[[quoteright:248:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tdf_yellow_jersey_100.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:248:This is what they want to win]]

Tour De France. Twenty-one days of cycling about 3500km (2175mi) through {{UsefulNotes/France}}, with stages on flat terrain, in the hills and in the mountains, often totaling an average race speed of about 40 kph for the entire distance. In this race, everyone has an agenda. Whether it is to win a stage for themselves, or helping someone win either the general classification, or one of the secondary classifications (points classification, mountains classification, youth competition, team classification), and you can easily expect everyone to be at the top of their form when they're in this race. It's currently considered the biggest race in the sport, and is one of the three grand tours (Vuelta a España and Giro d'Italia are the two others).

The race was started in 1903, and has been held every year since then, except for the WorldWarOne and WorldWarTwo periods, with a total of 99 races being held at the moment of writing.

Tour De France is a well known race all over the world, with winners from 13 countries and three continents. Like the sport in general, Tour De France is home to controversies about doping and corruption, to a point where a YMMV can even be placed next to the name of certain winners. The most winning rider in Tour De France history was [[RetGone Lance Armstrong]], with seven victories between 1999 and 2005. As of the 22nd October 2012, Armstrong has been stripped of his titles because of doping. Now the most winning riders are Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx and Miguel Induraín.

Aside from controversies, there are also lots of unwritten rules in the race that one would be expected to follow. For example, if a general classification contender, or more of there, are dropped due to an accident, the race is effectively neutralized until said contender is back up. Note that this rule does not apply if there's a GC threat in a breakaway ahead, or on some early sprinter stages where the GC-lead is theoretically up for grabs, or sprinter teams have an interest of winning the stage, as they have their own classification to look out for.

Despite this being a French event, no French rider has actually won the race since Bernard Hinault won in 1985, and no French rider has been on the podium since Richard Virenque finished second in 1997. Follwing nations have a winner of Tour De France (in order of first victory): France, Luxemburg, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Netherlands, [=USA=], Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Australia, United Kingdom.

There are a few internal competitions in the race, which are following:
* '''General classification:''' This classification is the one that determines if one wins the race. The fastest rider, using time as a measurement instead of stage placement, wins the general classification. The GC-leader is identified by wearing a yellow jersey.
* '''Points classification:''' This is sometimes referred to as the sprinter classification. The rider with most points, which are obtained by winning stages and bonus sprints, wins. Stage results are the tiebreaker, should two riders end up with the same amount of points. While sometimes called the sprinter competition, it isn't always won by an actual sprinter. The leader of this competition is identified by a green jersey, unless the same rider leads this as well as the GC, in which case it's given to the man in second place of this competition
* '''Mountains classification:''' Also called "king of the mountains" classification, this competition works like the points classification, except that this one is about coming over tops of mountains. A stage finish on the highest mountains, categorized 1 and HC(Hors Categorié - beyond category) , doubles the usual points for winning such a mountain sprint elsewhere on the stage - a change which was made to keep the top riders able to take this jersey, instead of an unknown breakaway rider who'd fizzle out late on a stage. The leading rider of this competition wears a white jersey with red dots, also called the polka-dot jersey. The two competitions above rank higher than this one in order of which jersey to wear
* '''Youth classification:''' This competition is essentially the general classification for riders who are 25 years old or below. Note that by 25 years, it means turning 25 in the same year as the year of the race. The leader of this classification wears a white jersey. The three competitions above rank higher in the jersey order.
* '''Team classification:''' This competition functions like the GC, but instead of taking a rider's individual time, the time of the three first riders of a team (of nine) are noted and added together as the team's time on a stage. The leading team in this classification has their back numbers on a yellow background, as opposed to the regular white background. As of 2012, they are allowed, but not obliged, to wear yellow helmets for easy identification.
* '''Combativity award:''' This is an award given by a jury after each stage, as well as by the end of the race. It's given to the best fighter of the race, and the criteria are a bit unclear for how to actually win this. The most combative rider from the previous day has white numbers on a red background, to be easily identified. Essentially the {{Determinator}} award.

The order in which the jersey's are worn are: Yellow, green, polka-dot, white. The red number stands ahead of the yellow one, but the number (both for leading team, and for combativity) can go with any jersey.

Most winning riders in the different competitions of the race are following:

* '''General classification (5 times):''' Jacques Anquetil (France) - 1957, 1961-1964
** Eddy Merckx (Belgium) - 1969-1972, 1974
** Bernard Hinault (France)[[hottip:*:Hinault is also the most recent French winner of Tour de France]] - 1978-1979, 1981-1982, 1985
** Miguel Induraín. (Spain) - 1991-1995
* '''Points classification (6 times):''' Erik Zabel (Germany) - 1996-2001
* '''Mountains classification (7 times):''' Richard Virenque (France) - 1994-1997, 1999, 2003-2004
* '''Youth classification (3 times):''' Jan Ullrich (Germany) - 1996-1998
** Andy Schleck (Luxemburg) - 2008-2010.
* '''Team classification:''' Belgium (for national teams, back when that was the standard) - 10 times - 1931, 1935-1936, 1938-1939, 1948, 1950, 1956, 1958-1959 (note that in 39, 48 and 50, Belgium had more than one team)...
** Mercier (for sponsored teams, which is the standard now) - 5 times - 1972, 1975, 1978, 1980, 1982. [[hottip:*:Teams that change names are still the same team (what was Team CSC in 2003 is the same as Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank in 2012), but teams that go to a different license are not (Radioshack-Nissan in 2012 is the same as Leopard Trek 2011, and ''not'' the same as Radioshack (2009-2011)). This is the official UCI definition, please keep with that when editing this.]]
* '''Combativity award (4 times):''' Eddy Merckx - 1969-1970, 1974-1975

