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The Tour de France, Paris had started of from 1903 when the two sports magazines the "L' Auto" and "Le Velo" were vying for readers. Both the companies had organized for races-the "LVelo" organized the 400 mile race and also the 700 mile race. So Henri Desrange, the editor of "L'Auto" created a more grueling race that would last for a month and the route is 1,500 miles starting and ending at Paris. It drew large crowds and this was what Henri had intended and the readers of the magazine increased manifold.
The Tour de France details
The original 1,500 is now 2,500 miles and the routes that it covers are really tough. It is a difficult proposition indeed biking through the Massif Central, the Alps, and the Pyrenees mountains. The race ends at Paris' Arc de Triomphe. There are 23 stages in the race that go on for three weeks and there is only one day or rest that is given to the competitors. There are about twenty teams each having ten members and so the total is 200 members and that makes a massive group. There are members who have specialized in the skills like climbing hills, sprinting and maintaining speed. The twenty stages that are there are not confined to France alone but spread to the other nations like Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg and Spain. The prologue is the first stage of the Tour de France and it starts in France itself. The end of this excruciating race is in Paris and it is called the Champs- Elysees. This is indeed a special aspect in France so one should take care to see the celebrations with which the race starts off.
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