The Tour de France has a long and colourful history dating back to the first race in 1903.
The 2013 race is the 100th edition of La Grande Boucle and, by the time the peloton reaches Paris on Sunday July 21, the Tour will have covered 383,053km in total.
That’s just one of the facts plucked from the latest infographic: the history of the Tour de France in numbers, created for Cycling Shorts by RoadCyclingUK.
Our friends at RoadCyclingUK are partnering with Cycling Shorts during the Tour de France to bring you a series of infographics about the legendary race. Today we are looking at race favourite Chris Froome of Team Sky.
Our friends at RoadCyclingUK are partnering with Cycling Shorts during the Tour de France to bring you a series of infographics about the legendary race. Here’s number 2 in the series.
Our partners at RoadCyclingUK are bringing Cycling Shorts a series of infographics to provide you with stats and morsels of facts throughout the 100th edition of the Tour de France.
Here’s the first in the series looking at the tour stage by stage:
Rest days have been a part of the Giro since its inaugural edition in 1909. Back then, riders would ride one stage and then have two, sometimes three, days between the next stage. It’s not hard to see why: in 1909, the average length of the eight stages was 306 kilometres, as opposed to 162 kilometres across 21 stages in 2013.
This year’s Giro will have two rest days – the first after stage nine, the second follows stage 15. Two rest days have been customary in the race since 2002, although as recently as 1998, the Giro was held without a single day off across the three weeks.
Although riders will not be racing on the rest days, they will still ride their bikes for one or two hours. This prevents muscle stiffness and will help flesh out metabolic waste from the previous day’s stage. In recent years, some teams have opted to ride on their turbo trainers as opposed to heading out onto the road.
Riders will continue to eat foods high in carbohydrates and proteins on rest days, although some teams in the past have been known to give their riders a treat if the final rest day falls after the last decisive stage on the general classification. Burger and chips is a favourite within the Garmin-Sharp team.
Throughout the three weeks of competition (3-26 May) Multipower Sportsfood, is also offering cycle fans the chance to get their hands on a variety of prizes in an easy to enter daily prediction competition. Prizes include signed race jerseys, Giro d’Italia drinks bottles and the ultimate prize of a Cannondale Pro Cycling Super Six EVO Team Edition professional race bike worth £6,499. To take part in the competition entrants simply need to visit the Multipower website, www.multipower.com/uk/giro , and vote for their stage favourite before the 10km to go marker.
The last five editions of the Giro have ended with a final day time trial, although only in 2012 did the race leadership change hands, as Ryder Hesjedal took the maglia rosa away from Joaquim Rodriguez to become the first Canadian Grand Tour winner. The 2013 Giro breaks away from the recent tradition and will end with a road stage from Riese Pio X to the old Roman city of Brescia.
The 2013 Giro features 75.4 kilometres of individual time trialling, which is more than the 2011 and 2012 races combined. 2008 was the last time the race included more kilometres against the clock (80.7km).
Five-time Giro champion Alfredo Binda was the winner of the first time trial in the Giro in 1933. The Italian won the 62-kilometre stage from Bologna to Ferrara en route to the last of his overall wins in the race.
Ever wondered why some riders have energy gels hanging out of their shorts during time trials? Because of the intensity of time trials, the top riders will not have time to take any food from their team cars during the stage. Also, the skinsuits they wear for improved aerodynamic performance will not have any pockets, so putting them under their lyrca is the most convenient place.
Throughout the three weeks of competition (3-26 May) Multipower Sportsfood, is also offering cycle fans the chance to get their hands on a variety of prizes in an easy to enter daily prediction competition. Prizes include signed race jerseys, Giro d’Italia drinks bottles and the ultimate prize of a Cannondale Pro Cycling Super Six EVO Team Edition professional race bike worth £6,499. To take part in the competition entrants simply need to visit the Multipower website, www.multipower.com/uk/giro , and vote for their stage favourite before the 10km to go marker.
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