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125-598: Dragon Ride L'Etape Wales by Le Tour de France is a cyclosportive event based in South Wales, UK. The event is a non competitive cycling marathon run over the hills of South Wales and the Brecon Beacons National Park . The ride takes in the challenging climbs of the Bwlch and Rhigos mountain roads which are long with relatively constant gradients. The event has different courses to suit riders ability, these are

250-470: A collection of adventurers, including one competing as "Samson". Many riders dropped out of the race after completing the initial stages, as the physical effort the tour required was just too much. Only a mere 24 entrants remained at the end of the fourth stage. The race finished on the edge of Paris at Ville d'Avray, outside the Restaurant du Père Auto, before a ceremonial ride into Paris and several laps of

375-471: A crisis meeting on 20 November 1902 on the middle floor of L'Auto ' s office at 10 Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, Paris. The last to speak was the chief cycling journalist, a 26-year-old named Géo Lefèvre . Lefèvre suggested a six-day race of the sort popular on the track but all around France. Long-distance cycle races were a popular means to sell more newspapers, but nothing of the length that Lefèvre suggested had been attempted. The first Tour de France

500-406: A damaged bicycle for another was allowed only in 1923 . Desgrange stood against the use of multiple gears, and for many years insisted riders use wooden rims, fearing the heat of braking while coming down mountains would melt the glue that held the tires on metal rims (however, they were finally allowed in 1937 ). By the end of the 1920s, Desgrange believed he could not beat what he believed were

625-508: A factory. He also cut the entry fee from 20 to 10 francs and set the first prize at 12,000 francs and the prize for each day's winner at 3,000 francs. The winner would thereby win six times what most workers earned in a year. That attracted between 60 and 80 entrants – the higher number may have included serious inquiries and some who dropped out – among them not just professionals but amateurs, some unemployed, and some simply adventurous. The first Tour de France started almost outside

750-446: A jersey, he wears the yellow one, since the general classification is the most important one in the race. Between 1905 and 1912 inclusive, in response to concerns about rider cheating in the 1904 race , the general classification was awarded according to a point-based system based on their placings in each stage, and the rider with the lowest total of points after the Tour's conclusion was

875-516: A long-distance solo attack in the mountains which none of the other elite riders could answer, resulting in an eventual winning margin of nearly eighteen minutes. In 1973 he did not win because he did not enter the Tour; instead, his great rival Luis Ocaña won. Merckx's winning streak came to an end when he finished 2nd to Bernard Thévenet in 1975 . During this era, race director Felix Lévitan began to recruit additional sponsors, sometimes accepting prizes in kind if he could not get cash. In 1975 ,

1000-488: A maker's name. There was no place for individuals in the post-1930s teams, and so Desgrange created regional teams, generally from France, to take in riders who would not otherwise have qualified. The original touriste-routiers mostly disappeared, but some were absorbed into regional teams. Desgrange died at home on the Mediterranean coast on 16 August 1940. The race was taken over by his deputy, Jacques Goddet . The Tour

1125-458: A partnership with Tour de France organisers, Amaury Sport Organisation , the event became part of the L'Etape UK series of official Tour de France sportives and was renamed Dragon Ride L'Etape Wales by Le Tour de France. Le Tour de France The Tour de France ( French pronunciation: [tuʁ də fʁɑ̃s] ) is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race held primarily in France. It

1250-434: A race of individuals. The first Tours were open to whoever wanted to compete. Most riders were in teams that looked after them. The private entrants were called touriste-routiers— tourists of the road—from 1923 and were allowed to take part provided they make no demands on the organisers. Some of the Tour's most colourful characters have been touriste-routiers. One finished each day's race and then performed acrobatic tricks in

1375-616: A recent addition to the UK, although these types of events have been popular in Italy, France and Spain. In 2004 the first Dragon Ride was held, this being at the time one of only a handful of such events in Great Britain. The format of the Dragon Ride was based on an Italian Gran Fondo, although unlike Italian events it was not held on closed roads. Event organiser Lou Lusardi, whose family originated from

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1500-470: A relaxed pace until close to the line, only then disputing the final placings that would give them points. The format changed over time. The Tour originally ran around the perimeter of France. Cycling was an endurance sport, and the organisers realised the sales they would achieve by creating supermen of the competitors. Night riding was dropped after the second Tour in 1904, when there had been persistent cheating when judges could not see riders. That reduced

1625-509: A result, the UCI decided that each of Armstrong's seven wins would be revoked. This decision cleared the names of many people, including lesser-known riders, reporters, team medical staff, and even the wife of a rider who had their reputations tarnished or had been forced from the sport due to pressure from Armstrong and his support staff. Much of this only became possible after Floyd Landis came forward to USADA . Also around this time, an investigation by

1750-495: A rider coping with a mechanical problem—which the rules insisted he repair alone—could lose so much time that it cost him the race. Equally, riders could finish so separated that time gained or lost on one or two days could decide the whole race. Judging the race by points removed over-influential time differences but discouraged competitors from riding hard. It made no difference whether they finished fast or slow or separated by seconds or hours, so they were inclined to ride together at

1875-502: A rider will be given the honor of leading the rest of the peloton onto the circuit finish in their final Tour, as was the case for Jens Voigt and Sylvain Chavanel , among others. From the late 1970s and into the early 1980s, the Tour was dominated by Frenchman Bernard Hinault , who would become the third rider to win five times. Hinault was defeated by Joop Zoetemelk in 1980 when he withdrew, and only once in his Tour de France career

2000-420: A serpent and runs away to the woods, afraid that her father will be angry. Alone, she pours out her story to the trees, attracting the attention of wild beasts who tear her to pieces. After his victory over Geryon, Hercules passes through the kingdom of Bebryx again, finding the girl's lacerated remains. As is often the case in stories of this hero, the sober Hercules responds with heartbroken grief and remorse at

