Vive La Tour!

In case you didn't know, the Tour de France is in full swing. The tour started July 3rd and ends the 23rd running from Rotterdam to Paris. Here’s some interesting Fleet Feet inspired facts about the tour:

• 2241 Miles in 20 stages running 3 weeks
• 123,900 calories burned by one rider in the Tour
• 3 chains worn out per week by single riders, Lance Armstrong usually wears out a chain a week.
• 792 tires used by the peloton during the course of the race.
• 2010 marks the centenary of the inclusion of the Col du Tourmalet. The highest road in the Pyrenees, its initial inclusion prompted the Frenchman Octave Lapize to call the organisers ‘assassins’. To celebrate the anniversary, competitors in 2010 are to cycle Col du Tourmalet not once but twice
• 22 teams with 9 riders each
• The reason the winning jersey is yellow because it was the color of the magazine L’Auto that the tour was launched to promote
• The oldest winner was 36-year-old Firmin Lambot of Belgium in 1922 with the youngest the 22-year-old Frenchman Henri Cornet in 1904, so there’s still time for SOME of us.
• Lance Armstrong will be riding a custom made Trek bike unveiled at the Tour de France. It's a new bike called the Madone.
  

So if it’s to sound great at the water cooler or to just increase the other information in your brain, let these facts inspire you to jump on that bike and climb a big hill, (hanging rock, pilot, insert name here) hearing the announcer voices in your head!
Vive La Tour!!