Tour de France Explained - Part 1

Howdy, well I know you have been up all night watching the Tour,

and have probably wondered who and what are all of the sponsors and everything. Well I will try to inform you here.

Lets start with the Jerseys -

Maillot Jeune (Yellow Jersey) awarded to the overall leader- Sponsored by LCL Banque, which is a large French Bank, originating in Lyon, back in the mid 1800's, and is now considered one of the 'Big

Three' pillars of French banking, along with BNP Paribas (who sponsor the French Open Tennis) and Societe Generale.

Maillot Verte (Green Jersey) awarded for sprinters points. Sponsored by PMU - Pari Mutuel Urbain, which is effectively the French version of the TAB. This is why it has a horse in its logo. A lot of pubs and bars have PMU much like in Australia, and there are also PMU shops, like there are TAB shops, were men spend a lot of their saturday afternoons.

Maillot a Pois Rouge (Polka Dot Jersey) awarded to the best mountain climber. Sponsored by Carrefour.

Carrefour are a humongous hypermarket chain in France and infact I have read that the Carrefour Group is second only to Wal-Mart in terms the worlds largest retail companies. Carrefour run numerous brands of supermarkets in France and have their own 'home brand' products marketed under the Carrefour label. If you go into an actual Carrefour Hypermarket, they are MASSIVE, its like a Bunnings, Harvey Norman, Myer, Rebel and Woolworths all rolled into one store.