2125-476: A small cloth panel on their chest that named the team for which they normally rode. The situation became critical at the start of the 1960s. Sales of bicycles had fallen, and bicycle factories were closing. There was a risk, the trade said, that the industry would die if factories were not allowed the publicity of the Tour de France. The Tour returned to trade teams in 1962. In the same year, Émilion Amaury, owner of le Parisien Libéré , became financially involved in

2250-401: A team to ride the Tour once more, but Armstrong refused because Landis was a convicted doper. Landis joined OUCH , an American continental team, and not long after this initiated contact with USADA to discuss Armstrong. In 2011 , Cadel Evans became the first Australian to win the Tour after coming up just short several times in the previous few editions. The 2012 Tour de France was won by

2375-577: Is an astronomical observatory located at 2877 metres on top of the Pic du Midi de Bigorre in the French Pyrenees. Construction of the observatory began in 1878 and the 8-metre dome was completed in 1908. The observatory housed a powerful mechanical equatorial reflector which was used in 1909 to formally discredit the Martian canal theory. A 1.06-metre (42 in) telescope was installed in 1963, funded by NASA and

2500-502: Is in this part of the chain that granitic masses prevail. Also moving from west to east, there is a change in the composition of the flora, with the change becoming most evident as one passes the centre of the mountain chain from which point the Corbières Massif stretch north-eastwards towards the central plateau of France. Though the difference in latitude is only about 1°, in the west the flora resembles that of central Europe while in

2625-468: Is insufficient snowfall to cause their development. Glaciers are confined to the northern slopes of the central Pyrenees, and do not descend, like those of the Alps, far down into the valleys but rather have their greatest lengths along the direction of the mountain chain. They form, in fact, in a narrow zone near the crest of the highest mountains. Here, as in the other great mountain ranges of central Europe, there

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2750-407: Is observed at least 50% of the time above 1,600 metres (5,200 ft) between December and April. A still more marked effect of the preponderance of rainfall in the western half of the chain is seen in the vegetation. The lower mountains in the extreme west are wooded, but the extent of forest declines as one moves eastwards. The eastern Pyrenees are peculiarly wild and barren, all the more since it

2875-451: Is substantial evidence of a much wider expanse of glaciation during the glacial periods . The best evidence of this is in the valley of Argeles Gazost, between Lourdes and Gavarnie, in the département of Hautes-Pyrénées. The annual snow-line varies in different parts of the Pyrenees from about 2,700 to 2,800 metres (8,900 to 9,200 ft) above sea level. In average the seasonal snow

3000-429: Is the complete list of the summits of the Pyrenees above 3,000 metres: Both sides of the Pyrenees are popular spots for winter sports such as alpine skiing and mountaineering . The Pyrenees are also a good place for athletes to do high-altitude training in the summertime, such as by bicycling and cross-country running. In the summer and the autumn , the Pyrenees are usually featured in two of cycling's grand tours,

3125-536: Is the name of a town in Celtic Europe . According to Silius Italicus , she was the virgin daughter of Bebryx , a king in Mediterranean Gaul by whom the hero Hercules was given hospitality during his quest to steal the cattle of Geryon during his famous Labours . Hercules, characteristically drunk and lustful, violates the sacred code of hospitality and rapes his host's daughter. Pyrene gives birth to

3250-519: Is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tours , which include the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España . The race was first organized in 1903 to increase sales for the newspaper L'Auto (which was an ancestor of L'Équipe ). and has been held annually since, except when it was not held from 1915 to 1918 and 1940 to 1946 due to the two World Wars . As the Tour gained prominence and popularity,

3375-419: Is the second-oldest jersey awarding classification in the Tour de France. The mountains classification was added to the Tour de France in the 1933 edition and was first won by Vicente Trueba . Prizes for the classification were first awarded in 1934 . During stages of the race containing climbs, points are awarded to the first riders to reach the top of each categorized climb, with points available for up to

3500-644: The Ariège area, the mean elevation is remarkably uniform until a sudden decline occurs in the easternmost portion of the chain known as the Albères . Most foothills of the Pyrenees are on the Spanish side, where there is a large and complex system of ranges stretching from Spanish Navarre , across northern Aragon and into Catalonia, almost reaching the Mediterranean coast with summits reaching 2,600 m (8,500 ft). At

3625-628: The Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge in New Zealand to cross promote and share resources. Pencoed , situated a few miles east of Bridgend became the venue for the start and finish of the ride from 2008, the new location provided more space and was situated only a mile from junction 35 of the M4 Motorway . Since 2012 the start and finish is at Margam Park near Port Talbot . The Dragon Ride organisers have introduced various innovations. The event

3750-704: The Pyrenees National Park ). The independent principality of Andorra is sandwiched in the eastern portion of the mountain range between the Spanish Pyrenees and French Pyrenees . Physiographically , the Pyrenees may be divided into three sections: the Atlantic (or Western), the Central, and the Eastern Pyrenees. Together, they form a distinct physiographic province of the larger Alpine System division. In

3875-660: The Tour de France held annually in July and the Vuelta a España held in September. The stages held in the Pyrenees are often crucial legs of both tours, drawing hundreds of thousands of spectators to the region. Three main long-distance footpaths run the length of the mountain range: the GR 10 across the northern slopes, the GR 11 across the southern slopes, and the HRP which traverses peaks and ridges along

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4000-499: The caverns of Ariège, the principal genera of which are Anophthalmus and Adelops . The Pyrenean ibex , an endemic subspecies of the Iberian ibex , became extinct in January 2000; another subspecies, the western Spanish ibex , was introduced into the area, with the population numbering over 400 individuals as of 2020. The native brown bear population was hunted to near-extinction in

