define the term tour de force

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Definition of tour de force noun from the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

tour de force

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What does tour de force mean?

Definitions for tour de force ˌtʊər də ˈfɔrs, -ˈfoʊrs; tʊərz tour de force, this dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word tour de force ., princeton's wordnet rate this definition: 0.0 / 0 votes.

• tour de force noun

a masterly or brilliant feat

Wiktionary Rate this definition: 0.0 / 0 votes

A feat demonstrating brilliance or mastery in a field.

An outstanding display of skill.

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Tour de Force

A tour de force is a performance or achievement that has been accomplished or managed with great skill, strength or ingenuity.

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tour de force

A tour de force refers to an impressive and skilled performance, achievement, display of strength or execution in any field. It often denotes mastery and brilliance in a particular task or skill. The term originates from French and literally translates as "feat of strength".

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Tour de Force is the sixth studio album by the southern rock band 38 Special, released in 1984.

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How to pronounce tour de force.

Alex US English David US English Mark US English Daniel British Libby British Mia British Karen Australian Hayley Australian Natasha Australian Veena Indian Priya Indian Neerja Indian Zira US English Oliver British Wendy British Fred US English Tessa South African

How to say tour de force in sign language?

Chaldean Numerology

The numerical value of tour de force in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

Pythagorean Numerology

The numerical value of tour de force in Pythagorean Numerology is: 4

Examples of tour de force in a Sentence

I have not seen any notes slipped to you and there has not been a binder in front of you, and this has been a tour de force on your part, and you should be complimented publicly for that.

Masa Takaya :

If Tokyo 2020, the government of Tokyo and the government of Sapporo manage to organize a world-class marathon in less than nine months, it will be a tour de force , it will show that, no matter what, Japan is a safe pair of hands and an incredibly committed and capable partner.

Tom Arnold :

Laurie is a tour de force , she could carry this show. She could carry every show ever.

• ^  Princeton's WordNet http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=tour de force
• ^  Wiktionary https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Tour_de_Force
• ^  Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_Force
• ^  ChatGPT https://chat.openai.com
• ^  Wikidata https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=tour de force

Translations for tour de force

From our multilingual translation dictionary.

• Meisterstück German
• κατόρθωμα Greek
• jõudemonstratsioon Estonian
• loistosuoritus, voimannäyte Finnish
• tour de force, exploit French
• de vi CIRCUMITIO Latin
• krachtdaad Dutch
• tour de force Norwegian

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Image credit, the web's largest resource for, definitions & translations, a member of the stands4 network, free, no signup required :, add to chrome, add to firefox, browse definitions.net, are you a words master, an event in which one thing is substituted for another, Nearby & related entries:.

• tour de force (film)
• tour de france noun
• tour dhorizon
• tour guide noun
• tour manager

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tour de force noun

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What does the phrase tour de force mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the phrase tour de force . See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

How common is the phrase tour de force ?

How is the phrase tour de force pronounced, british english, where does the phrase tour de force come from.

Earliest known use

The earliest known use of the phrase tour de force is in the 1800s.

OED's earliest evidence for tour de force is from 1802, in a letter by Lord Elgin.

tour de force is a borrowing from French.

Etymons: French tour .

Nearby entries

• toupee, n. 1727–
• toupeed, adj. 1847–
• toupet, n. 1728–
• toupeted, adj. 1903–
• toupet-titmouse, n. 1785–
• tour, n. c1320–
• tour, v. 1746–
• Tourangeau, n. & adj. 1883–
• Tourangeois, adj. & n. 1857–
• tourbillion | tourbillon, n. 1477–
• tour de force, n. 1802–
• Tour de France, n. 1922–
• tour d'horizon, n. 1952–
• tourelle, n. c1330–
• tourer, n. 1927–
• tourette, n.¹ 1881–
• Tourette, n.² 1899–
• Tourettism, n. 1981–
• tourification, n. 1802–
• tourify, v. 1820–
• tourifying, adj. 1825–

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Meaning & use

Pronunciation, entry history for tour de force, n..

tour de force, n. was first published in 1913; not yet revised.

tour de force, n. was last modified in July 2023.

Revision of the OED is a long-term project. Entries in oed.com which have not been revised may include:

• corrections and revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
• new senses, phrases, and quotations which have been added in subsequent print and online updates.

Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into tour de force, n. in July 2023.

Earlier versions of this entry were published in:

OED First Edition (1913)

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OED Second Edition (1989)

• View tour de force in OED Second Edition

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Citation details

Factsheet for tour de force, n., browse entry.

