Netherlands
The Netherlands is a country located in Northwestern Europe. The European portion of the Netherlands consists of twelve separate provinces that border Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, the North Sea to the northwest, with maritime borders in the North Sea with Belgium and the United Kingdom. Together with three island territories in the Caribbean Sea—Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba— it forms a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands; the official language is Dutch, but a secondary official language in the province of Friesland is West Frisian. The six largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Tilburg. Amsterdam is the country's capital, while The Hague holds the seat of the States General and Supreme Court; the Port of Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe, the largest in any country outside Asia. The country is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union.
It hosts several intergovernmental organisations and international courts, many of which are centered in The Hague, dubbed'the world's legal capital'. Netherlands means'lower countries' in reference to its low elevation and flat topography, with only about 50% of its land exceeding 1 metre above sea level, nearly 17% falling below sea level. Most of the areas below sea level, known as polders, are the result of land reclamation that began in the 16th century. With a population of 17.30 million people, all living within a total area of 41,500 square kilometres —of which the land area is 33,700 square kilometres —the Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. It is the world's second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products, owing to its fertile soil, mild climate, intensive agriculture; the Netherlands was the third country in the world to have representative government, it has been a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a unitary structure since 1848.
The country has a tradition of pillarisation and a long record of social tolerance, having legalised abortion and human euthanasia, along with maintaining a progressive drug policy. The Netherlands abolished the death penalty in 1870, allowed women's suffrage in 1917, became the world's first country to legalise same-sex marriage in 2001, its mixed-market advanced economy had the thirteenth-highest per capita income globally. The Netherlands ranks among the highest in international indexes of press freedom, economic freedom, human development, quality of life, as well as happiness; the Netherlands' turbulent history and shifts of power resulted in exceptionally many and varying names in different languages. There is diversity within languages; this holds for English, where Dutch is the adjective form and the misnomer Holland a synonym for the country "Netherlands". Dutch comes from Theodiscus and in the past centuries, the hub of Dutch culture is found in its most populous region, home to the capital city of Amsterdam.
Referring to the Netherlands as Holland in the English language is similar to calling the United Kingdom "Britain" by people outside the UK. The term is so pervasive among potential investors and tourists, that the Dutch government's international websites for tourism and trade are "holland.com" and "hollandtradeandinvest.com". The region of Holland consists of North and South Holland, two of the nation's twelve provinces a single province, earlier still, the County of Holland, a remnant of the dissolved Frisian Kingdom. Following the decline of the Duchy of Brabant and the County of Flanders, Holland became the most economically and politically important county in the Low Countries region; the emphasis on Holland during the formation of the Dutch Republic, the Eighty Years' War and the Anglo-Dutch Wars in the 16th, 17th and 18th century, made Holland serve as a pars pro toto for the entire country, now considered either incorrect, informal, or, depending on context, opprobrious. Nonetheless, Holland is used in reference to the Netherlands national football team.
The region called the Low Countries and the Country of the Netherlands. Place names with Neder, Nieder and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in places all over Europe, they are sometimes used in a deictic relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Oben, Superior or Haut. In the case of the Low Countries / Netherlands the geographical location of the lower region has been more or less downstream and near the sea; the geographical location of the upper region, changed tremendously over time, depending on the location of the economic and military power governing the Low Countries area. The Romans made a distinction between the Roman provinces of downstream Germania Inferior and upstream Germania Superior; the designation'Low' to refer to the region returns again in the 10th century Duchy of Lower Lorraine, that covered much of the Low Countries. But this time the corresponding Upper region is Upper Lorraine, in nowadays Northern France; the Dukes of Burgundy, who ruled the Low Countries in the 15th century, used the term les pays de par deçà for the Low Countries as opposed to les pays de par delà for their original
Team Jumbo–Visma
Team Jumbo–Visma is a men's professional bicycle racing team, successor of the former Rabobank. The team consists of three sections: ProTeam and Cyclo-cross; the cycling team was founded for the 1984 season under the name Kwantum–Decosol, anchored by Jan Raas, with cyclists coming from the TI–Raleighcycling team. With Raas as directeur sportif from 1985 onwards, the head sponsor was succeeded by Superconfex, Buckler and Novell before Raas signed a contract with Rabobank, a Dutch association of credit unions, in 1996. After Rabobank sponsorship ended in 2012, it was known as Blanco and Lotto-Jumbo. Since 1984, the team has entered every Tour de France and since the introduction of divisions in 1998, the team has always been in the first division. A 2012 investigation by Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant concluded that doping was at least tolerated, from the team's 1996 beginnings as Rabobank until at least 2007. In road bicycle racing, teams take name from their main sponsors. Team LottoNL–Jumbo has had the following sponsors, thus names.
