Tour de France 2023
The Tour de France, also called Grande Boucle or simply Le Tour, probably is the most renowned and meaningful cycling event worldwide. Numerous legends of winners beaming with joy, of disappointed losers, of rejoicing fans and of sobering crises surround Le Tour.
Since 1903, it has taken place every year in July and leads across France and its adjacent countries in a changing 3,500 km course. Approximately 20 stages lead across cobblestones, through plains, hilly surroundings and the high mountain regions of the Alps and Pyrenees. The average speed performed by the road cyclists lies at approx. 40 km/h.
The Tour de France is said to be the most demanding cycling competition worldwide.
The colours of the official classification jerseys of the Tour are yellow, green, white or with dots and have the following meanings:
Yellow Jersey: This jersey is worn by the individual overall leader after adding up all times and stages.
Green Jersey: The jersey for the best sprinter. At the finish line and intermediate sprints classification points are awarded. The leader of this ranking wears the Green Jersey.
Mountain Jersey: Red dots on a white jersey identify the leader of mountain classifications. When passing the highest point of a mountain pass, or of a slope and at the finish line in the mountains classification points are awarded. Depending on the level of difficulty, slopes are divided into five categories.
White Jersey: The best newcomer in the overall classification (maximum age: 25 years) is entitled to wear the White Classification Jersey of the Tour de France.
Among the participating cycling sports teams we can of course find heavyweights of the World Tour such as INEOS Grenadier, Jumbo Visma, Bora-Hansgrohe, Trek-Segafredo, Movistar and Soudal-Quick Step among others, who enter the race wearing cycling jerseys partly designed specially for the Tour de France