4125-613: The 'Dragon Devil' at 305 kilometres (190 mi), the Gran Fondo at 230 kilometres (140 mi), the Medio Fondo at 153 kilometres (95 mi) and the Macmillan 100 at 100 kilometres (62 mi). The Dragon Ride is held annually in June. Entries are available from September via the event website. Traditionally the event sells out within weeks of the entries becoming available. Cyclosportives are

4250-495: The 1990s, but its numbers rebounded in 1996 when three bears were brought from Slovenia . The bear population has bred successfully, and there are now believed to be about 15 brown bears in the central region around Fos , with only four native ones still living in the Aspe Valley . Principal nature reserves and national parks: In 1997, part of the Pyrenees (including Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park and Pyrenees National Park)

4375-516: The Atlantic Ocean over the Bay of Biscay . After dropping its moisture over the western and central Pyrenees, the air is left dry over the eastern Pyrenees. The winter average temperature is −2 °C (28 °F). Sections of the mountain range vary in more than one respect. There are some glaciers in the western and snowy central Pyrenees, but there are no glaciers in the eastern Pyrenees because there

4500-563: The Café Reveil-Matin at the junction of the Melun and Corbeil roads in the village of Montgeron . It was waved away by the starter, Georges Abran, at 3:16 p.m. on 1 July 1903. L'Auto hadn't featured the race on its front page that morning. Among the competitors were the eventual winner, Maurice Garin , his well-built rival Hippolyte Aucouturier , the German favourite Josef Fischer , and

4625-497: The Darracq company. De Dion believed Le Vélo gave Darracq too much attention and him too little. De Dion was rich and could afford to indulge his whims. The new newspaper appointed Henri Desgrange as the editor. He was a prominent cyclist and owner with Victor Goddet of the velodrome at the Parc des Princes . L'Auto sales were lower than the rival it was intended to surpass, leading to

4750-590: The Earth's crust first affected the eastern part and moved progressively to the entire chain, culminating in the Eocene Epoch. The eastern part of the Pyrenees consists largely of granite and gneissose rocks, while in the western part the granite peaks are flanked by layers of limestone . The massive and unworn character of the chain comes from its abundance of granite, which is particularly resistant to erosion , as well as weak glacial development. The upper parts of

4875-560: The Elder connects the story of Hercules and Pyrene to Lusitania , but rejects it as fabulosa , highly fictional. Other classical sources derived the name from the Greek word for fire, Ancient Greek : πῦρ (IPA: /pŷːr/ ). According to Greek historian Diodorus Siculus "in ancient times, we are told, certain herdsmen left a fire and the whole area of the mountains was entirely consumed; and due to this fire, since it raged continuously day after day,

5000-473: The French government into doping in cycling revealed that way back during the 1998 Tour, close to 90% of the riders who were tested, retroactively tested positive for EPO. The result of these doping scandals being that in the case of Landis in 2006, and Contador in 2010, new winners were declared in Óscar Pereiro and Andy Schleck , respectively; however, in the case of the seven Tours revoked from Armstrong, there

5125-704: The Northwest margin of Gondwana , where they formed a lateral continuity of neighbouring areas, such as the Montagne Noire and the Mouthoumet massifs and Southwestern territory of Sardinia . Between 100 and 150 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous Period, the Bay of Biscay fanned out , pushing present-day Spain against France and applying intense compressional pressure to large layers of sedimentary rock . The intense pressure and uplifting of

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5250-455: The Parc des Princes. Garin dominated the race, winning the first and last two stages, at 25.68 kilometres per hour (15.96 mph). The last rider, Arsène Millocheau , finished 64h 47m 22s behind him. L'Auto 's mission was accomplished, as circulation of the publication doubled throughout the race, making the race something much larger than Desgrange had ever hoped for. Such was the passion that

5375-557: The Parma area of Italy, had taken part in several Gran Fondo and saw an opportunity to bring this type of event to South Wales. An organising team of friends and relatives was set up under the BreakAway Cycling banner. Based in Bridgend , the first "Dragon" had 280 entrants. Recent editions had over 5,000 entrants. In 2005 the Dragon Ride became the first UK cyclosportive to be included into

5500-563: The Pyrenees contain low-relief surfaces forming a peneplain . This peneplain originated no earlier than in Late Miocene times. Presumably it formed at height as extensive sedimentation raised the local base level considerably. Conspicuous features of Pyrenean scenery are: The highest waterfall is Gavarnie (462 m or 1,515 ft), at the head of the Gave de Pau ; the Cirque de Gavarnie , in

5625-760: The Romans), statuary white marbles as well as coloured marbles used to decorate the royal palaces of the Louvre and Versailles in France and the Royal Palace of Madrid in Spain. Mineral springs are abundant and remarkable, and especially noteworthy are the hot springs . The hot springs, among which those of Les Escaldes in Andorra, Panticosa and Lles in Spain, Ax-les-Thermes , Bagnères-de-Luchon and Eaux-Chaudes in France may be mentioned, are sulfurous and mostly situated high, near

5750-504: The Tour among other events—replaced Leblanc in 2007, having been assistant director for three years. In 1993 ownership of L'Équipe moved to the Amaury Group , which formed Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) to oversee its sports operations, although the Tour itself is operated by its subsidiary the Société du Tour de France. 1988 onward was arguably the beginning of what can be referred to as

5875-451: The Tour de France in the same year, the first rider to do so. Louison Bobet was the first great French rider of the post-war period and the first rider to win the Tour in three successive years, 1953 , 1954 and 1955 . Jacques Anquetil became the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times, in 1957 and from 1961 to 1964 . He stated before the 1961 Tour that he would gain the yellow jersey on day one and wear it all through

