What are the rules of the Tour de France?

Question

I started to watch it because my friends were watching it but when I did. I didn't understand why they kept referring to the " yellow jersey " and why they are in teams? I thought they race individually. And how many days do they cycle and if they cycle days, what reward does the leader at the end of each day get? How far do they cycle and who are the favorites and is it still going on or was I just watching reruns? Sorry I dont know a lot about cycling,

Answer 1

Velci



The TDF is a three week race. They will bike over two thousand miles. The route and its directions change every year. There are between 20 and 23 teams of 9 riders in the modern race. Cycling is a team race. A single rider could not win the modern race.... it IS a team sport. There are multiple competitions going on in the race. There is a daily race and daily winner. The other race is the cumulative race winners in sprinting (green jersey) , climber (Polka Dot jersey), best new rider under 23 (white jersey) and the overall / GC (Yellow).



Except for the time trial races, each daily race is over 125 miles. The race started one week ago, and will last for two more weeks. The excitement has just begun. The first few days are just a prelude to the real competitive days coming.



Enjoy your first TDF. You will learn, and look forward to more. Two more major races loom on the horizon. The Juelta de Espana and the US Pro-Tour. Enjoy!



SOccerref

Answer 2

The Tour de France is one of the Grand Tours of 21 days. The other being La Vuelta a Espanna and the Giro d'Italia.

The yellow jersey in the Tour, is the cyclist that is ahead on the General Classification, that is, the best time. Now, when a bunch of cyclists came in a bunch (peloton) all of them are awarded the same time to avoid individuals fighting for personal gains of 1/100 of a second, that helps with safety and keeping track.

They race in teams that are invited or selected out of those on international standing. In a team there are different specialists like climbers, sprinters, individual Time Trialists, team TT and domestiques ( they do a lot of work helping a sprinter specialist to get to the point where he can accelerate better than anybody in the team for a short burst of power. A team protect the leader from falls, accidental or intentional by staying close and in the front of the peloton. Rewards gained along the way are typically split with the team.

They race for 100-150 miles a day for a total of 2-3k miles.



To tell you everything about it, I would have to write a book. I hope this helps.

Answer 3

The Tour de France is a Grand Tour. There are 3 of them, the Giro D'Italia, the Tour de France, and the Vuelta D'Espagne. They take 3 weeks to complete. They race every day except for 2 rest days. The races average about 100 miles per day. The yellow jersey is worn by the cyclist who has the lowest time over all the sages after each day. When you race 100 miles you need food and liquids. If you are the team leader, your teammates go back to the team car which drives behind the pack to bring you everything you need. This takes a lot of energy so they take turns. When you ride at the front of the pack it takes 30% more energy to pedal. Teammates take turns doing this as well. This leaves the team leader stronger at the end of each day to finish as close to the front of the race as possible. It is possible to win the Tour de France without ever winning the race on a single day. Watch the race. Pay attention. This is the biggest yearly sporting event in the world, and probably the most difficult

Answer 4

1st the jerseys:

There are 4 jerseys awarded throughout the tour at the end of each stage, each for a different thing.



There is the yellow jersey which is given to the man currently in 1st with the lowest cumulative time (cumulative meaning throughout all the stages done so far). This is considered the ultimate prize at the any cycling event and whoever has the yellow jersey at the end of the last day is the "winner" of the race. Once again, it is determined by a riders overall time throughout all the stages.



The polka dot jersey is given to the "king of the mountains" or the bike rider who earns the most points on the climbs throughout each stage. This (like all jerseys) is cumulative. Points are earned for being one of the first riders to go over a climb, obviously 1st gets the most points and they decrease after that. Climbs are ranked using a category system, there are 6 "levels of difficulty" of the climbs ranging from 5 (easiest) to NC or beyond category (ridiculously hard). Most points are awarded for harder climbs. More points are given for the last climb of the day then the climbs throughout the stage so its not uncommon for a rider going for the yellow jersey to score pretty well in the king of the mountains competition.



The green jersey is awarded to the fastest sprinter of the tour. Once again it is a cumulative points system much like the polka dot jersey except the points are earned at "sprint points" throughout the stage and the finish of stages. You get more points for the finish line sprint than the other sprint points.



Lastly we have the White jersey. It is exactly the same as the yellow jersey but it has an age limit. It is called the best young rider competition. Same as yellow, it is all about overall time.



Now for the teams:

Cyclists ride in teams to assist one another throughout a race and to impliment certain strategies laid out by their coaches. Most teams are built around 1 rider who is going for the yellow jersey or green jersey but some teams have a yellow jersey contender and a sprinter. The other riders in the team are called domestiques and their job is to pace their team's top riders so they don't have to work as hard and can save their energy for the sprints or final climbs. A sprint team will have other good sprinters to form a "lead out train" for their main sprinter to draft off of until he launches his final sprint. Yellow jersey condenders will usually have great climbers as their domestiques to assist them up a steep climb.



If you're still confused I can make it really simple. Drafting off of someone in front of you makes things a TON easier. Teams are there to assist their top cyclists by giving them someone to draft off of.



They usually cycle well over 100 miles every day. The longest stage this year I believe is ~136 miles. Days with multiple big climbs will usually be shorter.



The favorites for the yellow are down to Bradley Wiggins (current leader), Cadel Evans (defending champion and only 10 seconds back), Vincenzo Nibali, and Dennis Menchov.



And it is still going on, its only about 1/3 over so far.

Answer 5

The Yellow jersey is the guy with the best time. 9 riders on a team.



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