The Tour de France is the most prestigious cycling race, followed by the other two "Grand Tours", the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España.
The race lasts three weeks and covers approximately 3,600 kilometres (2,200 mi) throughout France and bordering countries.
The race is broken into day-long stages. The rider with the lowest aggregate time at the end of each day wears a yellow jersey.Individual times of each stage are totalled to determine the overall winner.
The country that produced the most winners is France followed by Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, and Spain.
Previous winners include: Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador, Miguel Indurain, Jan Ullrich, Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Philippe Thys, and others.