The most recent winners of the different competitions are listed here:
[[folder:2012 winners]]
* General classification: Sir[[hottip:*:Wiggins was knighted at the end of 2012]] Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain[[hottip:*:First ever British winner]] / Team Sky)
* Points classification: Peter Sagan[[hottip:*:First rider born in the 1990's to win a stage, as well as one of the jerseys]] (Slovakia[[hottip:*:First ever Slovak winner of the points classification]] / Liquigas-Cannondale)
* Mountains classification: Thomas Voeckler (France / Team Europcar)
* Youth classifcation: Tejay Van Garderen (USA / BMC Racing Team)
* Team classifcation: Radioshack-Nissan-Trek
* Combativity award: Chris Anker Sørensen (Denmark / Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank)
[[/folder]]

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After 99 editions, it does have some tropes in it:
* [[PoliceAreUseless Anti-doping is useless]]: Riders being thrown out for doping is commonplace. Action is never taken against people higher up the system than said riders.
* BastardUnderstudy: While naming an athlete as a villain doesn't quite hold up, the history of the race has several examples of this
* BoringButPractical: US Postal's and Team Sky's strategy, where they keep the race under total control in order to have their captain win. There's a good counter to this strategy though.
* CheatersNeverProsper: Usually subverted with a lot of known dopers having won or been placed highly, but sometimes played straight, when people are thrown out or removed from the records.
* ClusterFBomb: Jens Voigt in a bad mood does these rather often.
* CombatPragmatist: The unwritten rules are unwritten. Someone following this trope doesn't follow these.
* CripplingOverspecialization: Pure climbers usually never win, unless they build up a big enough lead before the time trial(s).
** Last pure climber to win the race was Andy Schleck in 2010. He only won after Contador was disqualified.
** Rasmussen would probably have won in 07, if it hadn't been for the general corruption in the sport, and even then, he still finished 10th on the time trial.
** Pantani got a win without any prior disqualifications in 1998.
* CurbStompBattle: Not entirely "battle", but sometimes a rider just tears the entire GC apart, or a sprinter wins every stage possible for them.
* {{Curse}}: No French rider has won since 1985, and no French rider has been in the top 3 since 1997
* {{Determinator}}: There's an award for biggest determinator every year. Aside from the award, [=TdF=] could have it's own subpage on the matter.
* [[DownToTheLastPlay Down to the last time trial]]: Several versions of the race have ended like this, most notably in 1989 where the final stage was a 24,5 km time trial. Laurent Fignon had a 50 second lead on Greg [=LeMond=], but the American beat the Frenchman by 58 seconds, taking home the race by the smallest margin in race history. 1989 was the last year to end the race on a time trial, leading to a format where the last stage will be a sprinter duel, usually without any general classification contenders doing anything.
** 2011 had Cadel Evans take over the jersey on the final time trial from Andy Schleck
** 2003 and 2008 had two riders being very close in the general classification, and while the leader held on to his jersey, it wasn't decided whether he'd win before the time trial. Both these years had the non-leaders (Ullrich and Evans) at a favourable standpoint, compared to the leaders: Ullrich had beaten Armstrong badly on the first time trial in 03 (and wasn't that much behind compared to the American), while Evans was just a plain better time trialist than Sastre.
* EpicFail: While Pereiro's win was impressive, having the pack finish outside the time limit on the stage that helped Pereiro win was an epic fail on behalf of every team that had a GC-contender in 2006, except for CSC who had Voigt placed in said breakaway.
* EpicRace: ''The'' epic race in cycling. The other two grand tours, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España, also count, but [=TdF=] is the biggest.
* EveryYearTheyFizzleOut: Several riders have high expectations following them into the race, which they're never able to live up to.
* HesBack: Happens quite often, with riders coming back from either bans or injuries.
* IconicLogo: The yellow jersey.
* KickTheDog: UCI and ASO did ''not'' want Rasmussen to win in 2007.
* LetsFightLikeGentlemen: There are some gentleman rules, which everyone are expected to follow.
* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: Commonplace.
* NonIndicativeName: The team competition can be this. A team with strong riders and an every man for himself mentality can win this competition. Radioshack-Nissan did in 2012.
* OvershadowedByAwesome: Happened several times for unlucky riders.
* RetGone: Lance Armstrong's victories.
* ShroudedInMyth: Yet again, [=TdF=] could have it's own subpage on the matter.
* TakeThat: The Danish national anthem playing when Contador won in 2009. Not a take that directed at Contador, but rather directed against ASO, UCI, Danish Cycling Union and Rabobank.
* TheAce: Eddy Merckx at the top of his career. Armstrong during his best days. The major difference between the riders mentioned is the periods in which they were riding.
* TropeCoTropeOfTheWeek: Most teams in the competition are named after their main sponsor(s). The only one exception in recent years is Astana, which is sponsored by the Kazakhstan government and some big Kazakh companies.
* WearingAFlagOnYourHead: This being the biggest cycling race in the world, expect to see several national champions, especially since most European and northern American national championships are held in June, close to this race.
* WorldOfBadass: It takes a badass to even ''complete'' this race.