Synonyms of tour de force

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Thesaurus Definition of tour de force

Synonyms & Similar Words

• achievement
• performance
• accomplishment

Thesaurus Entries Near tour de force

tourbillions

tour de force

Cite this Entry

“Tour de force.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tour%20de%20force. Accessed 29 Jun. 2024.

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Tour de force

| Grammarist

Tour de force is French for feat of strength . In English, we use it to describe a particularly impressive display of skill and effort. The phrase came to English in the early 19th century, and it has become increasingly common ever since. Today, we use it not only as a noun phrase but also as a phrasal adjective.

There is no reason to hyphenate tour de force when it’s a noun phrase (e.g., her performance was a tour de force ), but hyphenating it makes sense when it’s a phrasal adjective ( she gave a tour-de-force performance ). But it often goes unhyphenated even as a phrasal adjective.

We tend to italicize words and phrases from other languages when they are new to English, but tour de force is no longer new, so there’s no need to italicize it in normal use. But because tour and force are English words, some publications still italicize it to avoid confusion.

In French, the plural of tour de force is tours de force . In English, both tours de force and tour de forces are used (the former about twice as often as the latter).

Lord Byron thought proper, as a sort of tour de force , to versify, in his Don Juan, passages taken from prose works. [ Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country (1839) ] To pass this examination is a tour de force of which very few men are capable, owing to the general inability of the average mortal to take in abstract conceptions. [ Music: a monthly magazine … (1895) ] At the same time, the trans-Atlantic flight is still a tour de force, as it will possibly be a very long time before we can hope to see an America-to-Ireland service. [ New York Times (1919) ] It was an organizational tour de force. The French overlooked nothing, except the spirit of the Olympics with its emphasis on brotherhood and fellowship. [ Calgary Herald (1968) ] Despite his late dismissal, Ponting allowed himself a touch of satisfaction as he looked back on his tour-de-force innings. [ Daily Mail (2005) ] Nigel Hawthorne, best known as Sir Humphrey Appleby, delivers a tour de force performance as the king. [ The Australian (2012) ]

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Word of the Day

Word of the day, tour de force.

a feat requiring unusual strength, skill, or ingenuity.

More about tour de force

Tour de force “a feat requiring unusual strength, skill, or ingenuity” is a borrowing from French, in which the phrase literally means “turn of strength.” French tour has two separate derivations: the noun tour “a turn” in tour de force is related to the verb tourner “to turn” (from Latin tornāre ), and this tour is not to be confused with tour “tower” (from Latin turris ). This distinction is why the Tour de France refers to a long, winding bicycle race while the tour Eiffel is the original French name for the Eiffel Tower. Other derivatives of Latin tornāre “to turn” include return , tourniquet , tourist , and tornado . Tour de force was first recorded in English circa the year 1800.

how is tour de force used?

“The idea that nature is not bound by the artificial boundaries that we assign to physics, chemistry, biology or mathematics has been around a long time,” said astrophysicist Mayank Vahia …. He said the Nobel prize in physiology and medicine shared by Jim Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, for instance, for unraveling the double helix structure of DNA, might not have been won but for the technical (read physical) tour de force of X-ray diffraction studies achieved by Rosalind Franklin and her colleagues.

A tour de force from 1938, by the German-born Argentine Annemarie Heinrich in league with her sister Ursula, finds the two reflected in a mirrored orb. In the background—from our point of view—Annemarie grins as she snaps the shutter of a standing camera; Ursula looms gigantically and wildly distorted as she leans forward to grasp the sphere. It takes time, enjoyably, to puzzle out the picture’s vertiginous structure.

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the arc of the horizon measured clockwise from the south point, in astronomy, or from the north point, in navigation, to the point where a vertical circle through a given heavenly body intersects the horizon.

More about azimuth

Azimuth “the arc of the horizon measured clockwise” derives by way of Middle French azimut from Arabic as-sumūt “the ways,” an assimilated plural form of al-samt “the way.” As we learned from the recent   Word of the Day acequia , the prefix al- “the” assimilates to match the first sound in the word that follows—but only when that sound is pronounced with the tip of the tongue. Azimuth shares an origin with zenith “the point on the celestial sphere vertically above a given position,” but while azimuth closely resembles its Arabic source, zenith arose when Arabic samt was borrowed into Old Spanish as zemt and was subsequently misread as zenit . We never know when a small scribal error can end up creating a new word! Azimuth was first recorded in English in the late 14th century.

how is azimuth used?

While we say that the sun sets in the west, most times that’s not exactly the case …. [B]etween the first day of spring and the first day of autumn, the position on the horizon where the sun appears to set, known as the azimuth , actually occurs somewhat north of due west. The azimuth of the sunset slowly shifts northward until the day of the June solstice; thereafter, it reverses course and shifts back to the south. On June 21, the sun sets at an azimuth of 302 degrees, or 32 degrees north of due west. But for the setting sun to be seen from all of Manhattan’s cross streets, its azimuth must be 299 degrees, or 29 degrees north of due west.

an act or instance of fighting a shadow or an imaginary enemy.

