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.