X-Nico

18 unusual facts about Tour de France


Abdel-Kader Zaaf

He participated four times in the Tour de France, for the first time in 1948, and then in 1950, 1951 and for the last time in 1952.

Alcyon

Also in 1906 it founded the professional Alcyon cycling team which was active until 1955, including winning the Tour de France 6 times.

Conrad Earnest

With respect to the high performance athlete, Earnest has published several notable papers with colleagues from Spain examining the physiologic characteristics of professional cyclists competing in the three-week Grand Tours of cycling: The Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, and the Vuelta a España.

Dave Moulton

Moulton's bicycles have been ridden in more than 20 world championships, in major races including the Tour de France, and in Olympic events.

Elsy Jacobs

Born in Garnich, Luxembourg, Elsy Jacobs was one of many children; three of her brothers were also racing cyclists, Roger, Raymond and Edmond Jacobs (who competed in the Tour de France).

Eltham High School

The school has produced Tour de France winning cyclist Cadel Evans, footballer Peter Moore, Victorian cricketer Lloyd Mash, Seven Network newsreader Jennifer Adams, actor and musician Ben Mendelsohn, actress Emily Browning, Australian actress and cinema icon Kerry Armstrong, and Australian comedian and radio / television personality Merrick Watts of Merrick & Rosso.

Freya North

Polly, about a teacher exchange trip between America and England, was published in 1998 and Cat, about a sports journalist covering the Tour de France, in 2000.

George William Beatty

By 1923, he constructed a racing motorcycle that won the Tour de France.

Loveland Bike Trail

The Tour de Loveland, an annual cycling race named after the Tour de France, was started in the 1990s, to promote the Loveland Bike Trail as the centerpiece of Historic Downtown Loveland.

Major Nichols

He was a vice-president of the Hill Top Cycling Club and at its 21st anniversary dinner in 1956 he presented one of his early track frames to the first Briton to finish the Tour de France, Brian Robinson.

Masterseek

On July 5, 2007, Masterseek announced they were cosponsors to Team CSC, Denmark's cycling team, beginning with the team's involvement in the Tour de France.

Methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin beta

On July 17, 2008, Italian bicycle racer Riccardo Riccò was kicked out of the Tour de France after reports that a urine sample tested positive for Mircera.

Sombre

The film deals with Jean (Marc Barbé), a serial killer who follows the Tour de France cycling race in his car and murders women (mostly prostitutes) along his way.

The Armstrong Lie

Following a doping investigation that led to his lifetime ban from competition and the stripping of his seven Tour de France titles, Armstrong went back to Gibney to set the record straight about his career.

Ton van Engelen

Since 1996 he has been working for the Rabobank team and in 2007 he was honoured by the organiser for being active in his twentieth Tour de France.

Tour de France Soundtracks

The album was recorded for the 100th anniversary of the first Tour de France bicycle race, although it missed its intended release date for the actual tour.

Waze

In June 2013, Waze introduced a global localization project that will enable future road closures and real-time traffic updates during major events in a given country, for example Tour de France.

Yellow Shirts

The Yellow jersey is worn by the current leader in some cycling races, including the Tour de France


Anthony McCrossan

He has commentated live, and voiced over thousands of hours of television, covering all the major races in the world including The Tour De France, Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a España, Tour of California and every major classic including Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, Liege Bastogne Liege, Amstel Gold, Milan San Remo, as well as the World Road and Track Championships.

Armen Keteyian

He served as a reporter for CBS's coverage of the 1998 FedEx Orange Bowl, the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano and has been the host and co-writer of the Tour de France (2001–05).

Banesto

Outside of Spain, it is remembered as the sponsor of a cycling team that featured Miguel Indurain, the first rider to win five consecutive Tours de France.

Bekim Christensen

He switched to Team Coast in 2000 where he rode with the big names of two-time Vuelta a España winner Alex Zülle and Tour de France stage winner Fernando Escartín.

Bike boom

In the United Kingdom, 2012 is cited by the British press as a bike boom period, fuelled by the successes of the Tour de France and the Olympic Games by its cyclists.

BMC Racing Team

The team signed a number of major international riders for the 2010 season, including 2009 World Champion, two-time Tour de France runner-up and 2011 winner Cadel Evans, 2009 U.S. Road Race Champion George Hincapie, 2008 World Champion Alessandro Ballan and Spring Classics specialists Karsten Kroon and Marcus Burghardt.

