Tour de France Part One
Cycling is not a sport that receives much attention in the United States. The popularity of the sport is, in many areas, limited to enthusiasts without much casual attention. However, the major exception to this rule is the Tour de France. Almost any sports fan you speak with is familiar with the Tour de France. The race dates back more than one hundred years to a competition of sorts between two competing newspapers. There were two companies at the time with very similar names. One was named Le Velo, and the other was named LAuto. The bosses at LAuto wanted to essentially shut down their competitor. From this, the Tour de France was conceived. The race was meant to generate excitement for LAuto and and force it into the favour of the public. That is the reason for the massive 2,200 mile length of the race. Covering a small stretch would not be effective enough, so it was necessary to cover as much ground as possible both to generate buzz and literally cover ground in the marketing effort. Read more
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Tour de France Part Two
There are many reasons that the race has become popular. Perhaps the easiest recognized contributing factor is the length. As previously mentioned, the race is 2,200 miles. This length is equivalent to more than 80 marathons. Participants are thus spending several weeks exerting high amounts of energy to compete in the race, and the endurance is impressive to many fans. Seeing the cyclists perform can sometimes feel surreal because their stamina comes off as so superhuman! Read more
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