The Tour de France - a Primer

As a long time follower of the Tour de France, I give much respect the passion these guys put in to cycling. If you are new to the sport of cycling, welcome to the biggest cycling show on earth! (It often does seem like a bit of a circus with lots of drama surrounding it.) A grueling contest at 3,642 kilometres long - in only 21 days. It is both beautiful and painful to watch at the same time. Watching the peleton chase down the leaders is fascinating, and at the same time you can't help but pull for the leaders to hold out for just 2 more minutes.

If you are going to start listening to Phil Liget and Paul Scherwin, commentators on Versus, you need to be familiar with a few new words.

• Peloton - is French, and literally means ball. In the Tour, it refers to the main body of riders. They "ball up" (or bunch up) together in order to draft off of the riders in front of them. It allows them to save their energy.
• Domestique - these are the worker bees on a team. Each team usually has one leader - the person they think can win the overall race. Everyone else on the team works to get this guy in the lead. This means that they shuttle water from the support cars behind the peloton to him. They will also lead him out if it is a sprint finish, or go with him on a climb. These guys will literally give him their bike if his is damaged in a crash. These guys don't care about their personal time, they are racing for the leader.
• Autobus - a group found at the back of the pack, these are almost always domestiques. They are just trying to hang on and make it to the finish line just under the time limit. Sprinters are most often found back here on the mountain stages.
• Bonking - probably just as painful as it sounds. It is when a rider has maxed out and can barely pedal their bike. They have run out of carbohydrates needed to convert to energy. It can happen to anyone, even the leaders, and when it does it is almost impossible to come back from.
• Maillot Jaune - translation to English is Yellow Jersey. The person with the fastest time overall gets to wear the yellow jersey for the next leg of the race. This is a huge honor and only a few ever get to wear it.

• Green Jersey - the fastest sprinter in the group is awarded the honor of wearing the green jersey. There are points along the race route that are given to the first few riders to cross them. These are typically on flat stages.
• Polka Dot Jersey - the best mountain climber wears this highly unusual jersey. Bright red polka dots announce to everyone that they can climb the mountain stages better than anyone else.
  
• White Jersey - the best young rider pulls this jersey on. The qualification is the fastest overall rider under the age of 25.
  

Lance Armstrong will be riding in the Tour again this year for the last time. His new team, RadioShack, was handpicked and features a couple familiar faces from his days on the US Postal team. His supporting riders are Andreas Kloden, Levi Leipheimer, Chris Horner, Janez Brajikovic, Sergio Paulinho, Yaroslav Popvych, Gregory Rast, and Dmitriy Muravyez.

Alberto Contador, riding for team Astana, is probably the favorite. He won the tour in 2009 and 2007, and is one of the best climbers out there. (In 2008 his team was not invited to participate in the Tour.) It is fun to watch him break away.

Cadel Evans is always mentioned as a favorite, and is usually close, but he has just not been able to take home that Yellow Jersey. Maybe this will be his year.

Andy Schlek has been working his way up to the top for the past few years, and 2010 could be a good one for him. He has a brother, Frank, for a teammate and the two of them may be able to keep a leash on Contador in the mountains.

These are a few to keep an eye on in the overall classifications. The stage winners will change each day as the race progresses. Every once in a while the peloton will not be able to pull back a group of leaders and they will get the glory of a stage win.

The Tour is composed of 20 stages and 1 Prologue, performed over a 23 day period. It starts July 3rd with a prologue time-trial. In a time trial, racers will be on the course by themselves, racing only against a clock. It will start out in Rotterdam and move across the country to finish in Paris on the Champs-Élysées. In between, the mountain stages usually bring about the most drama and suspense. Stage 17 on July 22 is sure to bring about some great cycling as the finish is at the top of the Col du Tourmalet.