| Tour de France | |
|---|---|
| Local name | Le Tour de France |
| Region | France and nearby countries |
| Date | July 7 to 29 (2007) |
| Type | Stage Race (Grand Tour) |
| General Director | Christian Prudhomme |
| History | |
| First race | 1903 |
| Number of races | 94 (2007) |
| First winner | Maurice Garin |
| Most wins | Lance Armstrong (7) 1999-2005 |
| Latest winner | Alberto Contador 2007 |
| Most career Yellow Jerseys | Eddy Merckx (96) (111 overall incl. half stages) |
| Most career stage wins | Eddy Merckx (34) |
Together with the Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) and Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain), the Tour de France is one of the three major stage races and the longest of the Union Cycliste Internationale (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.
As with most cycling races, competitors enter as part of a team. The race consists of 20 to 22 teams with nine riders each. Traditionally, entry is extended to invitation only, with invitations granted only to the best of the world's professional teams. The tour organizers recently have utilized UCI points (based upon team riders/results) to determine which teams would gain automatic entry into the tour and then typically reserve 2-4 team slots to at large teams or French continental teams who would not be able to race in the tour based upon their individual team results. Each team, known by the name of its sponsor, wears a distinctive jersey and riders assist one another and have access to a shared 'team car' (a mobile version of the pit crews in car racing).
Tour de France is a song by Kraftwerk. It was first issued in June 1983, peaking at #22 in the UK singles chart. It is notable for the use of sampled voices and mechanical sounds associated with cycling that were used to supplement a simple electro-percussion pattern – an approach Kraftwerk have used on earlier tracks such as "Metal on Metal" (from "Trans-Europe Express") and "Numbers" (from "Computer World"). The music is credited to Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider and Karl Bartos; the lyrics are credited to Ralf Hütter and Maxime Schmitt, a French label associate of the band. The melody appears to quote a fragment of the opening section of Paul Hindemith's Sonata For Flute And Piano ('Heiter Bewegt').
For Kraftwerk, Tour De France was a departure from the technological tone of the two previous albums, Man Machine and Computer World. Instead, the song is a joie de vivre celebration of cycling, marking the group's increasing interest in the sport. Of the current line-up, Ralf Hütter and Fritz Hilpert have been known to take part in cycling events.
The track was originally recorded with the intention of being included on the subsequently abandoned Techno Pop album. The single was originally released on seven and twelve inch vinyl, and as a cassette-single. It has the most complicated set of variants of any Kraftwerk song, having been variously edited and remixed to the point that there is no completely definitive version.
The sleeve design depicted the band on road bikes in a paceline, superimposed across an angled representation of the French national flag. The design was adapted from an image that had appeared on a 1953 Hungarian postage stamp, one of a sport-themed set commemorating the opening the Népstadion (People's Stadium) in Budapest.
The piece was also included in the 1984 film, Breakin'; also known as Breakdance internationally. Although the song did appear briefly in the film, Kraftwerk did not let the song appear on the movie soundtrack; instead, a cover version of the song was released by a group called “10 Speed”.
In the US and Canada, the original vinyl releases from 1983-84 were issued by Warner Bros. Records.
