My favourite thing about the Tour is that it's _the Tour_ ! I first watched it in 1983 or so when Channel 4 in the UK started showing highlights, and I've never missed a year yet. So many memorable moments. Abdou's horrible crash on the Champs Elysees, Roche coming round the corner on La Plagne, LeMond's TT to win against Fignon, Thierry Marie's saddle spoiler... Man, I could fill this box with hundreds of memories. I love this race!
This race has had a huge impact on my marriage. My husband loves to ride and watched every episode religiously. Each day there were 3 or more hours of tape to watch and he did! It's hard to be in the middle of this situation and realize you share your husband with 200 people ( the number of riders usually) so I started listening while he watched. It was really hard to catch on to but I stuck with it and was able to enjoy it literally right next to him. Then I started to pick up on the language and manuveres and could understand why certain moves were so important to the understanding of the whole race. I can now 37 years later discuss it with him and share my insights. This race was the "other woman" in my marriage!
I like this guy who is ALL about TDF haha and I'm trying my best to learn the sport cos I do feel like the race is really important to him. I wanna be able to talk about it with him and be able to "enter" his world :)
Great video! Would love to see a video for intermediate race watchers. How do team strategies work? Working for different riders, how do the domestiques become successful, what are different sorts of tactics to look out for, what more is there to racing than pedal hard eyeballs out the whole time?
I've followed the TdF since the mid-1960's, when we had to wait two weeks for the Cycling News' to come out. But I enjoyed your presentation, and obviously knew it all already!
Wow this was great! I just got into cycling a couple of months ago after dusting off my old single speed bike that was in the garage and taking it down to the beach to ride the bike paths. Just happens that today after our ride at the beach I was trying to explain to my fiend how the TDF works after watching the highlights of the previous days and now this comes out! Awesome keep it up lads.
Excellent tutorial! My favorite feature this year has been the resurgence of Mark Cavendish and his incredible equaling (and hopefully breaking) of Eddie Merckx's record.
Kudos JP, this primer is an excellent intro to the Tour for anyone looking to learn the basics and get sucked into the grandeur of the biggest bike race out there. Nitpick time 😉, I was worried when I knew we were gonna hit a lot of French terms but you pretty much nailed all of them more than adequately for us english speakers. Only quibble is jaune should sound closer to own, than lawn. Well done, it would be great if something like this could remove the barrier to entry for curious observers. Those people who might otherwise be turned off by the complexity around this great event, that the initiated love so much.
Thanks for your comment! Glad you enjoyed the video. The Tour de France is such an amazing event, we want as many people to watch and enjoy it as possible - anything we can do to make it easier to understand!
well, it's been made more complicated over the decades to try to make things more exciting for people watching. like, intermediate sprints were put in to give you something to watch halfway through the stage, as most of the time the action happens in the last 10-20km (out of 180km)
So excited about TDF. I first had the opportunity to watch the live coverage (with' Phil'), in 2014, when I had a broken ankle and in a boot cast. It was the best that could happen that year! My passion grew and grew. No wonder! I grew up on a bike in West Yorkshire. My father was a Time Trials champ back in the pre and post-war Britain days. Spent many days up and down the Dales and other great regions of northern England. I know I am watching intently, for all the old lads who went before, in this beautiful sport. (Sad though, this year, that we could not get the usual channel on TV in Toronto, ON).
2 yrs ago I didn’t even know what a peloton was 😂 a great explanation by the fabulous Jeremy. Still lots to explain with racing, such as etiquette etc.
@Jeremy Powers I undestand you! I am a french canadian so I frequently have that exact same experience with people (mostly tourists) it always ends up in english but we appreciate the effort! Letters pronunciation and sounds in french and english is very different so it is absolutely normal to mispronunce some words! It is the same with French people there accent is so thick that it is very hard for them to speak english correctly. I live in Quebec city so we have the luxury to learn and speak both french and english. I really enjoy your videos we can see in your excitement that you are really passionate about cycling and what you do! Keep it up Jeremy!
Very nicely done! It took me quite a few editions and a bit of reading to figure out what was in this short video! I am really curious about the pronunciation of "Tour" by so many American commentators. I hear "tore" not "tour." Is that the American way? I never knew the prize money amounts before. Thanks again!
2 questions 1st is do you get invited to tour or do you need to approach them so you could join? And 2nd is can a person without a team compete in tour?
While not specific to the Tour I think an explanation of how the timing in races works would also be beneficial. I still don't think I fully understand it
What is your specific question? The clock starts when the first rider rolls off the start line, and for each rider, the clock stops when they cross the finish line. In case a large group of riders crosses the line at approximately the same time, the same time is given to everyone in that group.
You mentioned the GCN Race Pass as the best way to watch the TdF. But for residents of the USA, that is (sadly) not an option. I currently have to subscribe to a couple of other different services to see cycling events throughout the year; I hope GCN is able to secure USA broadcast rights to more races in 2021!
