Tour de France

The Tour de France (French pronunciation: ​[tuʁ də fʁɑ̃s]) is an annual multiple stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. The race was first organized in 1903 to increase paper sales for the magazine L'Auto; it is currently 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 primarily 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 mostly UCI WorldTeams, with the exception of the teams that the organizers invite.

The Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España make up cycling's prestigious, three-week-long Grand Tours; the Tour is the oldest and generally considered the most prestigious of the three. Traditionally, the race is held primarily 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, and the finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. The modern editions of the Tour de France consist of 21 day-long segments (stages) over a 23-day period and cover around 3,500 kilometres (2,200 mi). The race alternates between clockwise and counterclockwise circuits of France.

France

France (French: [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a sovereign state comprising territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European part of France, called metropolitan France, extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. France spans 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and has a total population of 66.6 million. It is a unitary semi-presidential republic with the capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. The Constitution of France establishes the state as secular and democratic, with its sovereignty derived from the people.

During the Iron Age, what is now Metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The Gauls were conquered in 51 BC by the Roman Empire, which held Gaul until 486. The Gallo-Romans faced raids and migration from the Germanic Franks, who dominated the region for hundreds of years, eventually creating the medieval Kingdom of France. France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years' War (1337 to 1453) strengthening French state-building and paving the way for a future centralized absolute monarchy. During the Renaissance, France experienced a vast cultural development and established the beginning of a global colonial empire. The 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars between Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots).

Amaury Sport Organisation

The Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) is part of the French media group, EPA (Éditions Philippe Amaury). It organises sporting events including the Tour de France, Vuelta a España and Paris–Nice professional cycle road races, and the Dakar Rally. In 2008 it began the Central Europe Rally, a rally raid endurance race in Romania and Hungary.

The Tour de France was instituted by the newspaper L'Auto in 1903. The paper was closed after the 1939-45 War because of its links with the occupying Germans and a new paper, L'Équipe, took over. L'Équipe (now part of EPA) organised the Tour until the race was taken over by its parent company, ASO.

ASO organises the Paris Marathon, cycling events in Africa (Tour du Faso) and the Middle East (Tour of Qatar), golf (the Open de France, Lacoste Ladies Open de France and Grand Prix Schweppes) and sailing (Tour de France à la voile). ASO also organises cyclosportives events for amateur cyclists, including the L'Étape du Tour and La Etapa de la Vuelta.

July 1

July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 183 days remaining until the end of the year.
The end of this day marks the halfway point of a leap year. It also falls on the same day of the week as New Year's Day in a leap year.

Events

2017 Tour de France

The 2017 Tour de France is a three-week Grand Tour cycling stage race that will take place principally in France between 1 and 23 July 2017.

The race will begin with an individual time trial in Düsseldorf on 1 July, with the following two stages also taking place in Germany.

Route

The start of the 2017 Tour (known as the Grand Depart) was originally scheduled to be in London; this would have been the third time the Tour had visited London, following the 2007 and 2014 editions. In September 2017, a week before this was due to be announced, Transport for London pulled out of the bid. It was later revealed that this was the decision of the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, on the grounds of cost: hosting the Grand Depart would have cost GB£35 million.

In December 2015, ASO announced that the Grand Depart would take place with three stages based in Düsseldorf in Germany; this will be the fourth time that the Tour has begun in Germany and the first since 1987. The bid to host the Tour was only narrowly approved by the city council. The return to Germany followed a resurgence in German cycling, with riders including Tony Martin, Marcel Kittel and John Degenkolb On 14 January 2016, details of the opening two stages were announced. The first stage would be a 13-kilometre (8.1 mi) individual time trial in Düsseldorf itself, with Martin immediately one of the favourites to win the stage and to take the first yellow jersey of the Tour. The second stage would also begin in Düsseldorf, with more details of the stage still to be revealed.