If there is one reason why my summer is always a fantastic time to be alive then a three-week famous bike race is my idea of finding enjoyment.

As mentioned in my piece, road cycling is my number one sport ahead of football and rugby union, which means that the pinnacle of my cycling fandom comes every summer with the Tour de France.

Cycling fans from across the world travel to see the race, where the prestige of crossing over Alps and Pyrenees for three weeks brings a supreme challenge for every rider in the professional peloton.

The stunning scenery of France, iconic history, the glory of wearing the yellow jersey even if for one day, a stage win and most importantly the atmosphere from fans who make the Tour de France unique – where else can you watch a sporting event for free, come close to icons, whilst enjoying the cultural amenities the French offer?

I’ve been following the Tour since the age of 15, unsurprisingly the 2012 Tour was my first encounter. The first-ever British win for Sir Bradley Wiggins in a London Olympic year exposed me to a sport which involves drama, sacrifice, achievement, tactics and fans dressed in all kinds of whacky costumes (take your pick from mankinis, an inflatable T-Rex or Didi the Devil).

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The following year saw 2013 celebrate the 100th edition of the Tour (another British win in the shape of Chris Froome) before the 2014 edition began in Yorkshire. Britain is good at cycling, so it has rubbed off on me.

The years of Team Sky dominating the wins with Froome plus Geraint Thomas wearing yellow in 2018 – following the Brits while enjoying every story told at the Tour is personally a joy to follow.

Riding a bike gives a sense of freedom, so for many years I have watched the most famous bike race the sport can design. Each year the route changes but the fact remains – an array of colour, the fans carrying their flags, thousands of kilometres, TV coverage and in the end who gets to win the Tour by winning the iconic maillot jaune?

Resplendent in yellow, this is the Tour de France in my own words.

One huge travelling circus

While football has terrific stadiums, the arena of the Tour is the road. Even for sporting spectators, cycling offers an experience like no other including accessibility.

If you fancy the chance of playing football at Wembley or hitting a rally at Wimbledon, forget it! A chance for the public to ride up Mont Ventoux, La Planche des Belles Filles or the Col du Tourmalet? Riding up a mountain pass is the stadium you can enter at your peril – a chance to feel what the pros endure.

Of course my own experiences putting on the cycling gear, the lycra and road bike has only involved roads in the UK, but it does not stop me to watch in awe on TV as each and every rider suffers on all terrain across France.

The beauty of the race is one large travelling circus. Even before any rider has passed through the local village, the publicity caravan features all kinds of techno music, freebies and biscuits.

Add to this the convoy of motorbikes carrying the TV cameras, team cars, medical vehicles, race officials, the gendarmes, the riders themselves and of course the TV helicopter capturing the aerial footage – it is a mad mix of extraordinary noise and excitement.

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What you have with the Tour is a race within a race, within a race, within another race, and another race within a race. What I mean by this is all kinds of narratives are written, not just solely about the overall winner who wears yellow.

23 teams, 184 riders, 21 stages – each rider and team has different objectives. A couple of teams are focused entirely on the general classification (GC) to win the yellow jersey while others focus on gaining a stage win, be it their main sprinter in a bunch sprint, a breakaway victory on a hilly stage, an individual time trial against the clock, maybe a team time trial, or just the glory of winning solo atop a mountain.

The type of stage determines the day’s narrative as well as tactics, how the race pans out, crashes and always the weather!

A flat stage suits the sprinters, a time trial favours the specialists, a hilly stage should suit the puncheurs who can sprint and climb short sharp uphill summits, and finally the mountains suit pure mountain goats who can climb at high altitudes where the air is thin. To make things even more interesting, a group of riders could breakaway and outsmart the main field (the peloton).

The pride of yellow and more…

Competitions are aplenty. Yellow jersey for the rider who completes the Tour in the shortest overall time, the GC sorts the pecking order (lose time and you fall down the standings, gain time on your rivals and you climb the standings).

The white jersey (maillot blanc) is for the best young rider under 25 who completes the race in the shortest time too (think the yellow jersey but for younger riders, although a rider under-25 could wear white and yellow at the same time).

The green jersey (maillot vert) is for those who gain points at intermediate sprints plus more points on offer for flat stages. Green usually goes to a sprinter or a puncheur who can cope with completing every stage by climbing mountains before making the time cut.

