Vilma Fuentes: Tour de France 2025

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from July 5th to 27th takes place This year in France the 112th edition of the Tour de France, also known as the Grand Boucle (Great Loop or Full Circuit) by fans of this very popular sport.

Indeed, this cycling competition is the most popular sport in France. It is followed by the public along its route day after day during the three weeks of the race, gathering along the roads cleared of vehicles as the idols pass by. And as the circuit circumnavigates France, spectators from the most diverse regions of the country have the opportunity to cheer their champions as they pass through nearby towns.

The men's cycling competition, although a women's tour has been held for four years, began in 1903 with the aim of increasing sales of the sports daily L'Auto. Since then, it has been held annually except during the years of the two World Wars.

Curiously, this popular sporting competition has its origins in political disputes and clashes between sports newspapers. At the end of the 19th century, the daily Le Velo held a monopoly on sports journalism with 300,000 copies. Editor-in-chief Pierre Giffard sided with Captain Dreyfus, which angered the bicycle industrialists, the paper's financiers. Jules-Albert de Dion, a far-right anti-Dreyfus politician, launched his newspaper, L'Auto-Velo, with the support of financiers. Henri Desgrange, a former cyclist and hour record holder, appointed editor of the newspaper, lost the right to use the title Auto-Velo in a lawsuit. Fearing the loss of cycling-enthusiast readers because of his title , L'Auto, without the word Velo, Desgrange decided to organize a competition that surpassed those organized by his rival. The journalist Géo Lefèvre proposed creating a race around France, and on January 19, 1903, the headline of L'Auto announced the largest cycling event ever organized .

Politics and chauvinism continued to intrude on the competition during its early years: provincial spectators rejected the Parisian influence and attacked cyclists from other regions. The ideal of national unity took a few years to take hold. And while politicians used the Tour to showcase themselves and aid their potential election or re-election, the Tour de France has managed to escape political bias, thus achieving universal status, which increases the prestige of its winner, as no nation can influence a cyclist from that region to steal the victory.

The winner of the Tour de France is the cyclist who sets the slowest overall time on the entire circuit. However, there are other secondary trophies: the sprinters' trophies, the mountain climbers' trophies, the under-25s trophies, and the one awarded to the winning team. Indeed, the competition is organized between teams, which vary between 20 and 22 each year and are composed of eight riders.

Broadcast on television in 190 countries, it is the third most-watched sporting event, after the Summer Olympics and the World Cup. While these two competitions take place every four years in different countries, the Tour de France takes place annually, although its most recent editions cross the border and cover some kilometers in neighboring countries.

Open to everyone, regardless of their country of birth, there are currently up to 40 nationalities. There is, of course, one condition: having trained for years. There is no sport or art where laurels are magically obtained. Writing, composing music, or painting a masterpiece requires as much effort as winning a car race, a swimming race, or a cycling race. And this is the example set for young people by the Tour de France champions.

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