set pace,
chase down attacks, shelter the leader from the wind, basically to preserve
the leader's energy reserves completely. Domestiques will also drop back to the
team cars to collect food, to get orders, to get bottles, clothing for their leaders,
should their leader even have a puncture on the side of the road where their car can't get to
them. They'll literally give them a wheel or their own bike to get them back in the race
as quickly as possible. While each stage only has one winner and the Tour overall is won by just one
rider, these victories are down to the impeccable teamwork of all eight teammates. Simply put nobody
can win the Tour de France on their own. It's just not possible. The old saying 'Teamwork makes the
dream work." [music]
The Tour is a beautiful dynamic kaleidoscope of colors rolling around France. This mix of
team jerseys made up of vibrant sponsor logos, exciting patterns in bold colorways truly is a
sight to behold. Amongst all of the regular team kits that you'll find out, meaning their clothing,
you'll find four particularly important jerseys awarded at the end of each stage to the leader of
one of four different classifications. [music]
The yellow jersey, le maillot jaune, is the most important and most prestigious, most iconic jersey
of the Tour de France. It represents the current leader of the general classification, the rider
with the lowest cumulative time over the course so far. The jersey is yellow in color thanks to the
French magazine, L’Auto, which originally promoted the race back in the early 20th century. It was
printed on distinctive yellow paper. Whoever wears this jersey at the end of stage 21 wins
the Tour de France overall. A lifetime of respect from their peers and the fans alike and with it
a €500,000 prize purse. [music]
The white jersey, le maillot blanc. The white jersey denotes the best young rider in the race.
This is the highest placed rider on the general classification aged under 25 of January 1st
in the given year of the race. It's possible to hold the yellow jersey and the white jersey at
the same time in which case the yellow jersey is prioritized, then the second-placed young rider on
the general classification would wear the white jersey. At the end of the Tour the best-placed
young rider takes home €20,000. [music]
The green jersey known as lumaio maillot vert is the sprinter's jersey. Throughout the race points
are awarded for the first rider across the finish line each day. The points available do vary though
depending on the day stage. In addition to these points each day's route is peppered with what
we call intermediate sprints which come before the finish line. This keeps the races exciting
start to finish. Sprint points are awarded at both the intermediate sprints and at the finish
line sprints and the rider with the most points at the end of the race wears the green jersey.
This jersey is normally won or worn by a sprinter who will accrue points from
winning stages, finishing regularly in the top 15 on stages they don't win and
in the high mountains. Fighting to get into breakaways so that they can secure
the intermediate sprints even on days when they have no chance of winning. The prize for the green
jersey is €25,000. [music]
The polka dot jersey, la maillot a pois rouges, in a similar fashion to the intermediates sprint.
At the summit of each significant climb points are awarded to the first few riders that reach
the top. The number of points available will vary depending on the classification of the climb.
The harder the climb the more more points that are on offer. The rider with the most mountain
points will wear the polka dot jersey and take home €25,000 at the end of the tour.
Let's talk about sprinters. Sprinters usually aim to win flat stages, sheltering themselves
from the wind behind their teammates all day. Trying to remain near the front of the pack,
staying out of trouble, avoiding splits caused by technical sections, course changes, wind,
crashes, all kinds of stuff. Sprinters literally though if they're great they never touch the wind
and they're always lurking at the front of the peloton. Right up until the final few hundred
meters. Where they burst out from behind their teammates who will have offered them a big lead
out to break the wind for them so that they can produce an absolute maximum effort in the sprint
towards the finish line. Sprinters also produce huge amounts
of power for a short period of time and they go super fast. Being a sprinter is a very unique and
dangerous job. Riders who win sprints often struggle to compete in the high mountains.
You don't typically hear of a sprinter-climber in the same description. At the end of the tour,
sprinters tend to be hours behind the overall winners on the general classification, even though
they may have won several stages along the tour. Mountain stages will be won by pure climbing
specialists. These riders make a career of climbing and they do it fast. Climbers are
often riders that will be aiming to win the tour overall but the race also has climbers in it that
have no interest in the yellow jersey. They just have purely an aim to win summit finishes and
mountain stages. A rider who wants to win the tour overall needs to be able to climb in the mountains
really good as well. As they have the potential to create massive gaps in the bunch and cause their
rivals to lose a lot of time on the general classification, in one quick fell swoop.
Individual time trials are particularly important in stage racing. There will usually be at least
one in each edition of the Tour de France. Some additions have featured two, three or even more.
Most team leaders who are aiming to win the general classification at the tour will need to
be able to produce a good time trial. A time trial typically lasts between 30 minutes to an hour and
riders have the potential though to gain minutes on their rivals if they're really good at TT.
A general classification contender with the skill in the time trial will have a huge advantage over
a GC contender who relies solely on being able to climb in the mountains quickly to gain time.
Aside from the time trials, all stages offer time bonuses for the first three riders over
the finish line. Ten, six and four seconds for first, second and third places respectively.
While this doesn't sound like a lot, the overall tour has been decided by as little
as eight seconds over the course of three weeks so every second really does count.
Sadly at the moment there is no women's La Tour de France. The closest the women's peloton comes
to a three-week grand tour is at the Giro Rosa which is a 10-day stage race in Italy
usually also held in July. A.S.O, the company that organizes the Tour de France
also hosts la course by Le tour de France, a woman's one day race that's held on the
same route as one stage from the men's race. For a number of years, this was a flat circuit
around the Champs-Élysées in Paris which usually was decided by a large bunch sprint.
I think we can all agree that a true women's La Tour de France would change the face of women's
cycling forever and would be a massive step forward towards a truly equal sport. I know
personally it'd be an incredible thing to be able to watch and come to life.
Okay, I got the bug, how can I watch this? Well, our favorite place to watch the tour
is of course on the GCN race pass but perhaps we're a little bit biased. Along with the tour,
we have loads of other great racing year round, but GCN's new race pass has everything that you
would want. It's got all kinds of features like stage profiles, start list, daily highlights,
post race analysis and a ton of other good stuff. It has pretty much everything you
could need whether you're a seasoned spectator or a first-time follower of any bike race. That's it.
That's the Tour de France. The big show, the main event, literally the biggest event of the year in
the cycling world. The tour is a great place to start if you've never watched bike racing before.
If you guys enjoyed this video, give us a thumbs up and if you know
someone who's just gotten into cycling and might be curious about bike racing and the tour,
send them this video, get them excited. Thank you guys all so much for watching
and we'll see you next time [00:14:32] [END OF AUDIO]