vyaw2003

I am based in Brisbane, is there a time trial or something for this that i could get a spot?
I know it is a long race, so how long would a time trial be? Most bike races i see are only 1 hour. (I have a marathon background)

big john

If you are asking how you can compete in the Tour, first you have to get on one of the teams doing the race.

vyaw2003

so how do i get on a team?

cooker

It's not like a marathon where individuals qualify based on their previous record and run at their own pace. It's highly organized into teams, and to be on a team you need world class fitness, but also years of experience in cycling to develope expertise in riding in crowds, working with teammates, drafting, sprinting, climbing, descending, and strategy.
If you're still in your teens, find local races and start competing and winning, attract sponsorship, compete and win at a higher level, and work your way into the world of elite cyclists over a few years.

Dalai

Getting on a team is a difficult process!

Firstly you need to find out who is the breakfast cereal sponsor for the tour (this year as for the last three years has been Kellogg’s). Usually in March, they hold a competition where in 2000 boxes are special plastic bicycle tokens which denote prize winners of a selection slot.

Each slot winner is then flown to Mallorca late March all expenses paid for the final selection events. These comprise of a 50km ride, on the next day a 10 km time trial. The total times are accumulated and the best 200 then play a sudden death chess tournament to provide the final order of who will to race the tour that year. The chess tournament shows who can think strategically the best and therefore the top winners become team captains.

The rest of the 200 riders are then evenly distributed amongst the teams to try and make the race as even and as entertaining as possible.

Each team then is transported to the team countries base for another two months of medically enhanced (vitamin injections) training. Each team comprises of 10 riders, three of which sit on the sidelines during the Tour and are able to be substituted usually for the days stages in the last ten km’s to sprint for the stage win…

A mate of mine won a slot last year and had a great time! He even did okay too. Do a search on the name Robbie and Tour de France. He also came from a running background and having never been on a bike prior to the selection weekend and finished well! He got some Green jersey being one of the specialist substitute riders and sprinting to the line…

vyaw2003

well smart @55 some of us here actually have ablity, so you sit your your little computer seat looking up
p0rn, i will be at the pool training, ooohh after i ride to the gold coast and back, as i do every day!

Dalai

C'mon, that surely couldn't have been a serious question!!??

cooker

Maybe. I assumed it was some naive 12 year old.

Dalai

Marathon background at 12 years old?

Even surviving the junior ranks regardless of ability, then doing the hard yards in an amateur team somewhere in Europe living out of a suitcase for a few years at least, eventually getting then if super dedicated (everyone doing this already has the abililty, it takes something more!) going through the pro team ranks to finally one of the few teams selected to race in the tour to finally be chosen from those teams many brilliant squad riders...

Naive is an understatement! The question had some serious responses so saw no harm in some light scarcastic banter, after all it is in the Aussie regional discussion

Wilchemy

Wilchemy

1) Look up https://www.qld.cycling.org.au/new/clubs.htm
2) Select and join club from this list
3) Start racing
4) Get arse handed to you
5) Keep racing
6) Get arse handed to you by a lesser amount
7) Repeat steps 5 & 6 as you progress through the grades until you reach the max of your potential
&
8) Stay out of the frikkin pool - nobody swims the Tour de France!!!!

gabdy

https://outfittertours.com/page.cfm?PageID=344

531Aussie

just in case you're serious....


getting a gig at The Tour is probably even harder than getting a game at the Birsbane Lions by just rocking up and telling them you're really good, even if you ARE really good. You can't just be good; and you also just can't be good at time-trialing. You've gotta prove yourself in all types of road racing for several years, then you've gotta hope to get noticed, then you've gotta hope you're not too old, then you've gotta hope to get signed up, then you've gotta hope you get signed by a 'good' team (there are relatively crap teams in Europe that only qualify for relatively crap races), then you've got hope that you'll be selected in the Tour squad out of the 20+ riders on the team's list.

Yes, the Tour time-trials are usually around an hour to an hour:20

If you're an awesome time-trialer, you could probably qualify for at least a state-level race in less than a year just by joining a club and smashing everyone in sight. I'm not exactly sure, but if you smash everyone you come up against, you may even get a crack at the 'pseudo' nationals, which are around July, then, maybe higher up: like, the World Championships Road Time-Trial. I'm not sure if only pros qualify for the World Champs road time-trial, or the national selectors send over whom ever they choose

greywolf

I think someones twisting your collective tits !

rambler1au

Im in the Tour all you do is fill out the entry form www.letour.fr.

If anyone wants to donate a really good colnago Id appreciate it, nothing under $10K

Please help as I cant use my 1976 steel Apollo

Thanks

Lance