More about sciamachy

Sciamachy “an act of fighting a shadow” is adapted from Ancient Greek skiamachía , equivalent to skiá “shadow” and máchē “battle.” Skiá is sometimes romanized as scia- , consistent with the Latin trend of changing Greek kappa to Roman c , but other derivatives of skiá in English hew closely to the original spelling and appear as skia- , as in skiagraph “a photographic image produced by the action of x-rays or nuclear radiation.” Máchē is a popular element in technical terms related to fighting or warfare. When combined with taûros “bull,” we get tauromachy “bullfighting,” and when combined with lógos “word,” we get logomachy “a dispute about or concerning words.” Sciamachy was first recorded in English circa 1620.

how is sciamachy used?

As farewells were played, Order became disorder And sciamachy took root. In the dark place, where mirrors Refracted black light Breathing became ragged. … And, I, cannot now Recognise a face. There is but a record Of a dark place.

Aru is indulging in sciamachy . She has the frustrated look of a person combating a shadow, a shadow that absorbs her anger and gives her nothing in return. As for me, it was not only her questions that daunted me, it was her look as well, the clear-eyed, judging gaze…

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Synonyms and antonyms of tour de force in English

Tour de force, achievement.

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side hustle

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a piece of work or a job that you get paid for doing in addition to doing your main job

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tour de force (n.)

"feat of strength, power, or skill," 1802, a French phrase used in English, from tour "turn, act, feat" (see tour (n.)) + force "force, power" (see force (n.)).

Entries linking to tour de force

c. 1300, "physical strength," from Old French force "force, strength; courage, fortitude; violence, power, compulsion" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *fortia (source also of Old Spanish forzo , Spanish fuerza , Italian forza ), noun use of neuter plural of Latin fortis "strong, mighty; firm, steadfast; brave, bold" (see fort ).

Meanings "power to convince the mind" and "power exerted against will or consent" are from mid-14c. Meaning "body of armed men, a military organization" first recorded late 14c. (also in Old French). Physics sense is from 1660s; force field attested by 1920. Related: Forces .

c. 1300, "a turn of events; one's shift on duty," from Old French tor, tour, tourn , tourn "a turn, trick, round, circuit, circumference," from torner, tourner "to turn" (see turn (v.)).

The sense of "a going round (a place, or from place to place), a continued ramble or excursion" is from 1640s. Compare tourism . The literal sense of "a turning round, circular movement" is rare in English and obsolete.

For Grand Tour , see grand (adj.). Tour de France as a bicycle race is attested in English by 1916 ( Tour de France Cycliste , distinguished from a motorcar race of the same name). A tour d'horizon (1952 in English) is a broad, general survey. A little tour or excursion is a tourette (1881).

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tour de force

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Definition of 'tours de force'

Tours de force in british english.

tour de force in British English

Examples of 'tours de force' in a sentence tours de force.

Related terms of tours de force

• tour de force

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Orlando Cepeda dies

TOUR 2024: How well do you know the Tour de France? Try the AP’s quiz

FILE - A cyclist rides next to an installation set up for the start of the 107th Tour de France cycling race, in Nice, southern France, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)

FILE - A July 26, 1970 photo from files of Belgium’s Eddy Merckx cycling in the 1970 Tour de France. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Britain’s Chris Froome, wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey arrives for the start of the eighth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 187.5 kilometers (116.5 miles) with start in Dole and finish in Station des Rousses, France, Saturday, July 8, 2017. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

FILE - Italy’s Marco Pantani, right, of Italy, sprints to beat overall leader Lance Armstrong, of Austin, Texas, and capture the 12th stage of the Tour de France cycling race between Carpentras and Mont Ventoux, southern France, Thursday, July 13, 2000. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)

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How well do you know the Tour de France? Try this quiz ahead of cycling’s biggest races, which starts on Saturday:

