Tour de France - Amazing Facts

[presto]

Amazing Facts

Calories consumed from start to finish: 118,000 (5,900 x 20 days). The equivalent of 26 Mars Bars a day.

Once or twice a day riders speed past a "feed zone": Here team assistants and masseurs hold out small bags or ‘musettes’ containing more sandwiches, cakes and fruit. The riders do not stop but snatch the bags as they fly past. Discarded musettes are highly prized by souvenir hunters

Energy saved by riding in someone's slipstream: Usually nine men in the team will help their leader by shielding him from the wind, enabling him to save about 20% of his energy

Typical number of chains used by a single rider during the race: Three (American Lance Armstrong, seven times winner, now retired, averaged one chain a week)

Lowest number of finishers: Just ten in 1919 (out of 69 riders)

Most stages won by a single rider throughout their career: 34, Eddy Merckx

Highest number of stages won on one Tour: Eight accomplished by three riders (1) Charles Pelissier (1930), (2) Eddy Merckx (1970, 1974), and (3) Freddy Maertens (1976)

Why the organisers were nicknamed assassins: Today the race is approximately 3,500 km long, around 1,000 km longer than the first edition in 1903. But in 1907 organisers extended it to 4,500 km - almost twice the length of the first event - adding mountain passes for extra excitement. The riders were not best pleased.

Most different riders wearing the yellow jersey in one Tour: Eight (1987)

Greatest winning margin (since 1947): Fausto Coppi came first with Stan Ockers trailing an embarrassing 28 minutes, 27 seconds behind in 1952. Shortest winning margin: Greg LeMond beat Laurent Fignon in 1989 with just eight seconds to spare

Fastest prologue (the speed trial before the race starts): Briton Chris Boardman managed an amazing speed of 55.152 kph in 1994 over a 7.2 km stretch

Most famous climb: Alpe d'Huez in the Alps. This monster 21-hairpin climb is 13.8 km at an average gradient of 7.9%, from the Isere Valley to the summit of the 'Col of the Alps'

Highest total number of "King of the Mountains" victories: Seven by Richard Virenque

Fastest average speed over whole Tour: 41.654 kph by Lance Armstrong in 2005

Oldest and youngest race winners: Firmin Lambot (36 years) in 1922 and Henri Cornet (just 20 years) in 1904

Most Tours ridden by one rider: 16 by Joop Zoetemelk, between 1970 and 1986. He finished every one

Estimated number of spectators along the route: 15 million

Fastest on individual time trial (excluding prologue): 54.68 kph by David Zabriski in 2005

French wins: 36 since it started in 1903. However, they have not won in 20 years