After the season of 1983, the TI–Raleigh team split up because of tension between former world champion Jan Raas and team leader Peter Post, with seven cyclists following Post to the new Panasonic-team and six cyclists joining Raas to the Kwantum team. The team captains of the Kwantum team were Jan Gisbers and Walter Godefroot. In their first year, the team managed to win the intermediate sprints classification and one stage in the 1984 Tour de France, the Amstel Gold Race and the Dutch national road championship. After the 1984 season, Jan Raas became team manager. In 1985 the Kwantum team had a successful year. Victories included two Tour de France stages, the Tour of Luxembourg, Paris–Tours, Paris–Brussels, the Tirreno–Adriatico, the Tour of Belgium, again the Dutch national road championship, the World cycling championship. 1986 was less successful. For the 1987 season, the main sponsor became Superconfex. In that year, the team was known as Superconfex – Kwantum – Yoko – Colnago. Jan Raas remained the team leader.
After a victory in Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne for Ludo Peeters, the new sprinter Jean-Paul van Poppel gave the team a great year, with three stage wins in the Tour de France and the victory in the points classification in the Tour de France for Jean-Paul van Poppel. Joop Zoetemelk ended his career with a victory in the Amstel Gold Race. From 1988 on, the team was known as Superconfex – Yoko – Opel – Colnago. 1988 was a successful season for the team, with victories in Paris–Brussels, the Tour of Ireland, the Tour of Belgium, the Amstel Gold Race, six stages in the Tour de France. In the 1989 season, Jean-Paul van Poppel changed to the Panasonic team. In 1989 his sprinting capacities were missed, the number of victories was reduced. Still, Paris–Brussels, the Tour of Flanders and Paris–Tours were won, together with two stages in the 1989 Tour de France. After the 1989 season, the main sponsoring was taken over by Buckler; the Tour of Belgium was won again, the Ronde van Nederland was won as well. That year, the team had the winner of the Dutch national road race championships again, as Peter Winnen won the race.
In 1991, the team won the Ronde van Nederland and Tour of Flanders. The team had taken over Steven Rooks from the Panasonic team, who became the Dutch national road race champion; the worst year in the team's history was 1992. Only 26 races were won compared to 64 victories in the successful 1988 season. 1992 saw a young Erik Dekker entering the team. After that season, Buckler decided to stop sponsoring. A new sponsor was found in WordPerfect. Steven Rooks left the team, Raúl Alcalá joined the team. Still, the 1993 season did not turn out a great season, with only 29 victories, the most important being Three Days of De Panne and the Tour DuPont. In 1993 and 1994, Michael Boogerd and Leon van Bon started their professional career in the team, Viatcheslav Ekimov came; the Tour du Pont was won together with the Tour of Luxembourg. The year still was disappointing with only 25 victories. In 1995, the team was joined by Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, the winner of the points classification in the 1994 Tour de France.
Abdoujaparov won one stage in the Tour de France, but other than that, the year was still not what the sponsors had hoped, so a new sponsor had to be found. The title sponsor of the previous two years, WordPerfect, was a product of Novell Software, which carried the team's name this one season. Raas became the team manager of the Rabobank team while Theo de Rooy, Adrie van Houwelingen and Zoetemelk were directeur sportifs; as a Dutch cycling team, the team has signed many of the prominent Dutch cyclists of the 1990s including Adrie van der Poel, Richard Groenendaal and Erik Breukink as well as keeping the prominent Dutch cyclists from the Novell team that included Leon van Bon, Erik Dekker and Michael Boogerd. In addition, the team had many successful cyclists in Edwig van Hooydonck, Rolf Sørensen, Johan Bruyneel and the neo-pro for the 1996 season Australian Robbie McEwen; the Rabobank team has dominated the Dutch National championships over several disciplines in cycling for example Elite and Under 23 time trial championships and Under 23 Road Race and Under 23 Cyclo-cross disciplines as well as Mountain Bike championships.
