What I've learned about the Tour de France so far

The Tour de France celebrated its 100 years of existence last year and drew spectators and fans from all over the world. The Tour is the world’s largest annual sporting event and usually takes place at the end of June or the beginning of July and lasts for three weeks. The entire race covers approximately 3,500 kilometers which equals 2175 miles. Each year, the “Grand Depart”, which is the opening of the race, is regularly held outside of France – in 2012 it was hosted by Belgium and last year it departed from Corsica, which politically belongs to France.
Over 188 countries around the world broadcast the Tour de France and attract an annual television audience of 3.5 billion people worldwide. This audience can witness 4,700 hours of TV coverage of which the last two hours of every stage is broadcasted live across western Europe. In order to host the teams, staff, press and tour personnel, 1,200 hotel rooms have to be reserved and made available each night. This explains why most of the 12 million spectators that come from all over the world prefer to camp out along the route of the Tour de France. Most of these spectators traveled more than 80 miles to see a stage of the Tour, 30% of those spectators are women.

50 Research Questions about the Tour de France

1. What other sports existed for 100 years?
2. What year was the most popular one in the history of the Tour de France (TDF)?
3. How many people have died while competing in the TDF?
4. How many cyclists in total have competed since the beginning of the TDF until today?
5. Who founded the TDF?
6. Why did he start the TDF/ how did it develop?
7. Why are women not allowed to compete?
8. When did cyclists start using doping in the TDF?
9. What was the trigger/reason for competing cyclists to start using drugs?
10. Which year was the hardest TDF event?
11. Which year had the most climbs/highest elevation?
12. How many people watched the TDF on TV in 2013?
13. How many spectators came to see the cyclists along the TDF course in 2013?
14. Who are the "stars" of the TDF (beyond Lance Armstrong & Jan Ulrich). E.g. who holds the record for certain climbs, etc.
15. How is doping viewed in other countries?
16. Has the image of the TDF changed since scandals about doping were made public?
17. How much did the hardware and gear of the cyclists change since the beginning of the TDF until now?
18. What's the average age of a TDF fan/spectator?
19. How is the gender of people watching the TDF distributed?
20. In which countries is the sport of the TDF most popular?
21. How can a cyclist qualify to compete in the TDF?
22. What's the average age of cyclists racing in the TDF?
23. In what other sports is it known that athletes used drugs to enhance their performance?
24. What kind of drugs and methods are being used in cycling?
25. How many counties follow the TDF?
26. What is the average speed of the TDF riders?
27. Why does the Tour start outside of France?
28. How much money does the winner of the TDF get?
29. What do the different jersey colors mean?
30. Why are there so many people coming to see the cyclists along the road?
31. How is the Tour different from other sporting events?
32. Does the Tour always finish on the Champs-Elysees, Paris?
33. Who has did in the Tour?
34. Why did they discontinue the Female TDF?
35. How do the organizers chooses the regions?
36. What does it do to that region?
37. How did the rules change since the first TDF?
38. Who is the director of the TDF?
39. How do people from the US compared to other counties view Lance Armstrong?
40. What do the time trials mean?
41. What's the difference between a stage winner vs a winning team?
42. How does an individual win?
43. How does a team win?
44. Is there an age limit of how young or old one can be?
45. What was the oldest cyclist in the Tour?
46. What was the youngest cyclist?
47. Where there ever any terrorist attacks attempted on the tour?
48. Where there any protests associated with the Tour?
49. Was the Tour held during WWI & II?
50. What are the most dangerous passages/stages of the Tour?

Where it all began

I am interested in the world known cycling sport Tour de France.  I do know that The Tour de France is one of the most grueling endurance athletic competitions in the world, involving over 2,000 miles of cycling spread across twenty-one stages, fierce competition, and roughly 100,000 feet of elevation gain - an amount equal to approximately three-and-a-half Mt. Everests. It crosses major mountain ranges and is relentless and deliberate in its difficulty.

The reason why I am personally interested in the Tour is that in its 100 years of existence, nobody has ever run the entire course - until this past summer.

My girlfriend Zoe Romano, spent her summer vacation tackling the Tour course on foot, averaging thirty miles a day for ten weeks. She started on May 18th, six weeks ahead of the cyclists, and finished on August 1, a week and a half after the official Tour finish. Romano followed the cycling course, conquering renowned climbs such as Mont Ventoux, Col de La Madeleine, and back-to-back ascents of the Alpe D'Huez, as the course dictated. She burned through five pairs of sneakers, ate 4,000 calories daily, covered over 2,000 miles total, and raised nearly $200,000 for charity. In a decision to end her journey with a bang, Romano ran the entire final stage - 90 miles - in one go, finishing in just under 23 hours.

During the run, I traveled with her, driving as a one-man support team and documenting the journey. We experienced France a mile at a time; slept, lodged, and ran with local hosts; and viewed the Tour de France culture and cycling and fan community as few others have.

However,  I am currently working on producing a feature length documentary about her run and would like to use this blog to further research the culture and history of the Tour de France. I know that I experienced the Tour de France hands on but have still many questions that are open, but one stands out to me:

Where does the immense pressure come from, that many competing cyclists feel the urge to use drugs in order to place in one of the top places?