TOUR de FRANCE

TOUR de FRANCE

2007 Tour de France champion
Alberto Contador stands between
Cadel Evans and Levi Leipheimer.
AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski

The Tour de France (French for "Tour of France"), often referred to as La Grande Boucle, Le Tour or The Tour, is the most famous and prestigious road bicycle race in the world. It has been held annually since 1903, interrupted only by World War I and World War II, and is contested over the course of three weeks each July. It is a long-distance stage race competition for professional cycling teams, travelling through France and its nearby countries. The winner is the individual rider who finishes the course of the race in the least accumulated time.

Other major stage races include the Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) and the Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain). The Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and World Cycling Championship constitute the Triple Crown of Cycling. While the other two European Grand Tours are well-known in Europe and attract many professional cyclists, they are relatively unknown outside the continent, and even the UCI World Cycling Championship is only familiar to cycling enthusiasts. The Tour de France, in contrast, has long been a household name around the globe, even amongst people who are not generally interested in pro cycling, and is for cycling what the FIFA World Cup is to football (soccer) in terms of global popularity. The race is the world's largest annual pro sporting event, measured in the number of viewers.