The team has had the World Champion in several categories for example Cyclo-cross. Ósca
Cycle sport
Cycle sport is competitive physical activity using bicycles. There are several categories of bicycle racing including road bicycle racing, time trialling, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX, cycle speedway. Non-racing cycling sports include artistic cycling, cycle polo, freestyle BMX and mountain bike trials; the Union Cycliste Internationale is the world governing body for cycling and international competitive cycling events. The International Human Powered Vehicle Association is the governing body for human-powered vehicles that imposes far fewer restrictions on their design than does the UCI; the UltraMarathon Cycling Association is the governing body for many ultra-distance cycling races. Bicycle racing is recognised as an Olympic sport. Bicycle races are popular all over the world in Europe; the countries most devoted to bicycle racing include Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Other countries with international standing include Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The first bicycle race is popularly held to have been a 1,200 meter race on the 31 May 1868 at the Parc de Saint-Cloud, Paris. It was won by expatriate Englishman James Moore; the machine is now on display at the museum in Ely, England. The Union Cycliste Internationale was founded on 14 April 1900 by Belgium, the United States, France and Switzerland to replace the International Cycling Association, formed in 1892, over a row with Great Britain as well as because of other issues. Road bicycle racing involve both team and individual competition, races are contested in various ways, they range from the one-day road race and time trial to multi-stage events like the Tour de France and its sister events which make up cycling's Grand Tours. The races take place from spring through to autumn. Many riders from the northern hemisphere spend the winter in countries such as Australia, to compete or train. Professional races range from the three-week "Grand Tour" stage races such as the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España to multi-day stage races such as the Tour de Suisse and Tour of California, to single day "Classics" such as the Tour of Flanders and Milan–San Remo.
The longest one-day road race sanctioned by USA Cycling is Lotoja which covers the 206 miles from Logan, Utah to Jackson, Wyoming. Criteriums are races based on circuits less than a mile in length and sometimes run for a set time rather than a specific distance. Criteriums are the most popular form of road racing in North America. In Belgium, kermesses are popular, single-day events of over 120 km; as well as road races in which all riders start individual time trial and team time trial events are held on road-based courses. Track cycling encompasses races that take place on banked velodromes. Events are quite diverse and can range from individual and team pursuits, two-man sprints, to various group and mass start races. Competitors use track bicycles which do not have freewheels. Cyclo-cross originated as a sport for road racers during the off season, to vary their training during the cold months. Races take place in the autumn and winter and consist of many laps of a 2–3 km or 1–2 mile course featuring pavement, wooded trails, steep hills, obstacles requiring the rider to dismount, carry the bike and remount in one motion.
Races for senior categories are between 30 minutes and an hour long, the distance varying depending on the conditions. The sport is strongest in traditional road cycling countries such as France. Mountain bike races involve moderate to high degree of technical riding. There are several varieties. BMX takes place off-road. BMX races are sprints on purpose-built off-road single-lap tracks on single-gear bicycles. Riders navigate a dirt course of banked and flat corners. Cycle speedway is bicycle racing on 70 -- 90 m in length. Motor-paced racing and Keirin use motorcycles for pacing so bicyclists achieve higher speeds. Speeds achieved on indoor tracks are greater than those on roads. Other factors affecting speed are the route profile, wind conditions and elevation. At a 2013 event in Mexico, François Pervis achieved an average of 21.40 metres per second with a flying start over 200 meters. The top average speed over the men's 1 km time trial at the 2004 Summer Olympics was 16.4 metres per second recorded by Chris Hoy.