6000-467: The Tour de France using banned substances, and he was no longer considered the winner by the Tour's organizers. In July 2008, the Tour reconfirmed his victory but with an asterisk label to indicate his doping offences. In 2013 Jan Ullrich , the first German rider to win the Tour (in 1997 ), admitted to blood doping. During the 1998 Tour de France , a doping scandal known as the Festina Affair shook

6125-427: The Tour de France, and cycling in general. Roche was the first winner from Ireland; however, in the years leading up to his victory, cyclists from numerous other countries began joining the ranks of the peloton. In 1982 , Sean Kelly of Ireland (points) and Phil Anderson of Australia (young rider) became the first winners of any Tour classifications from outside cycling's Continental Europe heartlands, while Lévitan

6250-463: The Tour was not held in July. This saw the first of two successive victories for Tadej Pogačar of UAE Team Emirates , who was the first Slovenian winner, and the second youngest (at 21) after Henri Cornet in 1904. He also won the mountain and youth classifications, becoming the first rider since Eddy Merckx in 1972 to win three jerseys in a single Tour. Pogačar repeated this triple in 2021 . On stage 13 of this Tour, sprinter Mark Cavendish tied

6375-465: The Tour, despite finishing in second place three times, and in third place five times (including his final Tour at the age of 40). Doping had become a serious problem, culminating in the death of Tom Simpson in 1967 , after which riders went on strike, although the organisers suspected sponsors provoked them. The Union Cycliste Internationale introduced limits to daily and overall distances, imposed rest days, and tests were introduced for riders. It

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6500-462: The Tour. He made Félix Lévitan co-organizer of the Tour, and it was decided that Levitan would focus on the financial issues, while Jacques Goddet was put in charge of sporting issues. The Tour de France was meant for professional cyclists, but in 1961 the organisation started the Tour de l'Avenir , the amateur version. Twice, in 1949 and 1952 , Italian rider Fausto Coppi won the Giro d'Italia and

6625-487: The Tour: a consortium of Sports and Miroir Sprint . Each organised a candidate race. L'Équipe and Le Parisien Libéré had La Course du Tour de France, while Sports and Miroir Sprint had La Ronde de France. Both were five stages, the longest the government would allow because of shortages. L'Équipe 's race was better organised and appealed more to the public because it featured national teams that had been successful before

6750-538: The UCI calendar. The popularity of the inaugural event and the demand for this type of cycling challenge saw the Dragon Ride more than double in size each year between 2004 and 2006; a continual growth over the following years saw the 2010 event with 3700 entrants, the largest for any UK open road sportive. In 2007 the Dragon Ride linked up with the Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycletour in Cape Town South Africa and

6875-684: The Western Pyrenees, from the Basque mountains near the Bay of Biscay of the Atlantic Ocean, the average elevation gradually increases from west to east. The Central Pyrenees extend eastward from the Somport pass to the Aran Valley , and they include the highest summits of this range: In the Eastern Pyrenees, with the exception of one break at the eastern extremity of the Pyrénées Ariégeoises in

7000-407: The actions of his darker self, and lays Pyrene to rest tenderly, demanding that the surrounding geography join in mourning and preserve her name: "struck by Herculean voice, the mountaintops shudder at the ridges; he kept crying out with a sorrowful noise 'Pyrene!' and all the rock-cliffs and wild-beast haunts echo back 'Pyrene!' ... The mountains hold on to the wept-over name through the ages." Pliny

7125-418: The aforementioned classifications wears a distinctive jersey, with riders leading multiple classifications wearing the jersey of the most prestigious that he leads. In addition to these four classifications, there are several minor and discontinued classifications that are competed for during the race. The oldest and most sought-after classification in the Tour de France is the general classification. All of

7250-478: The all-time stage wins record in the Tour. The oldest and main competition in the Tour de France is known as the "general classification", for which the yellow jersey is awarded; the winner of this is said to have won the race. A few riders from each team aim to win overall, but there are three further competitions to draw riders of all specialties: points, mountains, and a classification for young riders with general classification aspirations. The leader of each of

7375-646: The area are Spanish, French, Aragonese , Catalan (in Andorra and in Northern and Southern Catalonia ), and Basque . Also spoken, to a lesser degree, is the Occitan language , consisting of the Gascon and Languedocien dialects in France and the Aranese dialect in the Aran Valley . An important feature of rural life in the Pyrenees is ' transhumance ', the moving of livestock from

7500-501: The chance he worked so hard for with a stunning and improbable solo breakaway on Stage 17 in which he set himself up to win the Tour in the final time trial, which he then did. Not long after the Tour was over, however, Landis was accused of doping and had his Tour win revoked. Over the next few years, a new star in Alberto Contador came onto the scene; however, during the 2007 edition, a veteran Danish rider, Michael Rasmussen ,

7625-461: The climbers (polka dot jersey), young rider classification for riders under the age of 26 (white jersey), and the team classification , based on the first three finishers from each team on each stage. Achieving a stage win also provides prestige, often accomplished by a team's sprint specialist or a rider taking part in a breakaway. A similar race for women was held under various names between 1984 and 2009. Following criticism by campaigners and

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7750-410: The contact of the granite with the stratified rocks. The lower springs, such as those of Bagnères-de-Bigorre ( Hautes-Pyrénées ), Rennes-les-Bains ( Aude ), and Campagne-sur-Aude (Aude), are mostly selenitic and not hot. The amount of precipitation the range receives, including rain and snow, is much greater in the western than in the eastern Pyrenees because of the moist air that blows in from

7875-422: The costs too great for most and only 15 competitors had entered. Desgrange had never been wholly convinced and he came close to dropping the idea. Instead, he cut the length to 19 days, changed the dates to 1 to 19 July, and offered a daily allowance to those who averaged at least 20 kilometres per hour (12 mph) on all the stages, equivalent to what a rider would have expected to earn each day had he worked in

