Introduction to Le Tour

Nice views during three weeks of suffering

By BBC Sport's Online's Alistair Magowan.

The stages | The riders
The teams | The jerseys

In order for a cyclist to complete the 2001 Tour de France, he must cycle almost continuously over a three week period covering an overall distance of 3462 km or 2151 miles.

Which is roughly the distance from London to the Suez Canal in Egypt.

Twenty-one stages of up to 232 km (144 miles) a day stand in his way, as do two mountain ranges which offer inclines even cars struggle to get up in first gear.

He must also avoid high-speed crashes, race through extreme weather conditions and most importantly win the battle of body over mind that begs each rider to give up.

In order for a cyclist to win the Tour and claim the yellow jersey he must cover the entire distance faster than the other 188 riders with him.

A select band of humans finish the Tour, a handful of super humans actually win it.

A-Z of the Tour

The stages

The mountain stages end many rider's chances of Tour glory

Stage by stage guide

The 21 stages have a distinctly different look to last year providing this year's competitors with a variety of tests to grapple with.

The Tour has two types of stages; The road stages and the time trials.

The road stages comprise long, drawn out endurance tests through to the gut busters of the French Alps and the Pyrenees.

These stages are for every rider to fight for himself and are where many crashes occur as riders jostle for position to keep in touch with the leaders.

Alternatively the time trials are shorter versions where riders race against the clock, setting off at timed intervals in an attempt to ride flat out to the finish.

Individual time trials see each cyclist riding solitary, while team time trials see nine members of each team ride together.

The difference being that during the team stage all riders take the time of the fifth team member to cross the line.

The riders

Armstrong v Ullrich: A two horse race?

The Tour will be without many star names this year as organisers opt for a more French Tour de France.

Ejected from the Tour are climber Marco Pantani, sprinter Mario Cipollini and other strong contenders Fernando Escartin and Alex Zülle.

What this all amounts to is what many believe will be a straight shoot-out between America's Lance Armstrong and the German, Jan Ullrich.

Ullrich won the Tour in 1997 but it is Armstrong who is being tipped to join an elite band of riders who have won three Tours in a row.

British interest arrives in the form of the Scot David Millar who wore the yellow jersey for the opening three stages of last year's Tour.

French fans will be on the look out for Laurent Jalabert while Italy's Gilberto Simoni has come into form recently by winning the Giro D'Italia.

With a single crash holding any rider's Tour chances to ransom, a dead cert is hard to anticipate until the final stages.

The teams

ONCE won last year's team time trial

Full team guide

Although the Tour is won by an individual rider, no cyclist would harbour any realistic hope of winning the race without his team mates.

Each cyclist is one of the nine members that make up the 21 teams competing.

Before the Tour begins the top teams will single out a rider who they think can earn some Tour glory, and it is up to the rest of the team to help their star man in any way they can.

This may mean doing work for him such as riding in front of him to cut out wind resistance, or to follow a rival breakaway rider to ensure he doesn't get away and gain valuable minutes.

The jerseys

All the winning Jerseys on show last year

The yellow jersey or maillot jaune is the most coveted prize in cycling. Along with winning a Tour stage, wearing the maillot jaune is a highlight of any cyclist's career.

The jersey is awarded to the leader of the Tour after each stage - that is the rider who has completed the distance in the smallest cumulative time.

He will wear the jersey during each day's racing so long as he leads the Tour. If he is wearing it after the last stage in Paris then he wins the Tour de France.

As well as the yellow jersey, there are also the green and polka dot jerseys which are awarded to the best finisher and climber of the Tour respectively.

The green jersey is awarded to the most consistent finisher of the race where points are awarded according to placings rather than overall time.

The king of the mountain jersey is given to the rider who consistently heads the race to the top of the Tour's many climbs.

The white jersey is also awarded to the best placed rider under 25.