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The Tour de France began in 1903 and is the world's largest cycling tournament. This 21-stage bicycle road race typically covers 3,500 kilometres and often extends into the neighbouring countries around France.
The race is broken into stages from one town to another, each of which is considered to be an individual race. The time taken to complete each stage is added to a cumulative total for each rider, and the rider with the lowest time is declared the winner at the end of the Tour.
For the 2009 Tour, the 21 stages have the following profiles:
10 flat stages
7 mountain stages
1 medium mountain stages
2 individual time-trial stages
1 team time-trial stage
As with most cycling races, competitors enter as part of a team. The Tour de France usually consists of 20 to 22 teams with nine riders each. Entry is by invitation, and invitations are only granted to the best professional teams.