1. From which city does the 2024 Tour de France start?

b. Florence, Italy

c. Duesseldorf, Germany

2. Where does the race finish?

b. Nice, France

c. Brussels, Belgium

3. What is the record for the most Tour de France wins?

4. Who wears the yellow jersey at the Tour de France?

a. The race leader

b. The rider with the most stage wins

c. The best young rider in the race

5. What is the name of the team associated with the Tour’s biggest doping scandal?

a. U.S. Postal

c. Team Sky

6. Which rider was nicknamed the Cannibal?

a. Lance Armstrong

b. Miguel Indurain

c. Eddy Merckx

7. What is the Red Lantern?

a. A red lantern signaling the final kilometer of each stage

b. The name given to the last-place rider in the general classification

c. The starting hut in time trial stages

8. What is the broom wagon?

a. A vehicle used to clean the road ahead of every stage

b. A vehicle following the race and picking up riders unable to make it to the finish

c. The lowest gear ratio possible used on steep climbs

9. When is the last time a Frenchman won the Tour de France?

10. What is the smallest winning margin at the Tour de France?

a. 58 seconds

b. 8 seconds

c. 13 seconds

11. Which rider holds the record for the most stage wins at the Tour de France?

a. Mark Cavendish

b. Chris Froome

12. How many riders have died in the Tour?

13. During which climb did Jonas Vingegaard take the lead from Tadej Pogacar during the 2022 Tour?

a. Col du Granon

b. Alpe d’Huez

c. Col du Galibier

14. Vingegaard and Pogacar have won the last four editions of the Tour. How many stages have the two rivals won combined?

15. Who was the last rider to win the Giro d’Italia and the Tour in the same year?

a. Vincenzo Nibali

b. Lance Armstrong

c. Marco Pantani

16. How much money does the Tour de France winner earn?

a. 500,000 euros ($534.000).

b. 1 million euros ($1.07 million).

c. 1.2 million euros ($1.3 million).

1. b. The race starts in Italy for the first time.

2. b. The final stage will be held outside Paris for the first time since 1905 because of a clash with the Olympics, moving instead to the French Riviera. Because of security and logistical reasons, the French capital won’t have its traditional Tour finish on the Champs-Elysees.

3. c. Only four riders have achieved this feat: Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. Lance Armstrong won the race seven times in a row from 1999-2005 but was later stripped of his titles for doping.

4. a. The yellow jersey is called “le maillot jaune” in French. It was created in 1919, well after the Tour started in 1903. The newspaper that sponsored the race, L’Auto, was printed on yellow paper, hence the jersey’s color.

5. b. The 1998 Tour de France was notable for the major scandal that emerged with the discovery of widespread doping on the Festina team. The subsequent police crackdown led to seven of the original 21 teams either withdrawing or being ejected from the Tour.

6. c. Eddy Merckx reportedly earned the nickname following his first Tour win in 1969, after a teammate told his daughter Merckx would not let anyone else win anything. “Daddy, he is the Cannibal,” the girl said.

7. b. “Lanterne Rouge” applies to the last-place rider in the general classification.

8. b. The broom wagon picks up riders unable to make it to the finish.

9. b. France has lacked a Tour winner since Bernard Hinault posted the last of his five victories back in 1985.

10. b. Greg LeMond’s margin of victory over French rider Laurent Fignon in the 1989 Tour. Fignon started the final day with a 50-second lead over his American rival but the Frenchman suffered from saddle sores and dropped 58 seconds in the final time trial to lose the yellow jersey.

11. a and c. Both Mark Cavendish and Eddy Merckx have won a record 34 Tour stages. Cavendish is trying to break the record this year.

12. c. The first rider to die during the race was Adolphe Heliere, who passed away during a rest day in 1910. Francisco Cepeda died after a crash in the downhill of the Col du Galibier in 1935. One of the most successful British riders, Tom Simpson, died of heart failure during the 13th stage in 1967 which was later determined to be from an overdose of drugs and alcohol. The last rider to die on the Tour was Fabio Casartelli, who died after crashing in the descent of the 1,069-meter (3,507-foot) Col de Portet d’Aspet during the 1995 edition of the race.

13. a. En route to his first Tour de France win, Vingegaard moved away from Pogacar in the brutal climb to the top of the Col du Granon to enjoy a winning finish to an epic day in the Alps. The stage featured two other monster ascents, the daunting Col du Telegraphe and Col du Galibier.

14. c. Pogacar has won 11 stages, Vingegaard just 3.

15. c. Pantani did the Giro-Tour double in 1998. Nibali made an attempt in 2016 after claiming the Giro but the 2014 Tour champion finished 30th that year. Armstrong rode the Giro only once, in 2009, and his 12th-place finish was later wiped out for doping. Pogacar is making an attempt this year after dominating the Giro in May.

16. a. 500,000 euros.

More Tour de France coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/TourdeFrance

More From Forbes

The tour de france is mystifying; so is the business of cycling.

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Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images

The Tour de France, the most elite bike race in the world, kicks off this Saturday, when 176 of the best cyclists in the world will race nearly 2,200 miles across 21 stages and climb over 170,000 feet of elevation into the clouds of the highest mountains in the Pyrenees and Alps. The effort involved can be mind-boggling. So can the business side of cycling.

