The Tour de France is an event unrivalled in sports; for more than a century, it has offered a spectacle filled with unparalleled passion, adventure, and sheer physical difficulty. Here is the definitive, official record of that thrilling sporting phenomenon, produced in collaboration with L'Equipe, France's premier sports daily, and including a foreword by the five-time Tour de France winner and international sports celebrity, Lance Armstrong. With access to the Tour de France's own archives, this huge, lushly photographed volume chronicles the race from its raw origins more than 100 years ago to its current position as the world's greatest sporting challenge.