Part II

Tour de France ends today!

The greatest cycle tour of the world, Tour de France is now under way, and we brought you some information about the event, in our last edition of 'Sports Track'. Today, let us look at some more interesting information regarding this event.

This year's event, which began on July 7 and will conclude today, July 29, is the 94th Tour de France.

It started from London and was due to cover an area of 3,554 kilometres when it finishes at Champs-Elysees, Paris today.Finishing the tour in Champs-Elysees has been the tradition since 1975.

The reason for this is that it gives a challenging experience for the cyclists at the end of the race because the streets are cobbled. Cobbled means having the streets roughly paved using blocks of stone. The race takes multiple turns over the avenue, which is lined with huge crowds.

This stage is not usually competitive in terms of the overall lead since it is a flat sprinters' stage, and the leader is likely to have a sufficiently large margin to be unchallengeable.

However, on a very few occasions, the leader has been beaten in the last few minutes. Prize money has been a key motivator in the tour, and prize money has been given ever since the first tour in 1903. The amount has increased each year. A smaller amount is paid to teams as a participation expense or a presence bonus.

However, the importance of the prize money has decreased through the years, as riders who are under contract in cycle teams are well paid by their employers.

Since this tour has a legendary history, there are some fascinating customs. When possible, a rider is allowed to lead the race through his home village or on his birthday.

Apart from that, the rider ranked last in the general classification, who may finish in Paris with an overall time five or more hours slower than that of the winner, is called the 'lanterne rouge', which means 'the red lantern' as the lantern in the last carriage of the train.

This was the sympathy shown to the last rider in the past, so that he could command higher fees in other races than riders who finished better.

Classification of cyclists

Apart from the overall competition of winning the Tour, each race has two further classifications which are the points and the mountain competitions. The classification is shown by the jerseys that the cyclists wear.

The current leaders of the three competitions are required to wear a specific jersey the next day. Jerseys are awarded in a ceremony after each stage. It is sometimes done even before trailing riders have finished the stage.

When a single rider is entitled to more than one jersey, he wears the most prestigious and the second-placed rider in each of the other classifications wears the corresponding jersey.

For example, in the first week it is common for the overall classification which gives a yellow jersey, and points competition which gives a green jersey to be led by the same rider. In this case, the leading rider will wear the yellow jersey and the rider placed second in the points competition will wear the green jersey.

* General classification

In the general classification, an overall leader is chosen. It is awarded by calculating the total combined race time up to that point for each rider. He is given a yellow jersey, and this is considered to be the most prized jersey of the tour.

Sometimes, a rider takes the overall lead during a stage and gets sufficiently far ahead of the current yellow jersey wearer. When this happens, this rider may be referred to as being 'the yellow jersey on the road', obviously because no jerseys can be exchanged in this situation.

* Points Classification

At the end of each stage, points are earned by the riders who finish first, second, etc. The number of points for each place and the number of riders rewarded varies depending on the stage.

A flat stage gives more points than a mountain stage since the cyclists can go for a sprint better in a flat stage. The sprint is a track cycling event involving a one-on-one match race between opponents who start next to each other. A green jersey is awarded for sprint points.

* King of the mountains

The 'King of the mountains' wears a white jersey with red dots, referred to as the 'polka dot jersey'. The competition is calculated by points awarded to the first riders at the top of specific hills and mountains on the track. The greatest number of points are awarded in the steeper mountain tracks.

If you are keen on finding out as to who will emerge as the champion of the tour, check it out on the TV channels airing world sports news...

Compiled by Aravinda Dassanayake