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The Tour de France began in 1903, and is the world's largest cycling tournament. The Tour lasts 23-days and is split into a 21-stage road race that is usually run over more than 3,000 km (1,864 mi). The route traces a circuit around most areas of France, and often passes through one or more neighbouring countries. The race is broken into stages from one town to another, each of which is an individual race. The time taken to complete each stage is added to a cumulative total for each rider, to decide the outright winner at the end of the Tour.

Together with the Giro D'italia (Tour of Italy) and Vuelta a espana (Tour of Spain), the Tour de France is one of the three major stage races and the longest of the UCI calendar. While the other two European grand tours are well known in Europe, they are relatively unknown outside the continent, and even the UCI World Cycling Championship is familiar only to cycling enthusiasts. The Tour de France, in contrast, has long been a household sporting name around the globe, even to those not generally interested in cycling.