Cycling’s Regulator and the Promoter

There are numerous actors and entities involved in professional cycling and their complex interrelationships underlie races like the Tour.

The sport of cycling is regulated by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), a non-governmental, non-profit association, based in Switzerland, which is recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the governing body for cycling. The UCI, like all international governing bodies in sports, is governed by a complex hierarchy of committees and executives from around the world.

The UCI is responsible for organizing, regulating, and sanctioning cycling events of various kinds for both men and women of different ages all over the world. The WorldTour is the UCI’s elite professional men’s road cycling tour. Teams and riders participate in races on the WorldTour calendar and earn points and are ranked based on their performance. The Tour de France, as one would expect, is a major contributor to those rankings.

The Tour itself is put on by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), a French sports marketing and event management organization. The ASO’s crown jewel is the Tour de France but it organizes 29 other cycling events, including several important preparatory races for the Tour (such as the Critérium du Dauphiné), the Vuelta a España (another Grand Tour), as well as the Paris Marathon. It also operates the week-long Tour de France Femmes for women in August.

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To be clear, the ASO and UCI are separate entities with sometimes divergent interests. The ASO organizes nine of the 35 races on the WorldTour calendar and understandably seeks to maximize interest and revenue associated with its events, most of which take place in France. Of particular note, the ASO controls and sells the broadcast rights to the Tour to networks around the world. While the specifics of those deals are not clear, they certainly bring in tens of millions of dollars a year to the ASO. Perhaps not surprisingly, the ASO and UCI have long-standing disputes over who controls the sport and reaps any related financial benefits.

Aside from the Tour, the remaining WorldTour events are organized by a variety of parties, including the UCI and organizers in the many countries where races take place.

The WorldTour calendar does not include any events in the United States. The Tour of Utah (2004-19), Tour of California (2006-19), and USA Pro Cycling Challenge in Colorado (2011-15) were former races that attracted some of the best riders in the world. Nevertheless, the organizers ultimately found them financially unsustainable.

The next group worth mentioning are the teams. To the uninitiated, it might be confusing that cycling has teams, since only a single rider can win a race. However, teams are just as essential to victory in cycling as they are in soccer, football, or any other team sport.

Professional cycling teams consist of approximately 30 riders, eight of whom are chosen to be a part of the Tour de France roster. The composition of that roster will depend on the team’s goals. A handful of teams will have a rider they believe capable of winning the Tour de France’s General Classification (GC), signified by the yellow jersey. So the roster will be constructed toward that goal, including by stocking the roster with elite climbers and other riders (collectively known as domestiques) who can support the leader in a variety of ways.

The best teams protect their elite riders by encircling them and keeping them near the front of the race to minimize the chances of crashes. Elite domestiques will lead their stars up the mountains, breaking the wind and chasing down any attacks from competitors.

Other teams are formed around sprinters who try to win flat stages and win the green (points) jersey. Here too the team is tremendously important. In the closing miles of flat stages, the teams with the best sprinters push to the front, often hitting speeds of 40-50 miles per hour. The team’s riders will “lead-out” the sprinter by giving their maximum effort before dropping off and unleashing the sprinter toward the finish line. The Manx sprinter Mark Cavendish has 34 Tour de France stage wins, tied for the most all time, in large part due to the incredible lead-out teams he has had in his career.

If your team has neither a GC rider or a sprinter, it might try to win the King of the Mountains polka dot jersey or to win individual stages via creative and aggressive racing strategies.

There are 18 WorldTour teams and 17 ProTour teams. ProTour teams have smaller budgets, staffs, and schedules than their WorldTour counterparts. Beginning with the 2022 season, every three years the two lowest performing WorldTour teams are relegated to the ProTour and the top two ProTour teams are promoted to the WorldTour.

The idea of a “team” though is often remarkably in flux. Teams are identified by their corporate sponsors, which fund the vast majority of a team’s budget, ranging from about $ 10 to $40 million . Sponsorship contracts with teams are often only one or two years and renewals are closely tied to team performance. Consequently, on an annual basis, some teams are desperately looking to retain or find new sponsors in order to keep the team going another year or to avoid being relegated. Inevitably, some teams fold or merge with other teams. Team finances have historically been so shaky that the UCI Regulations require each WorldTour team to obtain a guarantee from a bank to fund its operations.

Additionally, the teams conduct some joint efforts through an organization known as the Association Internationale des Groupes Cyclistes Professionnels (AIGCP), discussed further below. Nevertheless, the AIGCP has no role in organizing races and has minimal influence. Moreover, teams operate out of numerous countries and thus often have cultural differences of opinion on various issues (doping being a notable historical example).

