Tour de France is an annual multiple stage bicycle race primarily held in France although occasionally passes through nearby countries. Since its inception in 1903, the race has held every year excepting during the World Wars.
The race is held over 23 days during a summer month (usually July) and covers about 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles). The game employs a team format, with each team having about nine riders. About 20-22 team teams compete in the competition, and these are mostly drawn from the UCI WorldTeams, with the exception of the teams that the organisers invite.
All of the stages of the race are timed to the finish; the riders’ times are compounded with their previous stage times. The rider with the lowest cumulative finishing times is the leader of the race and wears the maillot jaune or yellow jersey.
2017 Tour de Francee specifics
According to organiser’s website, the race this year, which is the 104th edition will run from Saturday 1st July to Sunday, 23rd July 2017. The competition will comprise of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,540 kilometres. It will also include a total of 23 mountains climbs or hills and altitude finishes ranked in second, first or HC class.
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- – 9 flat stages
- – 5 hilly stages
- – 5 mountain stages including altitude finishes (La Planche des Belles Filles, Peyragudes, Izoard)
- – 2 individual time-trials stages
- – 2 rest days
The geographic distribution will be as follow:
- – 1 in the Vosges
- – 6 in the Jura
- – 8 in the Pyrénées
- – 2 in the Massif central
- – 6 in the Alps
German’s Marcel Kittel won a sprint finish on stage 11 to take his fifth stage victory of this year’s Tour de France 
Briton Geraint Thomas (left) helped fellow Briton Chris Froome in his quest to win the Tour de France before crashing out in stage nine. Photo from BBC Sport Distinctive aspects of the race
The 104th Tour de France will visit three neighbouring countries: Germany, Belgium and Luxemburg. In France, 34 countries will be visited.
25 years after…
It hadn’t happened since 1992. The five main mountain ranges of France will be on the program in 2017. The Tour will visit, in the following order, the Vosges, the Jura, the Pyrenees, the Massif Central and the Alps. The highlight will be the very first stage finish at the top of the Col d’Izoard.opening and (almost) finish in solo
It’ll be after a 14-kilometre time-trial in the streets of Düsseldorf that the first Yellow Jersey of the 2017 Tour de France will be awarded. In Marseille, after the 20th and penultimate stage, a 22.5-kilometre time-trial, the winner of the 104th edition of the Grande Boucle will be crowned.Points
The green jersey will be awarded to the leader of the points classification. These points will be given out at the finishes of each stage as well as on the unique intermediate sprints of normal stages.
The polka-dot jersey will be on the shoulders of the leader of the best climbers’ classification. Points will be awarded at the top of each Col or Côte and the three altitude finishes (La Planche des Belles Filles, Peyragudes, Izoard).
10 new sites and stage cities- Mondorf-les-Bains (start of stage 4)
- ?Nuits-Saint-Georges (finish of stage 7)
- Nantua (start of stage 9)
- Eymet (start of stage 11)
- ?Laissac-Sévérac l’Église (start of stage 15)
- Romans-sur-Isère (finish of stage 16)
- La Mure (start of stage 17)
- ?Izoard (finish of stage 18)
- Salon-de-Provence (finish of stage 19)
The jerseys
Yellow – the coveted maillot jaune is worn by the rider how has taken the least cumulative time to complete the race after each stage and thus the overall Tour winner. The winner receives 500,000 euros (£440,000).
Green – worn by the leader of the points classification. The maillot vert rewards consistently high finishes with points being awarded for intermediate sprint and end-of-stage placings. The winner receives 25,000 euros (£22,000).
Polka dot – the maillot a pois is worn by the ‘King of the Mountains’. Points are awarded on categorised climbs with the harder ascents offering more points. The winner receives 25,000 euros (£22,000).
White – the maillot blanc has been awarded every year since 1975 and is open to riders aged 25 and under. If a rider is leading any other classification, that jersey takes precedence. The winner receives 20,000 euros (£17,600).
Other prizes
Each stage winner receives 11,000 euros (£9,680).
There is a ‘most combative rider’ prize, selected each day by a jury of four cycling experts. The rider is denoted by a red number on the following stage and the race’s most combative rider – super-combatif – is decided after the final stage and awarded 20,000 euros.
There is also a 50,000 euro (£44,000) prize for the best team performance, which is calculated by adding up the times of the first three riders on each team.
?Düsseldorf (1st stage and start of stage 2)
