Tour de France Q&A

A: If history is to be taken into account, then yes, Lance Armstrong might be a little too old for an eighth Tour victory at 38.

The oldest Tour winner was Belgian Firmin Lambot in 1922, at 36, while the average age for Tour winners is just over 27, which is exactly Alberto Contador's age. Yet nobody before Armstrong had won seven Tours.

A: The Tour de France left its borders as early as 1907 when it took off from Metz, which was a German town at the time. The second time the Tour started from abroad was in 1954 when the peloton left from Amsterdam.

In 1974, a stage was raced in England for the first time. The race has since regularly visited neighbouring countries. In 1987, it started at the foot of the Berlin Wall while in 1992 the riders went through the six founding members of the European Union. Its most distant start was in 1998 in Dublin.

A: Because the Briton, arguably the best sprinter in the world, is not a good climber. Since 1913, the final standings of the Tour have been based on the overall time clocked by each rider, adding the time of each stage.

Time gaps in mountain stages are far bigger than in flat stages, giving climbers a huge advantage over sprinters. On the other hand, climbers, who are usually diminutive and light, often lose precious time in individual time trials, which favour powerful riders.

In the last few years, the event has been won by climbers -- Oscar Pereiro, Contador and Carlos Sastre -- yet most great Tour riders are all-rounders, winning both time trials and mountain stages.

A: This might have read like a silly question before allegations this season that some professional riders may have used bikes equipped with miniature engines concealed in the frame. All those accused have vigorously denied any wrongdoing but the International Cycling Union (UCI) took the issue seriously enough to announce that all bikes on the Tour would be scanned to detect engines.

A: To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first Tourmalet ascent in 1910. The Tourmalet was the first high-altitude summit to be included on the Tour route and it stopped many riders from entering the race. First to the top a century ago was Frenchman Octave Lapize, who called the organisers "criminals".

A: In 1919, Tour organisers decided the race leader should wear a special jersey making him easy to identify by spectators. They picked yellow as it was the colour of the paper on which L'Auto, the sports daily sponsoring the race, was printed.

A: It is the jersey awarded for the points classification and a great consolation prize for sprinters as they usually win more stages, albeit by a slimmer margin.

Points are awarded to the top 20 finishers in each stage; the rider finishing with the most points wins the jersey. The record green jersey winner is German Erik Zabel, who won it six times.

A: It is the jersey awarded to the best climber of the Tour or 'King of the Mountains'. Points are awarded at the top of each hill or mountain, which are rated from fourth to first category depending on their difficulty. Some exceptionally tough climbs, such as L'Alpe d'Huez or Mont Ventoux, are rated "hors categorie" (out of category).

The polka dot design was chosen as it was the same as one of the jersey's sponsors. The record winner of the King of the Mountains jersey is Frenchman Richard Virenque, who earned it seven times.

A: Because only seconds are taken into account in the overall standings and not fractions of seconds. It is the convention in road cycling that all the riders included in the same group are given the same time on the finish line regardless of whether they are at the front or the back.

Another rule, applying only to flat stages, states that a rider who crashes in the last three kilometres will be awarded the same time as the group he was in before crashing.

A: The Tour is raced by 20 teams of nine riders. Each team usually includes a leader -- the man with the best chance for the final classification -- sprinters, climbers and every type of rider who can help the team to win a stage, take a jersey and bring home prize money.

When some 200 competitors ride in a bunch at around 50 kph, the riders at the front waste much more energy than the ones immediately behind, who are sheltered from the headwind.

This is why team mates are often seen riding ahead of their leader -- they are protecting him from the wind.

Team mates often act for their leaders in other ways, passing on one of their wheels if he punctures or picking up bottles and bags at the feeding zone.

A: Also called an echelon, it is one of the nightmares of the peloton. When the wind is strong and blowing sideways, it can split the bunch into little groups which are no longer sheltered inside the main bunch. They lose contact, find themselves on the most exposed side of the road and can lose considerable time. It happened to Contador last year in a stage finish in La Grande Motte. The first four stages in this Tour in the Netherlands, Belgium and the North of France could be subject to echelons.

A: Also called the "gruppetto" (Italian for small group), it is the group formed by poor climbers in the mountain stages to help each other make it to the finish line at a reasonable pace, but inside the time limits.

A: Spending some five hours on the bike, riders sometimes have to urinate during a stage. If the race is raging at full speed, riders do so on their bikes but most of the time they stop early in the stage when the pace is leisurely.

It is an unwritten rule of the peloton that you do not attack when a rider or a group has stopped to urinate.