What Tour de France is...
  Cycling
has always been one of the greatest pasttimes for many, and we are sure
that if you have a bicycle, you too might be whizzing along the roads,
rough terrains and dirt paths to experience the true thrill of going for
a ride, balanced on two wheels.
It may be a racing cycle, a mountain bicycle, a standard bicycle, or
a BMX; no matter what, cycling would be a whole world of excitement for
you. Therefore, we will bring you some interesting facts of the greatest
bicycle tour of the world, which is the Tour de France.
  As
the name implies, this is a cycle rally that takes place in France,
where the cyclists are made to race for three whole weeks covering most
of the areas in France as well as a few other countries, and this is the
best known cycle race in the world. The Tour is popular and important
for the cycling fans in France and in other parts of Europe.
Millions of spectators line up along the route every year, some
having camped a week in advance to get the best views. The race which
spans few thousands of kilometers is broken into different parts from
one town to another, where each of these races are new races.
The total of timing in all the races is considered in judging the
winner of the race. The story behind the beginning of this race is quite
an interesting one. You will be surprised to learn that the Tour de
France was born as a result of a publicity event.
 A
bicycle tour had been suggested by Henri Desgrange, the Editor of the
L'Auto newspaper which is known as l'?quipe today. This was done way
back in 1902, and G,o LefSvre, who was one of his cycle journalists, had
come up with the idea of having the tour running for five weeks.
However, this initial plan was not that successful. After doing some
changes to the tour such as reducing the duration to nineteen days and
giving an allowance for the participants, they succeeded in drawing
about sixty participants for the event. As a result, the race was
started on January 19, 1903 and this became a great hit, due to the new
experience, and the sales of the L'Auto newspaper had risen from 25,000
copies to 65,000 copies per day, just after the race.
This has been the start of this wonderful event, and today, the event
is organised by the Soci,t, du Tour de France, which is a subsidiary of
Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), a part of the media group that owns l'*quipe
.
***
The 94th Tour is now on!
This year's event which started on, July 7 will conclude on July 29.
It is the 94th Tour de France. This time, the
event started from London and is expected to go on for 3554 kilometres.
This is the third instance in history that the race has visited England.
The Mayor of London stated that the two stages were used to
commemorate the victims of the July 7, 2005 London bombings. The race
consisting of twenty stages will end at Champselysees, Paris on Sunday,
July 29. There are 21 teams of nine riders, which means 189 riders in
total, competing in the race this time. We will bring you further
information about this event in our next edition.
***
Cricket Trivia
Since this is a period when cricket fever is running high, we thought
of bringing some interesting and uncommon facts about cricket. Read on,
and enjoy.
* Which champion fast-bowler is considered to have scored more
"ducks" for his career in 2001 in test cricket?
Courtney Walsh - the first man to take 500 test wickets - has the
rather sad batting average of 7.64, having scored 43 ducks.
* Who were 'The Three Ws' of West Indian Cricket?
Walcott, Weekes and Worrell. Their names in full were Clyde Walcott,
Sir Frank Worrell and Everton Weekes.
* Which champion West Indian batsman was known as the 'Master
Blaster'? Viv Richards. Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards - one of
Wisden's five cricketers of the century.
* Who was the first cricketer to take hat-tricks in successive test
matches? Wasim Akram. He took his back-to-back hat-tricks in consecutive
tests against Sri Lanka in 1999.
* This ground is in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is known as the
Wanderers Stadium. By which name is it otherwise known? Kent Park.
* When we speak of a batsman getting a 'ton', what does it mean?
He has scored 100+ runs.
* When a bowler has 'taken a scalp', what has he done?
Got a batsman out.
* What does it mean when a batsmen 'walks'?
He declares himself out.
* What is a 'beamer'?
A ball bowled at the batsmans head on the full.
* Who was the first person to score 300? A. Sandham in a match
between England and West Indies in Kingston 1929-30.
* Which two countries contested the first ever official One-Day
International? Australia and England. In fact, these are the two
countries that played the first Test Match too. They played the first
ODI on January 5, 1971, at Melbourne. Moreover, the same team that won
the first Test won the first ODI (Australia!).
* Which two countries played the first ODI which ended in a tie?
Australia and West Indies.
* Which was the first ground to host 100 ODIs?
Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium.
Aravinda Dassanayake. |
