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?