Entertainment articles

The Tour de France: A Beginner’s Guide

The Tour de France is an incredibly exciting event that is followed by fans all across the world. However, the Tour de France can also be intimidating to those who aren’t familiar with the sport of cycling, or the race itself. Let’s go over some of the basics, so that you’ll be able to follow this year’s Tour de France with a better understanding of the events taking place!

First of all, the object of the Tour de France is, of course, to finish the overall race with the fastest time. What complicates things is that the Tour de France is a race that is divided up over a period of about three weeks. It’s important to know that the race itself is divided into different parts called stages. Each stage lasts one day, although the stages can be quite long. There are a total of 21 stages, and the complete race is usually well over 1,800 miles (or over 3,500 km) long!

Although the object of the Tour de France is to win the overall race as a whole, each stage is treated much like its own individual race. Winners of stages receive prize money, and winning a stage of the Tour de France is often regarded as a bigger accomplishment than winning other single-day races. The stages themselves can be flat, mountainous, or anywhere in between, and often there are individual time trials that serve as stages. Competitors generally get a couple of days to rest during the race, as well.

If you’ve seen footage of the Tour de France before, or heard others talk about it, you probably want to know what the yellow jersey is all about. The famed yellow jersey is one of four different jerseys that designate that the rider wearing it has achieved a specific feat. The rider wearing the yellow jersey is the overall leader of the race. To determine who has earned the yellow jersey at any point in the race, officials merely take the lowest overall combined time from all the stages.

The green jersey is awarded to the points leader in the race. Points are earned according to passing order at the finish line or in intermediate sprints. For this reason, riders who specialize in sprints are generally those found wearing the green jersey.

The distinctive polka dot jersey goes to the leader of the “mountain classification”, with points being earned according to passing order on mountain stages. Therefore, it is often said that the rider wearing the polka dot jersey is the best climber of the race.

Finally, the white jersey is only worn by riders aged 25 years or younger. This jersey is intended to spotlight the rising stars of the cycling world and the Tour de France. Many riders who wore the white jersey have also gone on to win the coveted yellow jersey in their careers.

There are other awards given during the Tour de France as well. The combativity prize is also known as the fighting spirit award and is awarded by a panel of eight cycling specialists. There is also a team award called the team classification, which is given after adding the times of the top three riders for each team for each stage to get a total time. Riders in teams often assist each other by “slipstreaming” behind one another for better speed, or using other team tactics. Teams are grouped by common sponsors.

It also bears mentioning that finishing straight stages in the top three can earn you bonus seconds, which help you shave precious seconds off of your total time. Also, the final mountain climb of the Tour de France is for double points, which is a great incentive for climbers. The double points were added to the official race rules starting in 2004.

Now that we’ve addressed the basics of the Tour de France, you’ll be better prepared to enjoy one of the world’s most prestigious and historic sporting events. Make sure to pay attention to what’s going on during the races, and you’ll find that it’s not nearly as complicated as it may have seemed. Before you know it, you’ll be cheering your favorite rider on towards the yellow jacket!

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Dancing with the Stars from the Beginning

If you have ever wondered exactly where the show Dancing with the Stars has come from, it is really an amazing story. With six different celebrities paired together with six different professional ballroom dancers, a phenomenon was born into the United States. The show was already a hit in England, however trying to gauge exactly how well the show would perform in the United States was not quite so easy due to the dramatic differences between viewers.

With the start of the show on June 1, 2005, it was immediately obvious that the show was a hit. The viewers for the very first episode hit an enormous 13 million viewers and climbed its way to the number one position. This was an incredible feat for a show that was just starting out, and was success that would just continue to grow as the show went on. Combining together celebrities from a wide field, incredible costumes and some fabulous dancing has all proven to be a great recipe for success for the show.

The initial cast of the show for celebrities included several people who had not been seen heavily for a very long time, and demonstrated that a bit of time away from the spotlights of Hollywood is not always fatal for a career.

The initial contestants for the show included:
Trista Rehn, her claim to fame was her time on the show the Bachelorette as well as also competing on The Bachelor. Her time on the show was extremely short lived as she was eliminated on June 8, 2005 along with her partner Louis van Amstel.

Evander Holyfield, he dazzled the world as a major heavyweight boxer and proved that while he was not the most graceful on his feet; he certainly was not the worst. Pulling all of his experience, as a boxer did not seem to benefit him greatly as his time on the show was tragically brought to an end on June 13, 2005 after just two weeks. His professional partner was Edyta Sliwinska.

Rachel Hunter, as a famous supermodel it is standard that moving gracefully is required. While dancing with partner Jonathan Roberts it was unfortunate that Rachel was eliminated on June 22, 2005, which brought their time on the show to an end.

Joey McIntyre, made famous by the 1980’s boy band, New Kids on the Block he has also done a few acting gigs, mostly plays though. With his own semi-successful music career covering several years, it had been a while since he had been actively heard from. Paired with professional Ashly DelGrosso he was eliminated on June 29, 2005 after coming in 3rd place.

John O’Hurley was able to secure several acting jobs as well as numerous television show hosting gigs; however, his first stint at competing came on Dancing with the Stars. Paired with Charlotte Jorgensen as his professional partner the pair was eventually awarded a second place finish on July 6, 2005 for the season finale.

Kelly Monoco, a successful actress with numerous shows to her credits including Baywatch, Port Charles, Hard Copy, Spin City, and General Hospital to name a few was declared the winner of season one on July 6, 2005 with professional partner Alec Mazo bringing a successful end to the first season for the show.

Due to the success of the first season, additional seasons of the show were quickly organized. Each additional season of the show has increased the number of viewers watching and each features a unique set of celebrity contestants as well. One of the key factors that has helped to influence the success of the show is the uniqueness compared to anything else that is currently on television. Because the show pulls upon the success of contestants and offers no prize money at all, it is only a title as well as a trophy that the winning pair is awarded. While many contestants are not as comfortable with this idea, many others are thoroughly pleased to simply be able to compete again and stay in the public spotlight.
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