Average speeds drop with increasing distance, so that over the 120 km Cootamundra Annual Classic it is 11.8 metres per second. In the 259 km 2010 Paris-Roubaix, Fabian Cancellara set a speed of 10.9 metres per second, while over the 818 km Furnace Creek 508, the speed drops to 8.3 metres per second. For an extreme road distance such as the 4800 km Race Across America, the average speed of the record holder is 5.7 metres per second, while the 2350 km Freedom Trail over mountainous terrain in South Africa is at a record speed of 1.9 metres per second. Mountain bike trials is a sport where riders navigate natural and man-made obstacles without putting down their foot, or "dabbing", it is similar to motorcycle trials. Points are awarded for bike handling skills. Freestyle BMX is an extreme sport of stunt riding BMX bikes. Cycling Mountain bi
1986 Giro d'Italia
The 1986 Giro d'Italia was the 69th running of the Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's Grand Tours races. The Giro started in Palermo, on 12 May, with a 1 km prologue and concluded in Merano, on 2 June, with a 108.6 km mass-start stage. A total of 171 riders from nineteen teams entered the 22-stage race, won by Italian Roberto Visentini of the Carrera Jeans–Vagabond team; the second and third places were taken by Italian riders Giuseppe Saronni and Francesco Moser, respectively. Swiss rider Urs Freuler was the first rider to wear the race leader's maglia rosa; the race lead was passed between five riders across the first five days of racing. Saronni gained the overall lead after the conclusion of the sixth stage and maintained an advantage through the fifteenth day of racing; as the race crossed several Alpine passes in the sixteenth stage, Visentini gained the race lead due to his strong performance on the stage. Visentini defended the race lead until the race's conclusion on 2 June. Amongst the other classifications that the race awarded, Guido Bontempi of Carrera Jeans–Vagabond won the points classification, Pedro Muñoz of Fagor won the mountains classification, Gis Gelati-Oece's Marco Giovannetti completed the Giro as the best neo-professional in the general classification, finishing eighth overall.
Supermercati Brianzoli finishing as the winners of the team classification, ranking each of the twenty teams contesting the race by lowest cumulative time. A total of nineteen teams were invited to participate in the 1986 Giro d'Italia; each team sent a squad of nine riders, which meant that the race started with a peloton of 171 cyclists. The presentation of the teams – where each team's roster and manager are introduced in front the media and local dignitaries – took place at the Palazzo dei Normanni on 11 May. From the riders that began this edition, 143 made it to the finish in Merano; the teams entering the race were: The starting peloton did not include the 1985 winner, Bernard Hinault. An El Mundo Deportivo writer believed LeMond and Saronni to be the favorites to win the overall crown. In addition, the writer felt that Pedro Muñoz had the best chances to win the race, out of all the Spanish riders entering the event. Atala-Ofmega sports director Franco Criblori believed that Saronni's results would depend on what form he could maintain in the mountains.
In addition, Criblori thought Dutchman Johan van der Velde and Swiss rider Niki Rüttimann were two foreigners to consider for a high place in the general classification. The route for the 1986 edition of the Giro d'Italia was revealed to the public on television by head organizer Vincenzo Torriani on 8 February 1986, it contained four time trials, three of which were individual and one of, a team event. There were twelve stages containing categorized climbs, of which three had summit finishes: stage 14, to Sauze d'Oulx; the organizers chose to include no rest days. Torriani did not want to interfere with the World Cup being held in Mexico; when compared to the previous year's race, the race was 140 km shorter, contained two less rest days, the same number of time trials. In addition, this race contained the same number of stages, but one less set of half stages.l'Unita writer Gino Sala believed the route to be more challenging than the routes within the past few years. He criticized the route for the stage three team time trial for going over dangerous roads.
Author Bill McGann believed Torriani designed the route to be flat in order to increase the likelihood of Italian riders Giuseppe Saronni and Francesco Moser winning the race. Five-time champion Eddy Merckx believed the route to be "decapitated." The Giro began with a 1 km prologue that navigated through the streets of Palermo, won by Urs Freuler by one second over the second-placed finisher. That day, the first mass-start stage was raced; the leg was marred by a large crash about 10 km from the finish which saw Emilio Ravasio sustain heavy injuries and continue to race until the end of the leg. Shortly after the stage, he fell into a coma, only to die two weeks later. Sergio Santimaria won the stage through a field sprint, with the time bonus, he earned race leader's maglia rosa. Stage 2 culminated with a bunch sprint where Skala-Skil's Jean-Paul van Poppel took the lead with 150 m left and held on to win, as well as take the overall lead; the third stage was a team time trial. Del Tongo-Colnago won the time trial by nine seconds over Supermercati Brianzoli-Essebi, which put their rider Giuseppe Saronni into the pink jersey.
