The Tour de France is unlike any other sporting event in the world. 22 days of grueling hard work. Sprints, climbs, crashes and weather nothing stops the human spirit from winning.

Click here for an image of the 2008 Tour de France route

The 95^th addition of the Tour de France

The 2008 Tour de France is distinctly different from recent Tours because the first stage with be mass start instead of the traditional individual time trial. Keeping with Tour tradition the first week is where the sprinters shine on the relatively flat stages that give them their best chance of winning while the climbing and general classification hopefuls try to stay out of dangers way. It’s been said that the Tour can’t be won in the first week but can be lost when an overall contender becomes involved in a crash and loses valuable time or fitness to his rivals. In this years Tour the second week again will give the sprinters a chance to win with three flat stages preceded by a medium difficulty stage and followed by a brutal high mountain finish. The last week of the Tour is most likely where the Tour will be decided because of its two high and one medium mountain finish and a very tough 53km individual time trial.

Profile of the 2008 95^th Tour de France

Dates: Saturday, July 5th through Sunday, July, 27^th.

Length: 3,500 kilometers

Stages: 21 stages

• 10 flat stages
• 5 mountain stages
• 4 medium stages
• 2 individual time-trials

Rest days: 2

19 category HC, 1, 2 passes will be climbed

Jersey designations:

• Yellow jersey: designates general overall classification leader with lowest elapsed time for the Tour at day in the Tour
• Polka dot jersey: designates the best Tour climber based on cumulated points garnered by crossing specific “king of the mountain” locations during Tour climbs.
• Green jersey: designates the best Tour sprinted based on cumulated points garnered winning sprints within the Tour stages.
• White: designates the Tour best young rider based on general classification.

General facts:

• 21 nine rider teams.
• Each team is composed of approximately 25 members including riders, soigneurs, doctors, chiropractors, mechanics, chef, and PR personnel.  
• Riders consume 10,000 calories a day and still lose weight.
• Riders may climb as much as 30,000 vertical feet in a single day’s stage.
• The Tours stages occur rain or shine.