Bicycle Racing

A top-of-the-line racing bicycle as used by the TdF riders is quite expensive.

If you want one, expect to pay at least 10 000 USD or 6 000 EUR or about the same in GBP for one. Probablyquite a bit more.

TdF isn't raced on a national basis.

All the competitors are professional riders that race for a team, and it's the team - not a country - that claims the glory of a win.

TdF isn't a race between nations, it's a race between teams of professional riders. These teams will usually have members of several different nationalities.

While a team may be based in France, and even have majority of French riders, it's still not a team officially representing France.

At speed, if they have to. They'll move to the outside of the pack, use the stretchiness of their riding gear to get their parts out, get out of the saddle, turn sideways and let it flow.

Then they'll hope that their relief will enable them to catch up with the pack again.
on the side of the road.

The Tour De France is annual Cycle race taking a route around France

It is raced by Professional Cycle Teams each having a Sponsor.

The Tour De France is the Worlds largest Cycle Race and the Worlds

largest Televised Annual Sporting Event

The Race is very long and sometimes vias off into other neighbouring countrys

but the Race its self is a bicycle race around France. The Route is changed and planned each Year and the Race is 3 weeks long with a number of Rest Days for the Riders.

See related link to help you find out more about the Tour.

It's a long - both in time and distance - bicycle race that's held - mainly in France - for
It is a multi-stage bicycle race that goes on for nearly 3 weeks mainly in the mountains between France, Italy and Spain.

This year - 2010 - is the 97th Tour, though the event began in 1903 (it wasn't held during the two World Wars).

in 2012 the Tour de France was cycled for the 99th time.
They have one every year, with it lasting 23 days. The first event was in 1903, but there have been 10 cancellations due to the 2 world wars, so there have only been 98 editions in 108 years.
I think there are 108
108

GREG LEMOND.

JOCK BOYER was the first American to compete at least in modern times
Greg LaMond
In 1986, Greg LeMond from Reno Nevada, became the first American to win the Tour de France. He also won in 1989 and 1990 after having to take a break from cycling in 1987 to recover from wounds he received when he was accidentally shot by his brother-in-law while they were out hunting.

The Tour de France was originally staged in 1903 as a publicity event by the French sports newspaper L'Auto. Let's go back and look at a slice of history. The most popular sports newspaper in France just after the turn of the 20th century was Le Vélo. At the time, France was awash in nation debate over the innocence or guilt of a soldier (Alfred Dreyfus) who was accused of selling secrets to the Germans. The general stance of the paper was that Lieutenant-colonel Dreyfus was innocent, but a number of advertisers loudly differed. These advertisers banded together to form their own magazine, L'Auto (which later became L'Équipe). A popular cycling even of the time was the Paris-Brest et retour, which was promoted by Pierre Giffard, editor of Le Vélo. In an effort to compete with that event and promote themselves and L'Auto, the idea of the Tour de France arose. The story is that Albert de Dion, the point man among the advertisers who formed the paper, came up with the idea of with Henri Desgrange, the editor, following lunch on the 20th of November in 1902. L'Auto announced and began promoting the race on the 19th of January in 1903, and history records the rest.
The best answer is to be found on the link below.
Le Tour de France (la Tour de France means "the Tower of France," but it's a common mistake so don't worry!) was "invented" by Geo Lefevre in 1902.

In those days, sporting events were often organised to boost sales of magazines and other publications. Lefevre had been persuaded to work with a newspaper called L'Auto by its owner as a rugby and cycling journalist. However, L'Auto'scirculation was poor and a meeting was held on 20th November to come up with ideas to promote it. Lefevre, who spoke last at the meeting, proposed the idea of organising the Tour and staging it the following year, 1903. He later claimed that he had only suggested it because he couldn't think of anything else to say.
Henri Desgrange