ABSTRACT
Question: How many people would stand at the roadside for anything up to six hours, come rain or shine, just to catch sight of the brief blur of 198 cyclists hurtling past en route for Paris?
Answer: 15 million. That’s the number of spectators who regularly crowd along the 2,130-mile route of the Tour de France, along a track that takes in Champagne country, the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Atlantic coast and takes 21 days to cover.