Gianbattista Baronchelli rode away on a climb late into the fourth stage and rode by himself to victory, earning the race lead in the process. American Greg LeMond won the fifth stage after attacking a few kilometers from the finish. Saronni led the peloton across the finish line. In the race's sixth stage, Roberto Visentini won the leg after attacking a few kilometers from the finish. Saronni regained the race lead after finishing second on the stage and earning a fifteen-second time bonus; the next two stages both resulted in a bunch sprint, with Guido Bontempi winning stage 7 and Franco Chioccioli, stage 8. The ninth stage contained the climbs of Monte Terminillo and La Forca and was considered one of the tougher stages in the race. Malvor-Bottecchia-Vaporella rider Acácio da Silva won the stage as the top of the general classification rankings remained unchanged from the previous days; the twelfth stage of the race was a 46 km individual time trial that stretched from Sinalunga to Siena. Lech Piasecki of Del Tongo-Colnago won the stage and was one of fiv
1991 Tour de France
The 1991 Tour de France was the 78th edition of the Tour de France, taking place from 6 to 28 July. The total race distance was 22 stages over 3,914 km; the race was won by Miguel Indurain, whose Banesto team won the team classification. The points classification was won by Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, although he crashed out in the final stage; the mountains classification was won by Claudio Chiappucci, the young rider classification by Álvaro Mejía. The 1991 Tour started with 198 cyclists, divided into 22 teams of 9 cyclists. Sixteen teams qualified by being ranked in the top 16 of the FICP ranking for teams in May 1991: After the 1991 Giro d'Italia and the Dauphiné Libéré, the Tour organiser gave six additional wildcards; the teams entering the race were: Qualified teams Invited teams It was the first year for teams to use tri-spoked wheels at the event. Greg LeMond, the winner of the last two editions, was still considered a favourite going into the race, although not by the French media, as his early season had been unsuccessful.
The prologue was won by specialist Thierry Marie, who had won the prologue in the previous race. LeMond finished with the third-best time. In the first stage, a group of eleven cyclists escaped, including some cyclists aiming for the overall win: LeMond, Rolf Sørensen and Kelly. Marie was not in this group, thanks to time bonuses LeMond became the race leader; that day, the team time trial was run, won by Sørensen's team, Sørensen became the new leader of the general classification. Sørensen kept the lead for a few stages, he managed to finish the stage, but was unable to start the next stage, so the sixth stage started without a yellow jersey. In that sixth stage, Thierry Marie escaped early in the stage, reached the finish alone, with a solo of 234 kilometres, the third-longest post-war solo escape in the Tour de France, his margin to the rest was big enough to put him back in the top position of the general classification. The time trial in stage eight was won by Miguel Indurain, with LeMond in second place, only eight seconds slower.
This was enough to make LeMond the new leader, with Breukink in second place. Stage 9 saw Mauro Ribeiro, to win a stage at the Tour de France. Before the tenth stage, two cyclists from PDM gave up. During that stage, two more gave up, one came in late; the team revealed that the remaining four cyclists were sick, the next morning the entire team abandoned. There were rumours that a doping program had gone wrong. After the eleventh stage, there was a rest day, on which the cyclists were transferred from Nantes to Pau, by airplane. Urs Zimmermann had a fear of flying, so he refused to use the airplane; the jury disqualified him, but after the other cyclists protested, he was allowed to use other means of transportation. The Tour entered the Pyrenees in the twelfth stage. A group escaped with some strong outsiders: Luc Leblanc, Charly Mottet and Pascal Richard. LeMond was unable to organise the chase, so the group stayed away until the finish. Mottet won the stage, Leblanc became the new leader in the general classification, with LeMond now in second place.
The thirteenth stage included more climbs than the twelfth stage. LeMond escaped on the bottom of the Tourmalet, but Indurain chased him and reached him, taking other cyclists with him. Near the top of the Tourmalet, LeMond was unable to follow, lost contact with the others. After the top, LeMond was able to get back on the descent. LeMond was unable to do so; when they reached the start of the climb of the Col d'Aspin, LeMond was within sight of Indurain, but on the climb Indurain increased the distance. Claudio Chiappucci had escaped from the chasing group, was getting close to Indurain; when Indurain heard this, he waited for Chiappucci. Chiappucci and Indurain stayed away until the finish. LeMond finished that stage in ninth place; the next three stages were flat, no important changes in the general classification are expected. But LeMond did everything he could to win back time, escaped on the sixteenth stage; the seventeenth stage was with an uphill finish on l'Alpe d'Huez. Gianni Bugno won followed by Indurain.
