If you think you’ve been out of breath throughout this sweltering heatwave, spare a thought for the cyclists completing the Tour de France.
The final stage gets underway today, with Egan Bernal about to become the youngest Tour winner in 110 years, and the first Colombian ever to do so.
Race tradition states that the race leader is not challenged on Sunday’s final stage to Paris, and since he finished stage 20 with the yellow jersey, it looks like he’s got the top spot.
Bernal was one minute, 11 seconds ahead of Ineos teammate Geraint Thomas in this leg, with Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk in third.
Each of the cyclists can expect to get a hefty payout at the end of the race (although not as hefty as many sports). Let’s take a look at how far the race is, and how much they can win.
How many miles is the Tour de France?
The race itself features 21 day-long segments (stages) over a 23-day period and covers around 2,200 miles.
The course does slightly vary each year. This time around, the Tour started in Brussels, and the course was 2,095 miles long.
Last year’s was the shortest since 2002 at 3,349 km, which is 2,081 miles.
How much is the Tour de France prize money?
The winner is handed €500,000 (£445,000) which – although a fair sum – is quite a lot less than sportspeople in some other disciplines get.
Not to mention, the tradition tends to be that this is then shared between the rest of the winner’s teammates and crew.
However, the long-term earnings of winning the Tour de France are the real financial prize as sponsorships and commercial deals will likely follow. Unlike individual sports, cyclists are paid salaries, so the race prize money is less important to those earning millions from their teams.
There are other streams of revenue during the Tour de France, including winning the points and mountains classifications, which will earn riders €25,000 each, whilst the Young rider winner gets €20,000.
Second place bags also €200,000, with the classification then moving downwards incrementally until 20-160. These positions will get riders €1,000 each, or 28c to the kilometre.
There is also money on offer for holding the yellow, polka dot and white jerseys at any stage and for individual toad stages, time trials and intermediate sprints.
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