The polka-dot jersey (maillot a pois) is for the King of the Mountains. At every hill or mountain summit points are on offer for riders to win this competition.

And finally after every stage, the most attacking rider wins the Combativity Award, the rider allowed to wear a golden number the following day. It is alternatively bad news if you are last in the GC, then you become the ‘lanterne rouge’ and wear a red number.

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Like any sporting event, the Tour de France does have its moment in the spotlight for how crazy it is.

The madness of the Tour is part of the spectacle, often controversial and often just damn crazy.

But most importantly it’s three weeks to admire the mountains, the colours, the annual finale into Paris on the Champs-Élysées, the fans and above all, a proper bike race.

If you don’t know by now I love the Tour de France.

A Dessert of Craziness

To conclude, let me leave you with a flavour of just how crazy this race is, some moments providing controversy and others leaving fans like me in utter disbelief at what I’ve just seen on my TV.

It’s five years since a fan decided to bring a weapon to watch the race, not a gun or a knife, but a piece of cardboard with the words “ALLEZ OPI-OMI” (which can be translated from French/German as a sign of “endearment” for grandparents).

The lady in question thought it was hilarious to try and get her message across on TV and caused 40+ riders in the peloton to crash, several having to eventually abandon due to their injuries. She paid a €1,350 fine.

It’s ten years since an unforgettable scene on Mont Ventoux in 2016, a scene of spectators overcrowding the road, the TV motorbike grinding to a halt, and three riders crashing into the back of it.

Richie Porte, Bauke Mollema and Chris Froome in yellow all attacking together before crashing ensured pure theatre as Mollema immediately returned to his bike, Porte recovered too, while Froome desperately needed a new one due to damage from the crash. 

Froome took off on foot sprinting up the road but after stopping to call his team car, which was five minutes behind in traffic, he took a spare bike from the Mavic neutral service, which was about as useless as a paper umbrella.

An incorrectly sized bike failed Froome so . he eventually located a team bike and quickly raced to the finish line trying to limit his losses.

Shaking his head in disbelief Froome originally lost time to slip down the GC to sixth but officials revised the results, giving Froome and Porte the same finishing time as Mollema, meaning a perseverant Froome kept his yellow jersey.

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Extreme weather nowadays is a challenge due to our changing climate, where it affects sport too including the Tour.

During the 2019 edition, Stage 19 in the high Alps saw the stage cancelled mid-race due to severe hailstorms and mudslides. A valley road heading to the ski resort of Tignes (where most Tour summit finishes take place btw) became “unrideable”.

The decision to cancel the race ultimately shaped the final outcome of the race. As riders were ascending the Col de L’Iseran, French hope in yellow Julian Alaphillipe cracked, defending champion Geraint Thomas was climbing well, fellow Brit Simon Yates was chasing a third stage win and Thomas’s INEOS teammate Egan Bernal attacked to become the new maillot jaune race leader.

Final stage times were taken at the top of the L’Iseran, meaning Bernal had effectively become the confirmed winner because Thomas couldn’t attack a teammate the next day and the French chances to finally win the Tour since 1985 were dashed.

Who knows what might have happened that day if the weather was different!

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One final moment of madness, attached with positivity is how one comeback provided Tour de France history in the form of Britain’s Mark Cavendish.

The Manx Missile had already achieved numerous stage wins in his career for multiple teams. 2016 was the year he first managed to wear the yellow jersey after winning Stage 1 at Utah Beach before years in the wilderness due to ill-health prompted questions over whether Cav was done.

Fast forward to 2021 and Mark Cavendish made a remarkable comeback to win four stages and equal the record number of stage wins by the legendary Eddy Merckx on 34 wins. The greatest Tour de France sprinter ever, Cavendish then had to overcome another crash in 2023 with his Astana team, the chance to break the stage record looked gone.

But then 2025 arrived and in the town of Saint-Vulbas, Mark Cavendish broke the record. What remains unbelievable is how a rider heading towards retirement, suffered from a slew of bad health issues and had no major wins in years, managed to beat younger and faster sprinters in the shape of Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen, Dutchman Fabio Jakobsen and Germany’s Pascal Ackermann.

Now happily retired, the story of Mark Cavendish is one of best in sport, a lesson in how not to give up.