Le Tour de France is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while occasionally passing through nearby countries.
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37 Facts About Le Tour
2.
The Le Tour is a UCI World Le Tour event, which means that the teams that compete in the race are mostly UCI WorldTeams, with the exception of the teams that the organizers invite.
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3.
Le Tour was a prominent cyclist and owner with Victor Goddet of the velodrome at the Parc des Princes.
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4.
Such was the passion that the first Le Tour created in spectators and riders that Desgrange said the 1904 Le Tour de France would be the last.
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5.
The Le Tour was again disrupted by War after 1939, and did not return until 1947.
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6.
In 1944, L'Auto was closed—its doors nailed shut—and its belongings, including the Le Tour, sequestrated by the state for publishing articles too close to the Germans.
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7.
Le Tour made Felix Levitan co-organizer of the Tour, and it was decided that Levitan would focus on the financial issues, while Jacques Goddet was put in charge of sporting issues.
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8.
The Le Tour returned to national teams for 1967 and 1968 as "an experiment".
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9.
The Le Tour returned to trade teams in 1969 with a suggestion that national teams could come back every few years, but this has not happened since.
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10.
Le Tour was not successful in acquiring more funds, and was fired within one year.
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11.
In 1988, the Le Tour was organised by Jean-Pierre Courcol, the director of L'Equipe, then in 1989 by Jean-Pierre Carenso and then by Jean-Marie Leblanc, who in 1989 had been race director.
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12.
In 1993 ownership of L'Equipe moved to the Amaury Group, which formed Amaury Sport Organisation to oversee its sports operations, although the Le Tour itself is operated by its subsidiary the Societe du Le Tour de France.
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13.
Le Tour won the time trials by such dominating margins that virtually nobody could compete with him, and as a result he became the first rider to win five Tours in a row.
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14.
In July 2008, the Le Tour reconfirmed his victory but with an asterisk label to indicate his doping offences.
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15.
Not long after the Le Tour was over Landis was accused of doping and had his Le Tour win revoked.
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16.
In 2011, Cadel Evans became the first Australian to win the Le Tour after coming up just short several times in the previous few editions.
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17.
Le Tour won the mountains and young rider classifications again; thus winning three distinctive jerseys in consecutive years.
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18.
The Le Tour has five categories for ranking the mountains the race covers.
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19.
Souvenir Henri Desgrange, in memory of the founder of the Le Tour, is awarded to the first rider over the Col du Galibier where his monument stands, or to the first rider over the highest col in the Le Tour.
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21.
The first to sign to precede the Le Tour was the chocolate company, Menier, one of those who had followed the race.
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22.
The modern Le Tour restricts the excesses to which advertisers are allowed to go but at first anything was allowed.
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23.
The Le Tour has since started in Germany four times: in Cologne in 1965, in Frankfurt in 1980, in West Berlin on the city's 750th anniversary in 1987, and in Dusseldorf in 2017.
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24.
Le Tour was first followed only by journalists from L'Auto, the organisers.
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25.
Le Tour was shown first on cinema newsreels a day or more after the event.
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26.
Le Tour was joined in following seasons by an analyst for the mountain stages and by a commentator following the competitors by motorcycle.
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30.
The 1965 Le Tour was filmed by Claude Lelouch in Pour un Maillot Jaune.
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31.
Le Tour said he had used skin cream containing triamcinolone to treat saddle sores.
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32.
Le Tour's admission meant the top three in 1996 were all linked to doping, two admitting cheating.
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33.
Twice the Le Tour was won by a racer who never wore the yellow jersey until the race was over.
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34.
Le Tour has been won three times by racers who led the general classification on the first stage and holding the lead all the way to Paris.
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35.
The smallest margins between the winner and the second placed cyclists at the end of the Le Tour is 8 seconds between winner Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon in 1989.
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36.
Le Tour was the fourth and most recent rider to win a stage by more than 20 minutes.
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37.
L'Etape du Le Tour is an organised mass participation cyclosportive event that allows amateur cyclists to race over the same route as a Le Tour de France stage.
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