Finally, we get to the riders. Cyclists are represented by the Cyclistes Professionnels Associés (CPA), a non-profit association, but not a labor union under the law of any country.

The CPA negotiates “ Joint Agreements ” with the AIGCP setting forth some minimum terms and conditions of employment, including various insurance coverages. Cycling is a physically grueling sport, where the term “ suffering ” is a point of pride. Unfortunately, most cyclists are not terribly well-paid for their efforts.

The current agreement sets the 2024 minimum salary for a WorldTeam rider at €68,957 (about $74,300) for veterans and € 55,793 ($60,100) for rookies. ProTeam veterans and rookies are entitled to a minimum of € 55,279 ($59,600) and € 46,234 ($49,800), respectively.

Of course, the stars of the sport make considerably more. Two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar earns a reported € 6 million ($6.47 million) from his team, UAE Team Emirates.

Yet, like the AIGCP, the CPA has little control over the sport, with minimal leverage to negotiate with the ASO or UCI. Indeed, the height of rider authority has been the occasional instance in which the riders “ neutralize ” a race stage due to unsafe conditions, meaning that they collectively agree to ride to the finish line at a moderate pace without contest.

Pogačar is favored to win this year’s Tour, with steep competition expected from fellow Slovenian Primoz Roglic of Bora-Hansgrohe and Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (also a two-time Tour winner) of Visma-Lease a Bike, if he is able to overcome recent injuries. Otherwise, some of those involved in the Tour will win more than others.

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• tour de force

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From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

Rivalries, crashes and meltdowns: Tour de France storylines to watch

Imagine speeding down a winding mountain road going 60 mph, protected by little more than carbon, spandex and a helmet, surrounded by nearly 200 competitors as thousands of stunned onlookers shout and jeer. 

Now, imagine doing that for six hours a day for three weeks, with just two rest days to gather enough strength and wits to keep going.

Welcome to the Tour de France, the most elite bicycle race in the world and perhaps the most grueling endurance challenge undertaken by professional athletes.

For the first time in the race’s 111-year history, the Tour de France will begin in Italy and end somewhere other than in Paris, which is hosting the Summer Olympics . Cyclists will traverse nearly 2,200 miles of stunning European landscapes, departing from Florence on Saturday and snaking up to the Pyrenees Mountains, through the Alps and down to the Mediterranean Sea. It will conclude in Nice on July 21. 

It’s no secret that while the Tour de France draws tens of millions of viewers worldwide every year, American audiences have largely overlooked professional cycling after Lance Armstrong’s very public professional demise. 

In 2012, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency accused Armstrong’s seemingly untouchable team of running “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.”

Armstrong, who won seven Tours after having cancer, vehemently denied the allegations for years until he confessed in a 2013 interview with Oprah Winfrey. His downfall culminated when the Union Cycliste Internationale, professional cycling’s governing body, stripped him of all seven Tour de France victories. 

After years of disinterest, American viewership may be on the rebound, thanks, in part, to the release of “Unchained,” a Netflix show by the production team behind the blockbuster “Drive to Survive” docuseries, which focuses on Formula 1 racing. “Unchained” goes behind the scenes of cycling’s biggest rivalries, capturing in vivid detail the commitment, sacrifice and zeal needed to conquer the Tour de France. Think violent crashes, uncontrollable sobbing and inter-team mudslinging.  

With so much drama surrounding professional cycling’s biggest race, here are a few storylines to watch in the coming Tour de France.

Jonas v. Tadej 

This year’s biggest showdown will be a tiebreaker for the ages. Jonas Vingegaard, the Danish superpower leading team Visma-Lease a Bike, will return to defend the yellow jersey after he won the Tour de France in 2022 and last year. But Tadej Pogačar, a Slovenian wunderkind riding for UAE Team Emirates, has a score to settle. He took home the yellow jersey in 2020 and 2021, and this year he obliterated competitors in the spring classics and in Italy’s grand tour, the Giro d’Italia. 

Vingegaard heads to Florence with a major disadvantage after he was hospitalized for nearly two weeks with a collapsed lung, a broken collarbone and broken ribs in April during the Tour of Basque Country. He spent much of the spring recovering from the horrific crash and training at altitude with teammate Wout Van Aert, who was injured in a separate crash. 

Complicating matters is the recently announced departure of American cyclist Sepp Kuss from Visma’s Tour de France lineup. He shepherded team Visma to three grand tour victories last year. But Tuesday, Visma announced Kuss has Covid and won’t ride in the Tour. 

