Tour de France

The Tour de France (French for Tour of France), often referred to as La Grande Boucle, Le Tour or The Tour, is an epic long distance road bicycle racing competition for professionals held over three weeks in July in and around France. It has been held annually since 1903, interrupted only by World War I and World War II. The most recent Tour was the 2005 Tour de France.

Competitors' physical statistics

To finish the Tour de France, a cyclist must be in a very good physical state. That said, even a rider who is chosen to ride but does not finish the race will have had to have been very fit to be selected. Analysis of the 2005 competitors shows that:

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• The tallest rider was Johan van Summeren at 1.98 metres (6 ft 5.5 in).
• The shortest was Samuel Dumoulin at 1.58 metres (5 ft 2 in).
• The heaviest rider was Magnus Backstedt at 95 kg (209 lb or 14 stone 13 lb).
• The lightest was Leonardo Piepoli at 57 kg (126 lb or 8 stone 14 lb).
• Chris Horner and Laurent Lefevre shared the lowest resting heart rate, 35 beats per minute.
• The "average" rider in 2005 was 1.79 metres (5 ft 10 in) tall, weighed 71 kg (157 lb, 11 stone 3 lb), and had a resting heart rate of 50 beats per minute.