Le+Tour+de+France

The Tour de France is an extremely gruelling bicycle race that originally began just over one hundred years ago in 1903. The competition takes place every year in July and lasts for about three weeks. The race is divided into approximately 20 daily stages of between 50 to 200 miles each, with the whole course covering anything up to 2,500 miles in total! There are some really demanding uphill stretches through the country's mountainous regions too. Although the race always finishes at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, its route often takes riders into neighbouring countries such as Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg.

Find out more about the history of this event by listening to this podcast from the Sunderland primary MFL team.

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 As you will have discovered in the podcast above, there are four special, coloured jerseys that riders compete for each day. The yellow jersey (or maillot jaune) is the most sought after and is worn by the rider with the quickest overall time. The green jersey (or maillot vert) is worn by the rider who finished quickest in the day's sprint section. The polka dot jersey (or maillot à pois rouges) is awarded to the fastest mountain cyclist. Finally the white jersey (or maillot blanc) is worn by the best placed young rider under 26 years old.



You can find out lots more by reading the information on the [|Just 4 Kids] section of the French Embassy's website or if you want to know about the history of this world-famous sporting event in more detail then follow any of these links: [|1903-1914], [|1919-1929], [|1930-1939], [|1947-1956], [|1957-1966], [|1967-1977], [|1978-1984], [|1985-1990], [|1991-1995], [|1996-2000]

Here are the daily television reports of the 2009 Tour de France - why not take a look? media type="custom" key="5182341"

And here is a [|list of all the winners names] so far. You will notice that some competitiors have won the title more than once. In fact, an American athlete called [|Lance Armstrong] has set a world record for winning the Tour de France an unbelievable seven times!

It remains to be seen who will win the [|2010 Tour de France], which this year begins in Rotterdam in the Netherlands and runs from the 3rd to the 25th of July.

Here's the 2010 route in 3D... media type="custom" key="5224273"