We’d love to be able to show more content in more locations, but race rights won’t let us, sorry! Fingers crossed that we’ll be able to bring more races to you in the future.
Great to hear you're new to cycling, Gwyndon! Maybe have a look through some of the teams jerseys and pick which one you like the most - that's usually a pretty good lace to start!
Please explain how the running starts are managed at the TDF. How long do the riders go before the flag drops, and does any part of that element of the race count toward the total race segment length? I wouldn’t think so but happy to learn otherwise. Thanks!
Very nice and tidy. You did leave out how finish times work, which might cause some confusion for views as to why a top rider might opt to sit back in the group or why everyone doesn't sprint to the line. Clearly done otherwise. Funny how complicated it sounds when you try to explain it to a novice.
Shouldn't cycling teams have an "away" kit like in football, so that they don't clash with the leader's jersey? For the Tour, for example, Jumbo Visma should wear a kit with minimal yellow and EF at the Giro should wear jerseys without pink.
Some teams do change their kit specifically for the grand tours! In the 90s, Team Once swapped their regular yellow kit for pink at the Tour de France - specifically so they didn't blend in with the yellow jersey!
Good question! The time is given to the entire bunch of riders crossing the line at the same time. If a gap of 1 second or more opens up, the 2nd bunch across the line is given the winners time + however many seconds have passed since the winner crossed the line.
I finally understand what’s going on in the Tour , Looking forward to watching it on the GCN app. Best explanation ever, thanks so much from a very new bike rider in Australia.👌
Sprinters: biggest men Climbers: smallest men Team leaders (aiming to win): middle men Sprinters are too heavy to climb mountins quick, climbers are too small to sprint and team leaders need to be a good at everything, not amazing, but good.
@@gcn I was thinking if there was a hybrid sprinter/climber this had to have happened there must've been a rider with enough HP in their legs and pump in their arms/back to have been god at both
@@deficharliegosseTK that's puncheur, the likes of julian alaphillipe, mvdp, wva, etc. Usually great at classics but at times can be a gc rider too. The downside is that since you need a lot of power to sprint, they usually weigh more than the great climbers, making them lost a lot of time on big mountains.
I finally understand what’s going on in the Tour , Looking forward to watching it on the GCN app. Best explanation ever, thanks so much from a very new bike rider in Australia.👌
Indeed a very good introduction video. However if you really want to "understand what’s going on in the Tour" I would recommend you read a specialized daily newspaper. In France there is "L'Equipe" (which replaced L'Auto, the newspaper that created the TdF), it provides daily several pages analysing the previous stage and explaining what should be each team tactics during the coming day. Really a must read if you are a fan and/or what to understand the race during the coming day (and if you read French btw....). Also viewing the TdF on a TV channel commented by a competent cycling specialist is very welcome. This is not that simple to understand cycling tactics. Also, btw, I suppose GCN might be doing it daily on RU-vid (or elsewhere?) but I don't know yet this web channel (sorry).
I basically went from knowing almost nothing about the Tour de France to being totally "hooked" on watching this great BIG TEST of stamina and teamwork...it takes more than just riding...it's also about strategy and helping your team finish as winners. Thank so much for this nice introductory video!
IF it truly was an equal sport, there would be women on the Tour de France teams. Seeing as they tend not to be as competitive, it's not going to happen.
I've been watching every televised minute of the Tour since 1989. My favorite thing about the tour are the battles on the mountain stages. Although I first was made aware of the the Tour when I read a book by Stirling Moss. There used to be a Tour de France for sports cars. In the book Sir Stirling said that one year, the car race was paused so the bike race could pass by uninterrupted.
May I say something controversial? I have watched all the major winners since Jacques Anquetil, and I would like to say that even though Lance Armstrong was 'Juiced' he put on a 'Great Show' every race, and he was not the only 'Juiced' person in the peloton. Hence I wince every time I see the ******'s for his wins, I saw the races on Sat-TV and he won them. Thx.
This was an excellent presentation giving concise and pertinent information about the TDF, which was perfect for someone like me who knows absolutely nothing about it lol :-) Much more interesting than videos on how to wash your bike (again) or tyre size and stopping distances. Thank you!
One favorite are the faithful followers like the sealing wax red '67 VW Van that follows, and others, plus the landscapes, chateaus and no graffiti anywhere!
Thanks very much for this great video! This is my first year of watching the Tour and really trying to understand what's going on. This video went a long way in my beginning education of this sport. I now can say, at least, that I know what all the colored jerseys signify and that's a huge plus!
Watching this, and just knowing the complexity and intensity of the Tour de France, I couldn't help but think, for the entire clip, about Greg LeMond's mind blowing 1989 victory. The more I know the details of that amazing win, the more I tend to believe it was the greatest sports achievement in history. And for that asshole, cheater, Armstrong treating LeMond so disrespectfully later on, I only wish he gets booed out of every place he goes for the rest of his miserable, cheating life.