Bryan Malessa

He is also editor of Re/mapping the Occident (University of California, 1995) and a journalist whose best-known piece is a widely cited career retrospective interview “Once Was King” with World Champion and three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond.

David Wiens

David Wiens is known most for his six consecutive wins in the Leadville Trail 100 MTB mountain bike race including defeating both Floyd Landis and Lance Armstrong of Tour de France infamy.

Eddy Schepers

During the following year, Schepers was instrumental in Roche winning the 1987 Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France in supporting him on the road and also against the rest of the team who wanted the Italian Roberto Visentini to win the Giro d'Italia.

Éditions Philippe Amaury

Amaury Sport Organisation is one of the largest promoters of sports events in France, including the Tour de France and Paris–Roubaix bicycle races, the Paris–Dakar Rally, the Paris Marathon and the Open de France golf tournament.

Euskaltel

The team, one of eighteen elite teams making up the UCI ProTour, is a regular participant in the annual Tour de France and Vuelta a España, and has helped launch the careers of many top Basque riders such as Iban Mayo and Haimar Zubeldia.

Félicia Ballanger

Her mother named her Félicia after the Italian Tour de France winner Felice Gimondi and her brother, Frédéric, after the Spanish winner, Federico Bahamontes).

Ferrari 250 GT Lusso

Although it was not intended to compete, the 250 GT Lusso made a few appearances in several sporting events in 1964 and 1965, such as the Targa Florio and the Tour de France.

Gérard Holtz

From 1985 to 1992, he presents Stade 2 where he comments the sport and is well known for his interviews after the race of the Tour de France since 1985 and the comments of the Dakar Rally since 1994.

Hayden Roulston

In September 2008, Roulston announced that he would be riding for Cervélo TestTeam in 2009, with riders including reigning Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre and multiple Tour de France stage winner Thor Hushovd.

Holme Moss

For many years the (now defunct) Leeds Classic race saw internationally renowned riders (many of them, such as Bjarne Riis, veterans of the Tour de France, hence the moniker Le Col de Moss) tackling the climb.

Jeroen Blijlevens

In 1997, he finished second to Erik Zabel in the sixth stage of the Tour de France, but when the jury disqualified Zabel for irregular sprinting, the victory was given to Blijlevens.

José Luis Rubiera

His climbing ability was instrumental in leading Lance Armstrong to five of his Tour de France victories, most famously leading Armstrong up the start of Alpe d'Huez in 2001.

José Ramón de la Morena

De la Morena began as a journalist at Radio Intercontinental, but in 1981 he moved to the sports department of the Cadena SER, where he covered the football world cup, La Liga tournament, the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España.

Juan José Cobo

In 2008, still with Saunier Duval, he made a quieter start to the season but finished second in the Tour de France Hautacam stage, behind his teammate Leonardo Piepoli.

Juan Miguel Mercado

At the Tour de France, Mercado won Stage 18 at the 2004 Tour and captured a surprise win on Stage 10 (the first mountain stage) of the 2006 Tour de France in an early breakaway with Cyril Dessel (Ag2r Prévoyance).

La Hourquette d'Ancizan

La Hourquette d'Ancizan was first used in the Tour de France on stage 12 of the 2011 tour, when the leader over the summit was Laurent Mangel.

Laurent Brochard

In 1997 he won a stage of the Tour de France and became world road champion in San Sebastián, Spain.

Luis León Sánchez

He also rode his second Tour de France, and won Stage 7 after counterattacking, having been in a breakaway that was caught by the peloton.

Martin Earley

The highlight of his career was a stage win in the 1989 Tour de France when he broke clear of three riders 750m from the end of 157 km from Labastide-d'Armagnac to Pau.

Mauro Ribeiro

In the 1991 Tour de France, he became the first Brazilian cyclist to win a stage in the Tour de France.

Mount Washington Auto Road

The hillclimb's most notable victor to date has been former Tour de France contender Tyler Hamilton.

PureBlack Racing

Lead by America’s Cup yachtsman, Star Class World Champion and Olympian, Carl Williams, PureBlack Racing competed in UCI’s US Continental Tour in 2011 with the ultimate aim of becoming a ProTour Team with entry to the Tour de France by 2015.

Reinforcement

Real world example: "If Lance Armstrong is going to win the Tour de France he has to pedal x number of times during the y-hour race."

Viking tour

Like the professionals` Tour de France, the route is changed every year but will typically include several UNESCO World Heritage Sites and places popular with tourists such as Geiranger, Nærøyfjorden, Sognefjell, Sognefjord and Aurland.