1) Tour de France, France

The world's largest cycle race began in 1903, when just 60 pioneers set out on their bicycles from Montgeron. Today the Tour is a 23-day, 21-stage bicycle road race usually run over 3500km. The route, which changes yearly but always includes the Alps and Pyrenees, winds though most regions of France and is broken into stages from one town to another. Each stage is an individual race, with the accumulated time taken to complete each stage deciding the outright winner at the end of the Tour. Traditionally, competitors enter by invitation as a team, with the overall winner sharing the prize winnings with his team-mates. Discover more on Tour De France....