Setting a Tour record 

Will Mark Cavendish beat the record for most stage wins at the Tour de France? With 34 victories behind him, Cavendish, the Astana Qazaqstan Team sprinter, remains tied with the great Eddy Merckx. He planned to smash that record last year and retire from professional cycling, but he crashed out of the Tour before he achieved his dream. Now 39 years old, Cavendish will head to Florence with that one goal in mind.

But he has fierce competition by the name of Jasper Philipsen of team Alpecin-Deceuninck. Philipsen, of Belgium, emerged last year as the peloton’s top sprinter, winning four stages with the help of teammate Mathieu van der Poel, also known as the Flying Dutchman. 

Combined, Philipsen and van der Poel are perhaps the most formidable pair and perhaps the most controversial. Philipsen’s aggressive tactics, including trying to block other riders, repeatedly came under question last year, triggering reviews by race officials and drawing criticism from viewers and pundits alike. Race officials ultimately ruled in favor of Philipsen, but his reputation had been sullied by the end of the Tour.

Evenepoel debut 

Soudal Quick-Step’s Remco Evenepoel will chase a podium finish in his Tour de France debut. But at 24 years old, Evenepoel remains untested at the grand Tour, and he has suffered several setbacks in recent months. 

Evenepoel, the two-time world champion from Belgium, broke his collarbone and a shoulder blade at the Tour of Basque Country in the crash that took out Vingegaard. He crashed again this month at the Critérium du Dauphiné. He quickly recovered and went on to conquer the time trial, but he ultimately lost the top spot to Slovenian cyclist Primož Roglič, who is also gunning for the yellow jersey at the Tour de France. 

In his latest setback, Evenepoel was forced to bow out of the Belgian National Championships after he came down with a cold. He has less than a week to recover before he tackles the Tour de France.

Roglič vengeance 

Whether Roglič can beat former teammate Vingegaard and win his first Tour de France will be one of the best storylines to watch. 

Roglič, who rode on team Visma for five seasons, is no stranger to first place. He won the Vuelta a España three years in a row, from 2019 to 2021, and he took first at the Giro d’Italia last year. In 2020, he came in second at the Tour de France but lost to fellow Slovenian Pogačar. 

Last year, Roglič sought a second win at the Vuelta a España, but he was pressured to back up his then-teammate Kuss. The unexpected change frustrated the already ornery Roglič, and soon afterward he announced he would leave Visma. Now with team BORA-hansgrohe, Roglič will face off against both Vingegaard and Pogačar at the Tour.

Doping problems

Professional cycling can’t seem to shake the shadow of doping more than a decade after Armstrong confessed to cheating.

Vingegaard’s jaw-dropping time trial last year, when he beat Pogačar by 98 seconds, set tongues wagging. His performance was almost too good, triggering rumblings inside and outside the peloton that he might have used performance-enhancing drugs. Vingegaard, who tested negative several times throughout the 2023 season, denied cheating and said he welcomed the tests to help prove his innocence.

This year, two cyclists have been disciplined for using prohibited substances. In May, Colombian cyclist Miguel Ángel López was banned for four years in an investigation led by Spanish authorities concerning a doctor who worked in the sport. The UCI anti-doping tribunal found him guilty of using and possessing menotropins, a female fertility drug that can stimulate production of testosterone in men. 

Last week, Italian cyclist Andrea Piccolo was dropped by his team, EF Education-EasyPost, on suspicion of transporting human growth hormone. His dismissal was all the more shocking given that his team manager, Jonathan Vaughters, had confessed to doping during his tenure as a professional cyclist riding on Armstrong’s team. 

Alicia Victoria Lozano is a California-based reporter for NBC News focusing on climate change, wildfires and the changing politics of drug laws.

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The 7 critical stages in the 2024 Tour de France

E xcluding a pair of rest days, the Tour de France is a 21-day event. We recommend you watch as much of it as possible, but also understand that spending three weeks in the middle of summer watching men in lycra pants riding a bike through towns with names like Gignac, Minot, or Chorges — yes, these are all real — might prove to be a challenge.

But, worry not, friend! We are here to help.

We took a close look at this year’s route, and out of the 21 stages picked seven that definitively fall in the must-watch category. What criteria did we use? Mainly the course itself, and what we expect to see on each individual stage.

So, without further ado, let’s dive right in.

Stage 1: Florence > Rimini (Sat 6/29)

For the first time in its 111-year history, the Tour de France is set to start in Italy. And it is about to kick off with a bang: the first of three-and-a-half stages on Italian soil covers 206 kilometers while featuring over 3,800 meters of elevation gain.

Arguably the hardest opening stage in recent memory, we might already see some general classification action on Day 1. Due to the relentless nature especially over the final 75 kilometers, the big race favorite , Slovenian Tadej Pogačar, might already try to test his competitors led by two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard — a similar tactic he employed during his dominant Giro d’Italia showing earlier this year.