8000-457: The daily and overall distance, but the emphasis remained on endurance. The first mountain stages (in the Pyrenees ) appeared in 1910 . Early tours had long multi-day stages, with the format settling on 15 stages from 1910 until 1924 . After this, stages were gradually shortened, such that by 1936 there were as many as three stages in a single day. Desgrange initially preferred to see the Tour as

8125-496: The decision. McGann says the UVF waited so long "...well aware of the passions aroused by the race." Desgrange's opinion of the fighting and cheating showed in the headline of his reaction in L'Auto : THE END. By the following spring, Desgrange was planning a longer Tour, with 11 stages rather than 6—and this time all in daylight to make any cheating more obvious. Stages in 1905 began between 3 am and 7:30 am. The race captured

8250-447: The doping era. A new drug, erythropoietin (EPO), began to be used; it could not be detected by drug tests of the time. Pedro Delgado won the 1988 Tour de France by a considerable margin, and in 1989 and 1990 Lemond returned from injury and won back-to-back Tours, with the 1989 edition still standing as the closest two-way battle in TDF history, with Lemond claiming an 8-second victory on

8375-466: The doping fiasco of the previous year. Initially it seemed to be a Cinderella story when cancer survivor Lance Armstrong stole the show on Sestriere and kept on riding to the first of his astonishing seven consecutive Tour de France victories; however, in retrospect, 1999 was just the beginning of the doping problem getting much, much worse. Following Armstrong's retirement in 2005 , the 2006 edition saw his former teammate Floyd Landis finally get

8500-606: The early 1970s, the race was dominated by Eddy Merckx , who won the General Classification five times, the Mountains Classification twice, the Points Classification three times and held the record for the most stage victories (34) until overtaken by Mark Cavendish in 2024. Merckx's dominating style earned him the nickname "The Cannibal". In 1969 , he already had a commanding lead when he launched

8625-508: The easiest, to hors catégorie, the hardest. During his career Richard Virenque won the mountains classification a record seven times. Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain . They extend nearly 500 km (310 mi) from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum altitude of 3,404 metres (11,168 ft) at

8750-473: The east it is distinctly Mediterranean in character. The Pyrenees are nearly as rich in endemic species as the Alps, and among the most remarkable instances of that endemism is the occurrence of the monotypic genus Xatardia (family Apiaceae ), which grows only on a high alpine pass between the Val d'Eynes and Catalonia . Other examples include Arenaria montana , Bulbocodium vernum , and Ranunculus glacialis . The genus most abundantly represented in

8875-476: The eastern end on the southern side lies a distinct area known as the Sub-Pyrenees . On the French side the slopes of the main range descend abruptly and there are no foothills except in the Corbières Massif in the northeastern corner of the mountain system. The Pyrenees are older than the Alps : their sediments were first deposited in coastal basins during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras. During Ediacaran to Ordovician times, Pyrenees were located at

9000-573: The effect of thermal shocks. No big cities are in the range itself. The largest urban area close to the Pyrenees is Toulouse ( Haute-Garonne ), France with a population of 1,330,954 in its metropolitan area. On the Spanish side Pamplona ( Navarre ) is the closest city, with a population of 319,208 in its metropolitan area. Inside the Pyrenees the main towns are Andorra la Vella (22,256) and Escaldes-Engordany (14,367) in Andorra, Jaca (12,813) and La Seu d'Urgell (12,252) in Spain, and Lourdes (13,976) and Foix (10,046) in France. The following

9125-420: The extra effort to keep the jersey for as long as possible in order to get more publicity for the team and its sponsors. Eddy Merckx wore the yellow jersey for 96 stages, which is more than any other rider in the history of the Tour. Four riders have won the general classification five times in their career: Jacques Anquetil , Eddy Merckx , Bernard Hinault , and Miguel Induráin . The mountains classification

9250-443: The farms in the valleys up to the higher grounds of the mountains for the summer. In this way the farming communities could keep larger herds than the lowland farms could support on their own. The principal animals moved were cows and sheep , but historically most members of farming families also moved to the higher pastures along with their animals, so they also took with them pigs , horses and chickens . Transhumance thus took

9375-413: The final time trial to best Laurent Fignon. The early 1990s was dominated by Spaniard Miguel Induráin , who won five Tours from 1991 to 1995 , the fourth, and last, to win five times, and the only five-time winner to achieve those victories consecutively. He wore the race leader's yellow jersey in the Tour de France for 60 days. He holds the record for the most consecutive Tour de France wins and shares

9500-417: The first 10 riders, depending on the classification of the climb. Climbs are classified according to the steepness and length of that particular hill, with more points available for harder climbs. The classification was preceded by the meilleur grimpeur (English: best climber ) which was awarded by the organising newspaper L'Auto to a cyclist who completed each race. The classification awarded no jersey to

9625-491: The first British rider to ever win the Tour, Bradley Wiggins , while finishing on the podium just behind him was Chris Froome , who along with Contador became the next big stars to attempt to contest the giants of Anquetil , Merckx, Hinault, Indurain and Armstrong. Overshadowing the entire sport at this time, however, was the Lance Armstrong doping case , which finally revealed much of the truth about doping in cycling. As

9750-496: The first Tour created in spectators and riders that Desgrange said the 1904 Tour de France would be the last. Cheating was rife, and riders were beaten up by rival fans as they neared the top of the col de la République, sometimes called the col du Grand Bois, outside St-Étienne. The leading riders, including the winner Maurice Garin, were disqualified, though it took the Union Vélocipèdique de France until 30 November to make

