Coral launch Tour De France infographic!

With the Tour de France in full spin….Coral have put together an interesting, fun and fact packed info-graphic.

Henri Desgrange, yep, you’ve got it he was French, launched the now world famous cycling event in 1903 purely as a promotion for the French newspaper L’auto Velo. The colour of the pages? Again, correct, they were yellow, giving birth to the creation of the ‘Yellow Jersey’ that the race leader sports.

One year later, the winner was disqualified, as it emerged that he had caught a train half way through the race. It is probably fair to say he had run out of steam…

In 1920, organisers allowed racers to have a cigarette mid-race. However, a drag or two on a stogie didn’t stop the riders disappearing in a ‘nic-o-tine’, get it? Yeah, the whole world can hear the wheels coming off that one..

Fast-forward 55 years later, as ‘Le Tour’ really started to move through the gears, we had our first knock-out. Five time winner Eddy Merckx received a blow to the kidneys. Despite finishing, Merckx was unable to add a sixth victory to his repertoire.

Who can forget that song ‘Bicycle’? Made famous by Queen singer Freddie Mercury, it seems men in lycra inspired him to lyricise about the Tour de France in 1978.

The 2005 edition had the fastest average speed, of 41.5km per hour, nearly double the slowest of 24.1km in 1919. As 2014’s Tour nears it’s final stages, riders have had the privilege of experiencing Yorkshire hospitality in the opening stages.

Although defending champion Britain’s Chris Froome, and Spanish favourite Alberto Contador have been ruled out, crowds are still turning out in their thousands to greet the riders with “Ahoy there!”, or is it “Alloy there!”…come on, surely worth a chuckle.

Check out our info-graphic here