Sport / sports
stage, Maurice Garin, arrived at the finish line at 9am the next morn- ing. Garin led from start to finish, winning in front of 20,000 thrilled Parisians. L'Auto’s circulation in- creased fivefold while the race was being ridden. The traditional race leader’s yel- low jersey was first introduced after World War I. The colour yellow was chosen to make it easier for specta- tors to see the best rider among a large group, but also because L'Auto is printed on yellow paper. The long- est ever Tour de France was held in 1925, when cyclists covered a to- tal of 5,745 kilometres. The news- paper closed down during World War II, but the owners were permit- ted to launch a new one, which led to the birth of L'Équipe. The inau- gural race secured prize money of 20,000 francs, while winners dur- ing the period of the 1970s and ‘80s would receive an apartment. They would later receive both a car and an apartment, only for a return to prize money in the early ‘90s. Tadej Pogačar received half a million eu- ros per victory in 2020 and 2021. The first Tour de France to start abroad was the 1954 edition, when racers set off from Amsterdam. Cy- clists have had to cross the English Channel a total of three times (with the race having started in Dublin, London and Leeds), while the most recent “guest appearance” was in Brussels in 2019. Lance Armstrong won seven consecutive Tours from 1999 to 2006, but the American was stripped of all titles and tro- phies after admitting to doping. Those were the “black years” for the Tour, which has nonetheless managed to return to the routes of its former glory. It is also interest- ing to note that each team arrives with supplies that include 3,900 nutrition bars, 80kg of nuts, rai- sins, apricots and figs, 3,000 bot- tles of water and – most impor- tantly – 20 jars of jam! This should come as no surprise to those who know that each individual compet- itor needs to consume an average of 123,900 calories over the three weeks of the race.
109 th Tour de France From Copenhagen to Paris on two wheels
Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogačar will this year attempt to become the youngest ever competitor to win three consecutive Tour de France titles T his year’s Tour de France starts in Co- penhagen on 1 st July, with the best riders set to cross the finish from Belgrade to Tehran!
Moris Garin, pobednik iz 1904. godi- ne, morao je da vrati tro- fej nakon što se sazna- lo da je jed- nu od etapa prešao vo- zom Maurice Garin, winner of the 1904 edition, had to return the trophy af- ter it was dis- covered that he’d taken a train to com- plete one of the stages
Apart from Denmark, the tour’s cyclists will also traverse Belgium, Luxembourg and Swit- zerland as they head to Paris, at- tempting to conquer the peaks of the Alps and the Pyrenees along the way. France has also long utilised its famous bike race to present its areas of natural beauty and tour- ist attractions to everyone, there- by attracting visitors from all over the world. Returning to the cycle race it- self, the first Tour de France was held in 1903, with the newspaper L'Auto seeking to use this event as a way of increasing its circulation. It has since been held every year, with the only exceptions being in- terruptions during the two world wars. Unbelievably, the race’s pio- neering competitors were forced to ride day and night, as they had to cover a total of 2,428 kilometres in six stages. The winner of the first
line on Paris’s Champs-Élysées 24 days later, when the champi- on and his team will drink cham- pagne, cheered on by hundreds of thousands of cycling fans standing along the avenue. Slovenian cyclist Tadej Po- gačar won convincingly in 2020 and 2021, and no one doubts this 23-year-old’s ability to make it three in a row. The record of five titles has been achieved by local French cyclists Jean Anquetil and Bernard Hinault, Spaniard Miguel Induráin and legendary Belgian Ed- die Merckx, who won a total of 34 stages. This year’s race will include 21 stages, with cyclists covering a total of 3,328 kilometres. To ease your calculations, they will cover a distance equivalent to travelling
102 | Biciklizam » Cycling
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