9875-743: The foot of Canigou in Pyrénées-Orientales long ago. Coal deposits capable of being profitably worked are situated chiefly on the Spanish slopes, but the French side has beds of lignite . The open pit of Trimoun near the commune of Luzenac (Ariège) is one of the greatest sources of talc in Europe. There are many marble quarries in the Pyrenees, most of which were opened by the Romans in ancient times. Quarried intermittently, they provided prestigious marbles such as Grand Antique (used in Rome and Constantinople by

10000-502: The form of a mass biannual migration, moving uphill in May or June and returning to the farms in September or October. During the summer period, the families would live in basic stone cabins in the high mountains. Nowadays, industrialisation and changing agriculture practices have diminished the custom. However, the importance of transhumance continues to be recognised through its celebration in popular festivals. The Pic du Midi Observatory

10125-431: The imagination. The Tour returned after its suspension during World War I and continued to grow. Desgrange and his Tour invented bicycle stage racing . Desgrange experimented with different ways of judging the winner. Initially he used total accumulated time (as used in the modern Tour de France) but from 1906 to 1912 by points for placings each day. Desgrange saw problems in judging both by time and by points. By time,

10250-519: The largest telescope in France. Overtaken by the giant telescopes built in recent decades, today the observatory is widely open to amateur astronomy. The Odeillo solar furnace is the world's largest solar furnace. It is situated in Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via, in the department of Pyrénées-Orientales , in south of France. Built between 1962 and 1968, it is 54 metres (177 ft) and 48 metres (157 ft) wide, and includes 63 heliostats. The site

10375-532: The leader until the 1975 Tour de France , when the organizers decided to award a distinctive white jersey with red dots to the leader. This is colloquially referred to in English as the "polka dot" jersey. The climbers' jersey is worn by the rider who, at the start of each stage, has the largest number of climbing points. If the race leader is also leading the Mountains classification, the polka dot jersey will be worn by

10500-627: The mountain's chains of the Pyrenees and the Alps , and (except in 2024 due to preparations for the 2024 Summer Olympics ) a finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. The modern editions of the Tour de France consist of 21 day-long stages over a 23 or 24 day period and cover approximately 3,500 kilometres (2,200 mi) total. The race alternates between clockwise and counterclockwise circuits. Twenty to twenty-two teams of eight riders usually compete. All of

10625-422: The next eligible rider in the Mountains standings. At the end of the Tour, the rider holding the most climbing points wins the classification. Some riders may race with the aim of winning this particular competition, while others who gain points early on may shift their focus to the classification during the race. The Tour has five categories for ranking the mountains the race covers. The scale ranges from category 4,

10750-403: The number. National teams caught the public imagination but had a snag: that riders might normally have been in rival trade teams the rest of the season. The loyalty of riders was sometimes questionable, within and between teams. Sponsors were always unhappy about releasing their riders into anonymity for the biggest race of the year, as riders in national teams wore the colours of their country and

10875-474: The other was L'Auto , which had been set up by journalists and businesspeople including Comte Jules-Albert de Dion , Adolphe Clément , and Édouard Michelin in 1899. The rival paper emerged following disagreements over the Dreyfus Affair . De Dion, Clément and Michelin were particularly concerned with Le Vélo —which reported more than cycling—because its financial backer was one of their commercial rivals,

11000-539: The passes at Somport, Envalira, and Puymorens and new routes in the center of the range at Bielsa and Vielha . A notable visual feature of this mountain range is La Brèche de Roland , a gap in the ridge line, which – according to legend – was created by Roland . The metallic ores of the Pyrenees are not in general of much importance now, though there were iron mines at several locations in Andorra , as well as at Vicdessos in Ariège, and

11125-495: The peak of Aneto . For the most part, the main crest forms a divide between Spain and France, with the microstate of Andorra sandwiched in between. Historically, the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre extended on both sides of the mountain range. In Greek mythology , Pyrene is a princess who gave her name to the Pyrenees. The Greek historian Herodotus says Pyrene

11250-421: The podium. Pogačar won six stages, including five of the last eight stages. With his win, he became only the eighth rider, and the first since Marco Pantani in 1998 , to win the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France in the same calendar year. On stage 5 of the race, sprinter Mark Cavendish won his 35th overall Tour stage win, breaking the tie between him and Eddy Merckx , who held the record for 49 years, for

11375-450: The polka-dot jersey was introduced for the winner of the Mountains Classification . This same year Levitan also introduced the finish of the Tour at the Avenue des Champs-Élysées . Since then, this stage has been largely ceremonial and is generally only contested as a prestigious sprinters' stage. (See 'Notable Stages' below for examples of non-ceremonial finishes to this stage.) Occasionally,

11500-417: The professional women's peloton, a one/two day race ( La Course by Le Tour de France ) was held between 2014 and 2021. The first Tour de France Femmes was held in 2022 . The Tour de France was created in 1903. The roots of the Tour de France trace back to the emergence of two rival sports newspapers in the country. On one hand was Le Vélo , the first and the largest daily sports newspaper in France, on

11625-421: The race was lengthened and gained more international participation. The Tour is a UCI World Tour event, which means that the teams that compete in the race are mostly UCI WorldTeams , with the exception of the teams that the organizers invite. Traditionally, the bulk of the race is held in July. While the route changes each year, the format of the race stays the same, and includes time trials, passage through

11750-689: The range is that of the saxifrages , several species of which are endemic here. In their fauna the Pyrenees present some striking instances of endemism . The Pyrenean desman is found only in some of the streams of the northern slopes of these mountains; the only other desman , the Russian desman , is confined to the Volga river basin in southern Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. The Pyrenean brook salamander ( Calotriton asper ), an endemic amphibian, also lives in streams and lakes located at high altitudes. Among other peculiarities of Pyrenean fauna are blind insects in

