I have never watched the Tour de France

Explain this to me     s  l  o  w  l  y  .

• Over 24 days (from July 1^st – July 24th), 176 riders will race over 2,000 miles for a series of 21 ‘stages’ through mountains, hills, towns and sprint days. At the end of each stage, every cyclists’ individual time is added to his previous stage times. The cyclist with the lowest cumulative time wins the Tour de France and iconic yellow jersey.
  • 22 teams of 8 riders who use varying strategies to win
  • 28 riders in the young rider classification this year
• There will be 6 flat stages, 7 hilly stages, 6 mountain stages (with 5 mountain top finishes), 2 individual time trial stage, 2 rest days and 1 transfer day
  • Each stage gives its own points and prize money.
    • If you finish 1-3^rd in a stage, you get a time bonus of 10, 6 and 4 seconds respectively.
  • Stage 1 started in Copenhagen (you’re not crazy that is in NED not France)
  • Every year the route changes but it always ends the same
  • Stage 21 will end on the Champs-Elysees
  • Rest days are 7/11 and 7/26 and the transfer day was 7/4 (for us Americans – that’s so nice of them)
• Who is in the lead? Here are the updated standings.
  • Julian Alaphilippe, 2x champ, and Mark Cavendish, who tied the record of number of stage wins will both be absent. Julian is recovering from a crash 2 months ago and Mark did not make the cut.
• Who is supposed to win?
  • The 109th TdF is supposed to be a showdown between Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic but there are always surprises. Pogacar is the 2x reigning TdF winner while Roglic came in 4th last year but seems to be the best person to unseat his compatriot.
• It will be televised everyday on USA live at ~7am CT
  • Every year the TdF has ~3.5Bn views (now granted that is over 21 days) which is a similar figure as the World Cup. The most viewed Super Bowl had ~112MM

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