# Explain the Tour de France to me **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 11, 2005, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-tour-de-france-to-me/312066 "2005-07-11T21:58:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cantara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@cantara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cantara)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-tour-de-france-to-me/312066/21 "2005-07-12T12:33:41Z")
A rider will only hold one jersey at a time. If that rider qualifies to hold more than one jersey, then they will be awarded the one with the most prestige and the rider next in line will receive the next one. [This](http://www.letour.fr/2005/TDF/LIVE/us/800/r1_enjeux.html) is a good summary of the rules for this year. Article 10 describes what I wrote above. The last few winners of the TdF have been strong climbers…notably Armstrong, and Miguel Indurain. The individual time trial up L’Alpe D’Huez in 2004 was a convincing show put on by Armstrong adding over 1 minute to his lead over his nearest competitor (Jan Ulrich) and considerably more over the rest of the riders. BTW, catch the footage of the stage finishes, they are amazing to watch the sprinters try for the line… ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-tour-de-france-to-me/312066/22 "2005-07-12T13:55:07Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > The race, should you care, is over 100 years old and was originally started as an advertising method for a new craze that was sweeping the world, bicycles. > > The riders had to carry all their own gear with them. Cheating was rampant with riders taking trains or getting pulled the back of a motorcycle. Close but no cigar. > [@](#): > > Ironically, the purpose of the firsr Tour de France was to promote a product that, though rather exotic at the time, would soon supplant the bicycle as the world’s marvel of personal transportation. It was called the automobile, and the tour’s first sponsor was a newspaper that covered motor sports. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-tour-de-france-to-me/312066/23 "2005-07-12T13:56:28Z")
:smack: The above quote is from the Tour de France Companion 2005 by Bob Roll nd Dan Koeppel. A great book if you want to more about the tour. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-tour-de-france-to-me/312066/24 "2005-07-12T15:52:55Z")
I’m still unsure about that team stuff. Why can’t you just draft the guy in front of you, no matter if he’s on your team or not? ---
**Author:** ![BF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5ac83/32.png) [@BF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BF)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-tour-de-france-to-me/312066/25 "2005-07-12T16:39:19Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I’m still unsure about that team stuff. Why can’t you just draft the guy in front of you, no matter if he’s on your team or not? You can, just look at the end of the stage today where Lance and Valverde(team Illes Baleares) (stage winner) worked with two guys from another team to power to the top of the mountain. If you’re gonna suck some wheel you’ve got to share the load or the guy leading you is not going to work for you. There have been mountain stages where Lance had help from a non-contending rival and in exchange for his help, Lance let them win the stage. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-tour-de-france-to-me/312066/26 "2005-07-12T17:18:35Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > :smack: The above quote is from the Tour de France Companion 2005 by Bob Roll nd Dan Koeppel. A great book if you want to more about the tour. Y’know, I just bought this book yesterday, and I gleemed through it and retained the misinformation that I splurged here. I sit corrected. Can I add that the early riders smoked while riding as it was considered benefitial and helped ‘open the lungs’, huh, can I? ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-tour-de-france-to-me/312066/27 "2005-07-12T22:35:30Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I’m still unsure about that team stuff. Why can’t you just draft the guy in front of you, no matter if he’s on your team or not? The difference is that if you are working with guys from different teams (such as a breakaway with say 5 guys in it) the other riders will expect you to take a turn on the front. If however the other 4 guys are on your team, they will only rotate the lead duty among themselves, and one by one they will burn themselves out, leaving you fresh. Today’s stage was a fine example of that. Watch the D boys set the pace and lead Lance up the hill, one by one they break, and peel off. Then Lance took over and rode the wheels off of almost everyone else. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-tour-de-france-to-me/312066/28 "2005-07-13T00:36:00Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I’m still unsure about that team stuff. Why can’t you just draft the guy in front of you, no matter if he’s on your team or not? Also, one of the lead teams will generally try to maintain control of the peloton by setting the overall pace. A single rider couldn’t do it by himself. Besides, you’d have a hard time competing in the one stage that’s set up as a team Time Trial. 🙂 In that stage, each time rides by itself against the clock, and the the team gets the time of the 5th person across the finish the line. If, for example, Lance were to get a flat and his team car wasn’t nearby, one of his teammates would swap wheels with him and that teammate would wait for the support car to arrive. That way, Lance wouldn’t lose much time. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-tour-de-france-to-me/312066/29 "2005-07-13T03:46:41Z")
> [@cantara](#): > > A rider will only hold one jersey at a time. If that rider qualifies to hold more than one jersey, then they will be awarded the one with the most prestige and the rider next in line will receive the next one. Just wanted to come in with the nice fact that Cannibal Eddy “Freaking Superman God” Merckx, in his first tour in 1969, won the yellow, green, and polka dot jerseys. Probably would have also gotten the ‘young rider’ under-25 white one had it existed then, since he was only 24. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-tour-de-france-to-me/312066/30 "2005-07-13T07:26:06Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I’m still unsure about that team stuff. Why can’t you just draft the guy in front of you, no matter if he’s on your team or not? You can. However, how fast is he going to want to go with you drafting off him? Answer: not very. Logical conclusion: no one is going to want to go very fast. End result: there is going to be a bunch finish. Can you outsprint those around you? If not, what are you going to do if you have good endurance but aren’t a very good sprinter? Answer: go fast. But if you do, everyone’s going to draft off you. Solution: join a team, so you can draft off them. The dynamics of road racing are bloody interesting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-tour-de-france-to-me/312066.md?page=1)