Tour
France
An elite multi-day men's bicycle road race
organized by Amaury Sport Organisation
de
The 2023 Tour begins in Spain
Most of the race is held within France, with some Tours having segments that visit nearby countries
A tour of France... and beyond
2023 Route
*
Yellow Jersey: Overall individual leader
White Jersey: Best young rider (under 26)
Green Jersey: Points leader (typically sprinters)
Red Polka Dot Jersey: Best climber (mountains)
What the Jersey colors mean
Yellow Jersey
Overall Leader
White Jersey
Young Rider
Green Jersey
Polka Dot Jersey
Points Leader
Mountains
Won on total time
Won on total points
3
Weeks of riding
2
Rest Days
21
Stages
Started by Henri Desgrange as a way to drum up sales of his newspaper, L'Auto.
2
At 2428 km/ 1509 miles this was the shortest race distance overall, but the stages were brutally long, more than twice as long than modern day races. Only 1/3 of the 60 riders that participated finished the race.
The First Tour de France
6 Stages averaging 400 km each, almost 250 miles.
60 riders participated, 21 finished
The original Tour route
3
That makes this race older than flight
July 1903
The main body of riders in a bicycle race
4
peloton
(noun)
Wright brothers first manned
airplane flight, December 1903
1
Mountain ranges in France
Riders will cover
5
Riders traverse flat, hilly and mountain terrain
4
Hilly sections
There has never been a race where all participants have finished.
8
Mountain sections
Average completion rate
8
Flat sections
1
Time Trial
2023 course:
60%
That's the equivalent of nearly 1000 flights of stairs
The peak is Col de la Loze in the French Alps at 2,304m (7,560 feet)
33%
of riders
Finished the 1926 race
1926: 3570 Miles/ 5745 km
42% Decrease
1903: 1509 Miles/ 2428 km
2022: 2068 Miles/ 3328 km
42% decline in distance since the peak in 1926
That is about 150 miles longer than Route 66 from Chicago, IL to Santa Monica, CA.
5
Average distance
4188 km
2600 miles
2448 miles
77%
of riders
Finished the 2022 race
2022: 41.8 km/h| 26 mph
1924: 24 km/h|15 mph
74% Increase
Fastest Individual Time Trial stage
74% increase in average speed of winning rider from the low in 1924 to the winner in 2022
Average speed of winning rider
Fastest Non-Time Trial stage
Average speed of a rabbit
Average speed of a lion
Losing by a hair? That's a drag!
In 1989 Laurent Fignon lost by 8 seconds- the closest margin ever.
An experiment would later suggest his pony tail caused additional air pressure drag costing him the victory.
8
6
7
34 km/h
21 mph
40 km/h
50 km/h
55 km/h
60 km/h
25 mph
31 mph
34 mph
37 mph
Additional resources used
All 2023 Tour de France route info (excluding map) from official Tour de France website: https://www.letour.fr/en. Accessed July 17, 2023.
* 2023 Tour Route Map: Andrei Loas, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons. Accessed 7/21/23. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d1/Route_of_the_2023_
Tour_de_France.png/360px-Route_of_the_2023_Tour_de_France.png
1 Wright Brothers airplane flight:
1903 Wright Flyer. National Air and Space museum. Accessed July 17, 2023. https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/1903-wright-flyer/nasm_A19610048000?object=nasm_A19610048000
Image used:
"Wright _First_Flight." John T. Daniels, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wright_first_flight.tif
2 Henri Degrange L'Auto history:
Bike Race Info. http://www.bikeraceinfo.com/tdf/tdf1903.html#story. Accessed July 17, 2023
3 1903 (and 1904) Tour route map:
"Tour de France 1904 map-fr". Accessed July 17, 2023.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tour_de_France_1904_map-fr.svg
Tour_de_France_1904.png: *France_blank.png: Stingderivative work: EdgeNavidad (talk)derivative work: Cj73, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons
Data analysis and infographic by Selena Vaughn. July 2023. SelenaVaughn.com
Thank you to Maven Analytics for providing the dataset for this Infographic challenge:
https://www.mavenanalytics.io/challenges/maven-tour-de-france-challenge/25
4 Peloton definition: Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Accessed July 17, 2023
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/peloton.
5 Route 66 length:
U.S. Route 66. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_66
See footnote 4 for total distance mileposts: "A Table of Mileposts for the Original
U.S. 66 Alignment of 1926." Accessed July 17, 2023.
http://www.stjo66.de/mileposts_1926.htm
Route 66 map image used: "Historic Route 66." Encyclopædia Britannica. Accessed July 17, 2023.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Route-66#/media/1/1669107/144748
6 Animal speed Facts:
All Animal Facts. Accessed July, 17, 2023
https://allanimalfacts.com/average-animals-running-speed/
7 Speed records- time trial and non-time trial stage times:
Miller, Travis. Flobikes. Fastest Stages in Tour De France History. August 22, 2020. Accessed July 17, 2023.
https://www.flobikes.com/articles/6778101-fastest-stages-in-tour-de-france-history
8 Losing by a hair- Laurent Fignon:
Digges, Charles. Nautilus. Losing By A Hair. June 30, 2023. Accessed July 17, 2023.
https://nautil.us/winning-by-a-hair-341059/
Photo:
Anders. "Laurent Fignon, Tour De France 1989." Flickr. December 19, 2010.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/40365317@N06/5273104813
