The Tour de France is considered by many to be the greatest sporting event in the world. A bicycle race spread out over 20 days, the Tour is roughly the equivalent of running a marathon, every day, for nearly a month. RideLust recently published a list of things you probably didn't know about the Tour deFrance, and here are a few excepts:
- A rider needs to eat the caloric equivalent of 12 Big Macs per day to replace the energy burned in the race.
- The average rider wears out three chains during the Tour.
- The largest victory margin was 28 minutes and 27 seconds, in 1952.
- The fastest average speed was 25.026 miles per hour, set by Lance Armstron in 1999.
- The rear derailleur, used to change gear ratios, wasn't introduced until 1937. Prior to this, riders had a climbing gear and a descending gear, which required them to remove and rotate their rear wheels.
- Despite urban legend to the contrary, only one rider has died on a mountain ascent, and this was later attributed to heat stroke.
- A bicycle used in the Tour must weigh a minimum of 14.998 pounds.
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