LeMond lost two more minutes this stage. The eighteenth stage was the last mountainous stage, in this stage LeMond lost seven minutes. Indurain was leading three minutes before Gianni Bugno; because a time trial, Indurain's specialty, was the last serious obstacle in the race, Indurain was sure of the victory. And indeed, Indurain won that time trial, so he won the Tour de France of 1991. In the last stage, there was a crash on the Champs-Elysées, just before the finish, after Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, sprinting for the stage victory, hit a barrier. Abdoujaparov was leading the points classification, but had to finish the stage to win this classification. After fifteen minutes, he was able to walk his bicycle across the finish line. There were several classifications in the 1991 Tour de France; the most important was the general classification, calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage. The cyclist with the least accumulated time was the race leader, identified by the yellow jersey.
PDM (cycling team)
PDM was a Dutch professional cycling team from 1986 until the end of 1992. Gin-MG was co-sponsor in Spanish races and Cidona was co-sponsor in the 1991 Nissan Classic; the team was sponsored by Philips Dupont Magnetics, a joint venture between the electronics company and the chemical company, DuPont. The team rode Concorde bicycles, manufactured in Italy, by several builders. Roy Schuiten was team manager and Jan Gisbers directeur sportif in 1986. Gisbers took over as the team manager the following year and remained until 1992, he was joined by Ferdi van den Haute. The team was owned by Manfred Krikke, of Veltec Rentmeester; the team was successful in classics and had a rider second overall in the Tour de France in 1987 with Pedro Delgado and 1988 with Steven Rooks. It had third place with Erik Breukink in 1990, it won the Tour team classification in 1988 and 1989. PDM rider Gert-Jan Theunisse was second in the 1988 Tour de France, battling former PDM teammate Pedro Delgado, when he tested positive for testosterone and received a 10-minute penalty.
The team dropped out of the 1991 Tour de France with reported food poisoning Team members and team doctor Wim Sanders said in a TV documentary in 2008 that the cause was careless storage of Intralipid, a nutritional aid with which riders had been injected. The team continued one more year. In November 1997 Cyclingnews.com reported an inquiry in The Netherlands. Which appeared to reveal doping in the PDM team. Wim Sanders, the doctor from 1990 to 1991, was the centre of the investigation, initiated when the general manager of the team, Manfred Krikke, called the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service to investigate, it was said Sanders supplied anabolic steroids and EPO to the team and was responsible for the intralipid affair of the 1991 Tour de France. According to cyclingnews.com, 1990 was the height of the drug taking in the team and two riders stopped with heart problems. Gisbers denied knowledge of doping. Tour de France Points classification 1989 World Road Race Championship 1990 Netherlands Road Race Championship 1987 Switzerland Road Race Championship 1987 Germany Road Race Championship 1991 Amstel Gold Race 1986 Paris–Tours 1987 Züri-Metzgete 1988 Clásica de San Sebastián 1988, 1992 Liège–Bastogne–Liège 1988, 1989 Giro di Lombardia 1991 Ronde van Nederland 1986 Vuelta a Andalucía 1986 Grand Prix de Wallonie 1986, 1992 Tour de Luxembourg 1986 Paris–Brussels 1987 Étoile de Bessèges 1988 Grand Prix de Fourmies 1987 Herald Sun Tour 1988 Ruta de Mexico 1989 Vuelta a Asturias 1989, 1990 Tour de Trump 1990 Tour du Pont 1990, 1991 Tour de Suisse 1990 Grand Prix Eddy Merckx 1991 Nissan Classic 1990, 1991 Giro del Piemonte 1992
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual men's multiple stage bicycle race held in France, while occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours, it consists of 21 day-long stages over the course of 23 days; the race was first organized in 1903 to increase sales for the newspaper L'Auto and is run by the Amaury Sport Organisation. The race has been held annually since its first edition in 1903 except when it was stopped for the two World Wars; as the Tour gained prominence and popularity, the race was lengthened and its reach began to extend around the globe. Participation expanded from a French field, as riders from all over the world began to participate in the race each year; the Tour is a UCI World Tour event, which means that the teams that compete in the race are UCI WorldTeams, with the exception of the teams that the organizers invite. Traditionally, the race is held in the month of July. While the route changes each year, the format of the race stays the same with the appearance of time trials, the passage through the mountain chains of the Pyrenees and the Alps, the finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
