The 112th edition of the most prestigious cycling tour in France - the Tour de France, starts today, July 5 and will traditionally last three weeks until the 27th of the same month. 21 stages will determine the new champion, the holder of the yellow jersey, over a distance of 3,338.8 km. The current winner of the race is the Slovenian Tadej Pogačar, who has three triumphs in the Tour - 2020, 2021 and 2024.

The 26-year-old cyclist is one of the three clear favorites for success. He warmed up with an impressive way with a victory in the Criterium du Dauphiné. The other two main candidates are Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel. Dane Vingegaard won the Tour de France in 2022 and 2023, while Belgian Evenepoel, winner of the 2022 Vuelta, was named Best Young Rider in the Tour last year.

This year’s edition will start in Lille, featuring six mountain stages and two time trials, one of which is in the mountains on July 18. The first individual time trial is in Caen on July 9. The riders will have two days off, scheduled for July 15 and 21. It was announced earlier in May that the final stage in Paris would feature laps on a track inspired by the road races at the Summer Olympics in the French capital last summer, with climbs up the Montmartre hill before the traditional finish on the Champs-Élysées. Some riders were not happy with the change and openly criticized it, with Evenepoel saying he didn't like the idea, Wout van Aert calling the stage "dangerous," and Jasper Philipsen saying it was "a shame to see this stage changed".

It is also interesting to see how the Tour's prize money has changed over the years. The Tour de France has seen many great champions who have gone down in history, not only for the Tour but for cycling in general. Since its debut in 1903, the Tour has had a prize money. Champion Maurice Garin took home a "modest" 3,000 francs for first place - or just over 3,200 euros. The total prize money is 20,000 francs. By the start of World War I, when the Tour de France was suspended for the period 1915-1918, the total prize money had already reached 45,000 francs, with the winner taking home 5,000 francs.

The legendary Eddy Merckx, a five-time Tour champion (1969-72, 1974), invariably received 20,000 francs, except in 1974, when he took 30,000 for his fifth victory. Just two years after the great Merckx's last triumph, his compatriot Lucien Van Impe also received with an apartment provided by the race sponsor - a practice that continued between 1976-1987. A year after the success of the Irishman Stephen Roche, Pedro Delgado from Spain won a car, a studio apartment, a work of art and 500,000 francs in cash. Since the 1990s, the practice has been to give only a cash prize to the winner.

The 1990s were the era of the great Miguel Indurain, who consistently won the Tour de France between 1991 and 1995. Then came Lance Armstrong's raid, but he was stripped of his seven consecutive titles due to doping violations. Briton Chris Froome left his mark with four wins in five years between 2013 and 2017, before Pogačar and Vingegaard came along. From 2022 onwards, the winner will walk away with a cheque for €500,000. Each stage winner will take home €11,000. The money won by each team is divided between the riders and staff. The total prize money in 2025 is €2,305,250.

It's safe to say that the Tour de France has naturally changed over the years, and the prize pool is one of the things that falls into this category. The Tour also has the largest prize pool in professional cycling, which adds to the label "most prestigious". The Tour de France will forever have a place in cycling history and the 112th edition promises another portion of emotions for their fans around the world. | BGNES