The tour de France was created in 1903 by cyclist and reporter Henri Desgrange and celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2013.
It has been called the greatest free show on earth and is watched by 3.5 billion people worldwide during it’s three weeks on television. Le Tour has spawned a thousand myths and legends and inspires passionate devotion and enthusiasm.
Here are some of the more strange Tour de France trivia snippets we’ve been able to dig up on this most amazing of cycle races
The longest Tour was in 1926 – an incredible 5,745 km
The average Tour de France rider will burn around 124,000 calories during the course of the race. The average man needs 2,500 calories per day, the average Tour de France rider consumes 150% more than that!
The oldest winner of the race was Firmin Lambot in 1922 – he was 36 years old.
The youngest winner of the race was Henri Cornet in 1904, he was nineteen years old.
Bikes must not weigh less than 6.8kg (any lighter and they are considered dangerous)
Queen singer Freddie Mercury wrote “Bicycle Race” in 1978, inspired by the Tour de France
The average rider will get through three bike chains during the course
The smallest winning margin was 8 seconds in 1989 (American Greg LeMond, followed closely by Laurent Fignon). Another strange fact – Greg LeMond was accidentally shot by his brother-in-law while out hunting, two months before the start of the 1987 Tour de France
The biggest winning margin was in 1952 between Fausto Coppi of Italy who beat Stan Ockers by 28 minutes and 27 seconds
Number of pedal strokes taken per rider over the Tour – a staggering 324,000 at 60rpm or 486,000 at 90rpm (explains the huge calorie burn rate)
Gino Bartali of Italy holds the record for the longest time span between titles – 1938 and 1948 respectively
More fun Tour de France facts
Vive the Tour de France!
What are all the jerseys about?