11875-409: The record for most wins with Jacques Anquetil , Bernard Hinault and Eddy Merckx . Induráin was a strong time trialist , gaining on rivals and riding defensively in the climbing stages. Induráin won only two Tour stages that were not individual time trials : mountain stages to Cauterets (1989) and Luz Ardiden (1990) in the Pyrenees . These superior abilities in the discipline fit perfectly with

12000-446: The record of Eddy Merckx for all time stage wins with 34. Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard , second in 2021, won in both 2022 and 2023 , with Pogačar coming second both times. The 2022 race was followed by the Tour de France Femmes , the first official Tour de France for women since 1989. In 2024 , Pogačar took back the Tour title, winning by more than six minutes over Vingegaard while Tour debutant, Remco Evenepoel , rounded out

12125-574: The running of the race. Lévitan launched the Tour of America as a precursor to his plans to take the Tour de France to the US. The Tour of America lost much money, and it appeared to have been cross-financed by the Tour de France. In the years before 1987, Lévitan's position had always been protected by Émilien Amaury , the then owner of ASO , but Émilien Amaury would soon retire and leave son Philippe Amaury responsible. When Lévitan arrived at his office on 17 March 1987, he found that his doors were locked and he

12250-429: The same valley, together with the nearby Cirque de Troumouse and Cirque d'Estaubé , are notable examples of the cirque formation. Low passes are lacking, and the principal roads and the railroads between France and Spain run only in the lowlands at the western and eastern ends of the Pyrenees, near sea level. The main passes of note are: Because of the lack of low passes a number of tunnels have been created, beneath

12375-409: The sport to its core when it became apparent that there was systematic doping going on in the sport. Numerous riders and a handful of teams were either thrown out of the race, or left of their own free will, and in the end Marco Pantani survived to win his lone Tour in a decimated main field. The 1999 Tour de France was billed as the ‘Tour of Renewal’ as the sport tried to clean up its image following

12500-522: The sporting side, and Lévitan the financial. On the Tour's return, the format of the race settled on between 20 and 25 stages. Most stages would last one day, but the scheduling of 'split' stages continued well into the 1980s. 1953 saw the introduction of the Green Jersey 'Points' competition. National teams contested the Tour until 1961 . The teams were of different sizes. Some nations had more than one team, and some were mixed in with others to make up

12625-412: The stages are timed to the finish and the riders' times are compounded with their previous stage times. The rider with the lowest cumulative time is the leader of the race and wears the yellow jersey. While the general classification attracts the most attention, there are other contests held within the Tour: the points classification for the sprinters (green jersey), the mountains classification for

12750-412: The stages are timed to the finish. The riders' times are compounded with their previous stage times; so the rider with the lowest aggregate time is the leader of the race. The leader is determined after each stage's conclusion: he gains the privilege to wear the yellow jersey, presented on a podium in the stage's finishing town, for the next stage. If he is leading more than one classification that awards

12875-434: The street to raise the price of a hotel. Until 1925, Desgrange forbade team members from pacing each other. The 1927 and 1928 Tours, however, consisted mainly of team time-trials , an unsuccessful experiment which sought to avoid a proliferation of sprint finishes on flat stages. Until 1930 , Desgrange demanded that riders mend their bicycles without help and that they use the same bicycle from start to end. Exchanging

13000-716: The surface of the earth was also burned and the mountains, because of what had taken place, were called the Pyrenees." The Spanish Pyrenees are part of the following provinces , from east to west: Girona , Barcelona , Lleida (all in Catalonia ), Huesca (in Aragon ), Navarra (in Navarre ). The French Pyrenees are part of the following départements , from east to west: Pyrénées-Orientales (also known as Northern Catalonia ), Aude , Ariège , Haute-Garonne , Hautes-Pyrénées , and Pyrénées-Atlantiques (the latter two of which include

13125-431: The time trial heavy Tours of the era, with many featuring between 150 and 200 km of time trialling vs the more common 50–80 km today. The influx of more international riders continued through this period, as in 1996 the race was won for the first time by a rider from Denmark, Bjarne Riis , who ended Miguel Induráin's reign with an attack on Hautacam . On 25 May 2007, Bjarne Riis admitted that he placed first in

13250-426: The tour, a tall order with two previous winners in the field— Charly Gaul and Federico Bahamontes —but he did it. His victories in stage races such as the Tour were built on an exceptional ability to ride alone against the clock in individual time trial stages, which lent him the name "Monsieur Chrono" . Anquetil enjoyed a rivalry with Raymond Poulidor , who was known as " The Eternal Second ", because he never won

13375-465: The underhand tactics of bike factories. When in 1929 the Alcyon team contrived to get Maurice De Waele to win even though he was sick, he said, "My race has been won by a corpse". In 1930 , Desgrange again attempted to take control of the Tour from teams, insisting competitors enter in national teams rather than trade teams and that competitors ride plain yellow bicycles that he would provide, without

13500-495: The war, when French cycling was at a high. L'Équipe was given the right to organise the 1947 Tour de France . However, L'Équipe ' s finances were never sound, and Goddet accepted an advance by Émilion Amaury, who had supported his bid to run the postwar Tour. Amaury was a newspaper magnate whose sole condition was that his sports editor, Félix Lévitan , should join Goddet for the Tour. The two worked together—with Goddet running

13625-400: The winner. The leader in the first Tour de France was awarded a green armband. The yellow jersey (the color was chosen as the newspaper that created the Tour, L'Auto , was printed on yellow paper), was added to the race in the 1919 edition and it has since become a symbol of the Tour de France. The first rider to wear the yellow jersey was Eugène Christophe . Riders usually try to make