The modern editions of the Tour de France consist of 21 day-long segments over a 23-day period and cover around 3,500 kilometres. The race alternates between counterclockwise circuits of France. There are between 20 and 22 teams, with eight riders in each. All of the stages are timed to the finish; the rider with the lowest cumulative finishing times is the leader of the race and wears the yellow jersey. While the general classification garners the most attention, there are other contests held within the Tour: the points classification for the sprinters, the mountains classification for the climbers, young rider classification for riders under the age of 26, the team classification for the fastest teams. Achieving a stage win provides prestige accomplished by a team's cycling sprinter specialist; the Tour de France was created in 1903. The roots of the Tour de France trace back to the emergence of two rival sports newspapers in the country. On one hand was Le Vélo, the first and the largest daily sports newspaper in France which sold 80,000 copies a day.
On the other was L'Auto, set-up by journalists and business-people including Comte Jules-Albert de Dion, Adolphe Clément, Édouard Michelin in 1899. The rival paper emerged following disagreements over the Dreyfus Affair, a cause célèbre that divided France at the end of the 19th century over the innocence of Alfred Dreyfus, a French army officer convicted—though exonerated—of selling military secrets to the Germans; the new newspaper appointed Henri Desgrange as the editor. He was a prominent owner with Victor Goddet of the velodrome at the Parc des Princes. De Dion knew him through his cycling reputation, through the books and cycling articles that he had written, through press articles he had written for the Clément tyre company. L'Auto was not the success. Stagnating sales lower than the rival it was intended to surpass led to a crisis meeting on 20 November 1902 on the middle floor of L'Auto's office at 10 Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, Paris; the last to speak was the most junior there, the chief cycling journalist, a 26-year-old named Géo Lefèvre.
Desgrange had poached him from Giffard's paper. Lefèvre suggested a six-day race of the sort popular on the track but all around France. Long-distance cycle races were a popular means to sell more newspapers, but nothing of the length that Lefèvre suggested had been attempted. If it succeeded, it would help L'Auto match its rival and put it out of business, it could, as Desgrange said, "nail Giffard's beak shut." Desgrange and Lefèvre discussed it after lunch. Desgrange was doubtful but the paper's financial director, Victor Goddet, was enthusiastic, he handed Desgrange the keys to the company safe and said: "Take whatever you need." L'Auto announced the race on 19 January 1903. The first Tour de France was staged in 1903; the plan was a five-stage race from 31 May to 5 July, starting in Paris and stopping in Lyon, Marseille and Nantes before returning to Paris. Toulouse was added to break the long haul across southern France from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Stages would go through the night and finish next afternoon, with rest days before riders set off again.
But this proved too daunting and the costs too great for most and only 15 competitors had entered. Desgrange had never been wholly convinced and he came close to dropping the idea. Instead, he cut the length to 19 days, changed the dates to 1 to 19 July, offered a daily allowance to those who averaged at least 20 kilometres per hour on all the stages, equivalent to what a rider would have expected to earn each day had he worked in a factory, he cut the entry fee from 20 to 10 francs and set the first prize at 12,000 francs and the prize for each day's winner at 3,000 francs. The winner would thereby win six times; that attracted between 60 and 80 entrants – the higher number may have included serious inquiries and some who dropped out – among them not just professionals but amateurs, some unemployed, some adventurous. Desgrange seems not to have forgotten the Dreyfus Affair that launched his race and raised the passions of his backers, he announced his new race on 1 July 1903 by citing the writer Émile Zola, whose open letter J'Accuse…! led to Dreyfus's acquittal, establishing the florid style he used henceforth.
The first Tour de France started outside the Ca
Points classification
Overall Étoile de Bessèges