Tour de France Stages Explained

Tour de France Stages: How the Race Works

Tour de France structure has gotten complicated for newcomers trying to understand all the different stage types flying around. As someone who watched my first Tour and got confused about halfway through, I learned everything there is to know about how the race format actually works.

Why were some stages sprints and others mountain climbing? Why did the leader seem protected some days and attacked others? Here’s what I’ve figured out.

The Basic Format

Probably should have led with this section, honestly. The modern Tour has 21 stages raced over 23 days. Two rest days are scattered through the three weeks – usually after particularly brutal stretches. Total distance is around 3,500 kilometers, give or take depending on the route that year.

It wasn’t always this way. The first Tour in 1903 had only six stages, but they were monsters – some over 400 kilometers. The race has evolved toward more stages covering shorter distances.

Types of Stages

Flat stages: About 8-10 of them, mainly for sprinters. The peloton stays together most of the day, then explodes in a chaotic sprint finish. Teams with sprinters work to control the pace and position their fastest finisher for the final kilometers.

Mountain stages: Usually 6-8, featuring climbs in the Alps and Pyrenees. This is where the overall classification gets decided. Climbers attack, favorites mark each other, and time gaps happen. Some mountain stages climb over 4,000 meters of elevation.

Time trials: Two or three individual time trials, plus sometimes a team time trial. Riders race alone against the clock. These can shuffle the standings significantly – a strong time trialist can gain or lose minutes.

Hilly/medium mountain stages: The in-between days. Not flat enough for pure sprinters, not brutal enough for the climbers to create major gaps. Breakaways often succeed on these stages.

Stage Strategy

Teams think about each stage differently based on their objectives. A sprinter’s team wants to control flat stages, keeping the pace manageable until the final kilometers, then launching their sprint train. They’ll often let breakaways go on mountain stages – no point killing the sprinter before sprint stages.

Teams with overall contenders play the long game. They protect their leader in the pack on flat stages, then attack or respond to attacks in the mountains. Every second matters, so they calculate risks carefully.

Rest Days

Two rest days provide recovery from accumulated fatigue. They usually come after the most demanding stretches – after a week of mountain stages, or between major mountain ranges. Riders still spin their legs lightly on rest days; complete inactivity would backfire.

Rest days can also mess with rhythm. Some riders restart slowly. The stage after a rest day often produces unexpected results.

Stage Wins vs. Overall

Different goals, different heroes. Stage hunters – sprinters and breakaway specialists – target individual stage victories without worrying about overall time. A sprinter might finish an hour behind on a mountain stage and not care, because tomorrow’s flat stage is their target.

Overall contenders sometimes sacrifice stage wins to protect their position. Why burn energy attacking when second place on a stage maintains your lead? It’s not always exciting, but it’s smart racing.

The Paris Finish

The final stage traditionally ends on the Champs-Élysées. It’s mostly ceremonial for the overall standings – attackers don’t try to take the yellow jersey on the last day. But it’s still a prestigious sprint finish, and sprinters fight hard to win on the world’s most famous avenue.

The leader in yellow gets celebrated throughout the stage, posing for photos with teammates, sipping champagne in the peloton. Only when they hit Paris do the sprinters go to work.

Why 21 Stages

That’s what makes the Tour format endearing to us cycling fans who follow every July. The number balances racing intensity against human limits. Three weeks is already brutal – fewer stages would concentrate the racing but reduce the drama. More stages would break riders even further. 21 seems to be the sweet spot the race has settled into.

The rest days are essential at this duration. Without them, the accumulated fatigue would be even more dangerous. Even with them, riders lose significant weight and push their bodies to the limit.