13750-467: Was again disrupted by War after 1939, and did not return until 1947 . In 1944, L'Auto was closed—its doors nailed shut—and its belongings, including the Tour, sequestrated by the state for publishing articles too close to the Germans. Rights to the Tour were therefore owned by the government. Jacques Goddet was allowed to publish another daily sports paper, L'Équipe , but there was a rival candidate to run

13875-437: Was chosen because of the length and the quality of sunshine with direct light (more than 2,500 h/year) and the purity of its atmosphere (high altitude and low average humidity). This furnace serves as a science research site studying materials at very high temperatures. Temperatures above 3,500 °C (6,330 °F) can be obtained in a few seconds; in addition, it provides rapid temperature changes and therefore allows studying

14000-560: Was fired. The organisation of the 1987 Tour de France was taken over by Jean-François Naquet-Radiguet. He was not successful in acquiring more funds, and was fired within one year. Months before the start of the 1988 Tour, director Jean-François Naquet-Radiguet was replaced by Xavier Louy. In 1988, the Tour was organised by Jean-Pierre Courcol , the director of L'Équipe , then in 1989 by Jean-Pierre Carenso and then by Jean-Marie Leblanc , who in 1989 had been race director. The former television presenter Christian Prudhomme —he commentated on

14125-399: Was he soundly defeated, and this was by Laurent Fignon in 1984 . In 1986 , Hinault, who had won the year before with American rider Greg LeMond supporting him, publicly pledged to ride in support of LeMond. Several attacks during the race cast doubt on the sincerity of his promise, leading to a rift between the two riders and the entire La Vie Claire team, before LeMond prevailed. It

14250-548: Was highly competitive, and the lead changed hands eight times before Stephen Roche won. When Roche won the World Championship Road Race later in the season, he became only the second rider (after Merckx) to win cycling's Triple Crown , which meant winning the Giro d'Italia , the Tour and the Road World Cycling Championship in one calendar year. Lévitan helped drive an internationalization of

14375-404: Was in the maillot jaune late in the Tour, in position to win, when his own team sacked him for a possible doping infraction; this allowed the rising star Contador to ride mistake-free for the remaining stages to win his first. 2008 saw a Tour where so many riders were doping that, when it went ten days without a single doping incident, it became news. It was during this Tour that a UCI official

14500-543: Was influential in facilitating the participation in the 1983 Tour by amateur riders from the Eastern Bloc and Colombia. In 1984, for the first time, the Société du Tour de France organized the Tour de France Féminin , a version for women. It was run in the same weeks as the men's version, and it was won by Marianne Martin . While the global awareness and popularity of the Tour grew during this time, its finances became stretched. Goddet and Lévitan continued to clash over

14625-498: Was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for its spectacular geologic landforms and testimony to the unique " transhumance " agricultural system. The Pyrenean region possesses a varied ethnology, folklore and history: see Andorra ; Aragon ; Ariège ; Basque Country ; Béarn ; Catalonia ; Navarre ; Roussillon . For their history, see also Almogavars , Marca Hispanica . The principal languages spoken in

14750-471: Was no alternate winner named. Team Sky dominated the event for several years, with wins for Bradley Wiggins , Chris Froome (four times) and Geraint Thomas before Egan Bernal became the first Colombian winner in 2019. The streak was interrupted only by Vincenzo Nibali 's 2014 win. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the 2020 Tour started in late August, the first time since the end of World War II that

14875-481: Was quoted as saying, "These guys are crazy, and the sooner they start learning, the better." Roger Legeay , a Directeur Sportif for one of the teams noted how riders were secretly and anonymously buying doping products on the internet. Like Greg LeMond at the beginning of the EPO era, 2008 winner Carlos Sastre was a rider who went his entire career without a single doping incident and between approximately 1994 and 2011 this

15000-470: Was staged in 1903. The plan was a five-stage race from 31 May to 5 July, starting in Paris and stopping in Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, and Nantes before returning to Paris. Toulouse was added later to break the long haul across southern France from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Stages would go through the night and finish next afternoon, with rest days before riders set off again. But this proved too daunting and

15125-405: Was the first ever victory for a rider from outside of Europe. The 1986 Tour is widely considered to be one of the most memorable in the history of the sport due to the battle between LeMond and Hinault. The 1987 edition was more uncertain than past editions, as previous winners Hinault and Zoetemelk had retired, LeMond was absent, and Fignon was suffering from a lingering injury. As such, the race

15250-451: Was the first to use online entries, with riders numbers and timing transponders posted out in the weeks prior to the event. In 2010 a totally disposable timing chip was introduced eliminating the need for riders to hand back their transponder at the end of the ride. BreakAway Cycling sold the rights of the Dragon Ride to Participate Sports, (now Human Race) in December 2012. In 2016, through

15375-524: Was the only Tour to have a winner with a clear biological passport. 2009 saw the return of Lance Armstrong and, strangely, after Contador was able to defeat his teammate, the Danish National Anthem was mistakenly played. No Danish rider was in contention in 2009, and Rasmussen, the only Danish rider capable of winning the Tour during this era, was not even in the race. Another rider absent was Floyd Landis, who had asked Armstrong to get him back on

15500-431: Was then impossible to follow the frontiers, and the Tour increasingly zig-zagged across the country, sometimes with unconnected days' races linked by train, while still maintaining some sort of loop. The Tour returned to national teams for 1967 and 1968 as "an experiment". The Tour returned to trade teams in 1969 with a suggestion that national teams could come back every few years, but this has not happened since. In

15625-495: Was used to take detailed photographs of the surface of the Moon in preparation for the Apollo missions. Other studies conducted in 1965 provided a detailed analysis of the composition of the atmospheres on Mars and Venus, this served as a basis for Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists to predict that these planets had no life. Since 1980, the observatory has had a 2-metre telescope, which is

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