Eight crazy Tour de France stats that show its size

It’s easy to get swept up in the action, but behind it all is a finely tuned machine. These eight figures hint at just how big it really is.

Every Tour de France rider travels light - except when it comes to bikes. Each has five or six at their disposal, including road bikes, climbing setups and TT machines. Multiply that by 184 riders and you’re looking at a rolling fleet of more than 1,000 bikes. And these aren’t your average weekend rides. At around €12,500 apiece, these WorldTour machines are marvels of carbon, electronics and engineering.

All told, the peloton is sitting on an estimated €13 million worth of bikes - enough to buy a château, or two. And that’s before you count the spare wheels and team vans full of tools.

Ever wonder how much water it takes to get through the Tour de France? Try an estimated 46,000 bidons (water bottles) consumed by the riders over 21 stages. On a hot Alpine climb, a single rider can easily drain 10-15 bottles in a few hours - they’re sweating about 1.5 liters per hour in peak heat. Multiplied by 184 riders, the hydration needs are staggering. A typical eight-man team hands up well over 2,000 bottles during the race (some teams budget even more), most of which end up as prized souvenirs for roadside fans.

If you’ve ever wondered how professional cyclists manage to ride five or six hours a day for three weeks straight, the answer is deceptively simple: they never stop eating. Team cars are packed to bursting with energy bars, gels and snacks - all in service of keeping the riders’ internal furnaces firing.

But what does that actually look like? Try to picture 69,000 energy bars and 69,000 gels lined up in a row. That’s the fuel load the peloton - all 184 riders - will consume over the course of three weeks. 

From the start flag each morning, the soigneurs hand up musette bags packed with goodies: floppy homemade rice cakes, panini sandwiches, bananas - whatever goes down easy. But as the pace ratchets up, solid food gives way to quick-hit gels and sugary drinks. By the end of a mountain stage, many riders have slurped a dozen syrupy gel packs and who knows how many bars. The teams also carry mix for sports drinks (hundreds of packets of powdered carbs and electrolytes) to keep the fuel flowing. It’s a rolling buffet, disguised as a bike race and every bite or sip helps a rider squeeze a few more watts out of tired legs.

The Tour de France spans 23 days and moves to a new town nearly every night. The organizers alone book more than 40,000 bed-nights for riders, staff and race personnel in over 210 hotels. Assuming a conservative average of €100 per night (based on French 3-star hotel rates in July), that puts the total lodging bill at around €4 million - and that’s before you factor in spectators, media or sponsors.

It’s no wonder towns pull out all the stops to host a stage. The race might only pass through for a day, but the economic footprint lingers long after the peloton rolls out again the next morning.

Hours before the racers barrel through, the Tour de France route comes alive with a parade that’s equal parts Mardi Gras and marketing bonanza: the publicity caravan. This convoy of colorful floats and sponsor vehicles is 170+ vehicles long and stretches about 10-12 km on the road. For a full 30-45 minutes, spectators are treated to music, dancing mascots, and an avalanche of freebies. How many giveaways? Approximately 16 million promotional items are tossed to the crowds over the three weeks. 

That’s right - caps, keychains, candies, madeleines, laundry detergent samples, you name it - raining down in a joyous frenzy. About 35 brands take part each year, often with absurdly decorated vehicles (giant plastic lions, oversized water bottles on wheels, etc.). About 600 staff ride along, waving and hurling trinkets to delighted fans. It’s said nearly half of roadside spectators come at least as much for the caravan as for the race itself. And it’s not just fun and games - the caravan is big business, with sponsors paying hefty fees for a spot in line. By the time the actual peloton arrives, the crowd is well fed, well entertained, and armed with enough free swag to fill a suitcase.

Keeping Tour de France riders safe on public roads is a massive undertaking. Every roundabout, traffic island, sharp turn or low bridge along the 3,000+ km route must be marked or padded for the race. In fact, organizers install roughly 28,000 temporary traffic signs each year to warn riders of road hazards. In addition, local crews often remove or cover dozens of road signs that could confuse the racers or pose a danger in the heat of the peloton. Street signs that stick out, bollards, even decorative flower pots in village centers might get taken away before the race and replaced afterward. It’s a monumental effort by the logistics team (with help from city authorities) to turn everyday roads into a temporary velodrome. By race day, each descent and curve is swept, every dangerous curb is cushioned, and marshals with whistles stand at countless intersections. Watching the Tour, you see a blur of banners and hay bales - behind that is a small army making sure a bicycle race can hurtle through an open road as safely as possible.

The Tour de France is often called the world’s biggest free sporting event - some 12 million spectators will line the route over three weeks. Ensuring safety and order for that moving festival is a herculean task handled by the French authorities. About 23,000 police officers and gendarmes are deployed to secure the route each year. They block off roads, man traffic crossings, escort the race, and sometimes even form human barriers in frenzied crowds on the climbs. In addition to the local and national police, the race is flanked by 50 elite motorcycle cops who ride ahead to clear the way. There are also dozens of official Tour organisation motorbike marshals and 3,000 provincial agents on the course each day. 

The result is a rolling bubble of security that travels from Normandy to the Pyrenees and everywhere in between. Spectators generally respect the rules, but as we’ve seen, all it takes is one rogue selfie-taker or wayward banner to cause chaos. That massive police presence is there to minimise risks, keep spectators (and riders) safe, and remind everyone that while the Tour is a grand party, it’s one that requires careful crowd control. When you see helicopters overhead and sirens in the distance before the peloton arrives, that’s the immense Tour security detail doing its job.

Covering the Tour de France is almost as large an operation as the race itself. In 2024, the Tour was broadcast live or in highlights in around 190 countries worldwide, making it truly global. Following the race each day is a caravan of the press: roughly 2,500 accredited media personnel - including journalists, photographers, TV cameramen, and commentators - travel with the Tour. To capture the action, the Tour employs around 260 camera operators on motorbikes, in cars, and in helicopters, who feed live images to a production team of 500+ technicians at the finish line technical zone. Every evening, that whole media village packs up and leapfrogs to the next stage finish, where 120+ TV trucks unfurl miles of cable to go live again. 

The scale is mind-numbing: for three weeks, reporters file stories from press rooms, photographers upload thousands of shots of the day’s breakaways and crashes, and TV commentators chatter from custom-built studios at the finish. All to bring the action of the Tour into living rooms around the world. Little wonder that by the time the race ends in Paris, some of the press pack look almost as exhausted as the riders - it’s a marathon for them as well, powered by caffeine and Tour magic.