Pogačar, who himself is a two-time Tour winner, recently mentioned his shape would be “even better than what I expected.” Given this and the fact that Vingegaard was among several GC contenders to crash hard back in April, the 25-year-old might try to put his early mark on the stage.

Stage 4: Pinerolo > Valloire (Tue 7/2)

Whether or not Pogačar enters Day 4 as wearer of the yellow jersey remains to be seen. Regardless of his status relative to the rest of the general classification field, however, the 140-kilometer border-crossing stage from Pinerolo to Valloire is the first high-mountain test of this week’s Tour.

The 3,900 meters of elevation gain might be a bit misleading — the first two classified climbs are not particularly difficult — but the ascent to the legendary Col du Galibier could be the perfect GC battle ground. Never before has the Tour reached such heights this early in a race, which might just prompt Pogačar and his climber-heavy UAE Team Emirates squad to try to light some fireworks.

If Vingegaard in particular shows any weakness on the hilly first two stages of the race, the fourth could prove a challenge. He and his Visma | Lease a Bike team need to be on high alert over the last 40 kilometers.

Stage 9: Troyes > Troyes (Sun 7/7)

A vast majority of this year’s Tour de France takes place on asphalt roads, but there is one notable exception. On July 7, the cyclists will hit the gravel roads around the city of Troyes. The stage itself is not the hardest in terms of elevation gain — only around 2,000 — but the surface below the wheels could lead to some chaos.

In total, there are 14 gravel sectors totaling 32 kilometers. That does not sound like a lot, but a puncture or crash at the wrong time on what will be a nervous day for the entire peloton could spell doom for general classification contenders. You won’t be able to win the Tour on Stage 9, but you very well could lose it.

Stage 15: Loudenvielle > Plateau de Beille (Sun 7/14)

When it comes to vertical meters gained, this is the hardest stage of the entire 2024 Tour de France. This 198-kilometer monster will see riders climb more than 5,000 meters in the French Pyrenees between Loudenvielle and Plateau de Beille.

While it seems unlikely there will be much general classification action before what looks to be a brutal mountaintop finish, the built up fatigue up until that point could lead to some serious cracks. Every single GC rider, even if they are named Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, Primož Roglič, Remco Evenepoel, or Carlos Rodriguez, needs to bring their A-game to Stage 15.

All eyes will naturally be on those and other riders atop the standings at this point, but we will also closely follow the race against the so-called broom wagon: with some serious climbing to be done and a 7-kilometer test right out of the gate, every rider making the time cut is not a foregone conclusion.

Stage 19: Embrun > Isola 2000 (Fri 7/19)

Stage 19 is comparatively short at only 145 kilometers, but it will see over 4,500 meters of climbing split between three challenging peaks. Tops among those is the highest point ever reached by the Tour de France: at 2,802 meters, the Cime de la Bonette will be crossed for just the fifth time in race history and the first since 2008.

Despite being the highest paved road in France, however, it is merely an appetizer for what projects to be a high-octane finish to Isola 2000. Differences will be made on the 16-kilometer ascent, and riders will get dropped. The question is: who, and by whom?

If Jonas Vingegaard wants to win his third straight maillot jaune, this is where the hyper-talented climber needs to go on the offensive. Likewise, if Tadej Pogačar wants to regain his Tour de France supremacy, he might try to use this stage as either a launching pad or a final dagger to his competition.

Stage 20: Nice > Col de la Couillole (Sat 7/20)

The mountains may not be quite as high as on the previous day, and 133 kilometers is a quite moderate distance. Stage 20 will nonetheless be an entertaining affair on difficult terrain. In fact, in terms of vertical gain per kilometer, this is the toughest stage in the Tour.

The riders will go up and down throughout the day before finishing on the Col de la Couillole. Given the nature of the stage, and the fact that it is the final mountain test before a closing-day individual time trial, action is guaranteed — especially if the GC battle is still somewhat close at this point in the race.

Stage 21: Monaco > Nice (Sun 7/21)

For the first time since 1989, when American Greg LeMond stole the yellow jersey from Frenchmen Laurent Fignon by just 8 seconds, the Tour de France will end with an individual time trial. This one will take the riders from the world’s second-smallest nation to the French city of Nice over a hilly 34-kilometer parcours.

The big four participating in this race — Pogačar, Vingegaard, Roglič, and Evenepoel — are all strong against the clock and capable of gaining just enough time on a good day. And even though a repeat of the LeMond-Fignon scenario might seem unlikely, 20 days of racing and the riders participating means that anything can happen on Day 21.