French is the official language of the cycling world and the Tour de France.
Many French words and phrases are used in English to describe the race. The Academy gives you the pick of the most common ones.
PELOTON
The name for the main bunch or field of riders. It comes from the French for 'herd.' There will be 189 riders in the peloton at start of the 2004 race.
MAILLOT JAUNE
The yellow jersey. Widely recognised as the symbol of the Tour de France leader and probably the most famous sporting top in the world.
EQUIPE
French for team. 21 teams are taking part in the 2004 race. Each has a sponsor ranging from a national postal service (Lance Armstrong's team) to T-Mobile (Jan Ullrich's team)- a mobile telephone company.
DOMESTIQUE
Every team has one or more team leaders who either have the chance of winning the race overall or win a stage or a jersey. Other members are traditionally known as 'domestiques' - which means servant. They sacrifice their own chances and work in every stage to help their team leaders.
ETAPE
The French word for stage. There are 20 stages in the 2004 race - 11 of them are flat stages and dominated by the sprinters, six are mountain stages, three are time trials: two individual ones and one team time trial.
PARCOURS
French word for the route the race takes each day. On a mountain stage in the Alps you could describe the 'parcours' as very steep and suited to good climbers. A flat stage may have a winding or straight 'parcours' with smooth or cobbled roads.
HORS CATEGORIE
French for the toughest climb in a mountain stage. 'Hors categorie' climbs are so hard they don't get a rating. Climbs are rated 4,3,2,1 in descending order with 'hors categorie' the daddy of them all!
TETE DE LA COURSE
This means the 'front of the race' in English. On French TV there are constant updates of the time gap in the race, saying how far the 'tete de la course' or leaders in a breakaway are ahead of the rest of the peloton.
DIRECTEUR SPORTIF
The name given to each team manager. He follows the race in a team car and gives tactics and strategy orders to riders, sometimes via radio. He's usually joined by a team mechanic. The directeur sportif will drive at high speed to the front of the race if one of his riders gets a puncture or crashes.
CARAVANE PUBLICITAIRE
This is a cavalcade of 200 sponsor's vehicles and bizarre floats which snakes slowly along the stage route. It travels ahead of the race and gives out free samples and gadgets to spectators.
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION (GC)
It's the overall ranking of each rider after each stage. Someone may ask you 'How's Iban Mayo doing?' you might answer, 'He's lying in 5th place overall on the GC after the 10th stage.' Riders often hope for a 'high GC finish in Paris' - which means they want a high placing overall at the end of the race.
CONTRE LA MONTRE
French for 'time trials'. Also referred to in France as 'the race of 'truth' - it's a straight race against the clock. In the individual one each rider races solo - the one with the fastest time wins the stage. The team time trials are the same, except the riders are grouped together in teams.
Back to top
