It’s Tour de France rest day and time for the peloton to enjoy some well-earned rest and recuperation after a crash-filled first week

Here we take a look at some of the facts and figures behind the world’s biggest cycling race.

Remember, you can keep on top of all the latest race reports, news and photo galleries on RoadCyclingUK’s dedicated Tour de France page.

5

Five British riders started the 98th Tour de France. Bradley Wiggins, Geraint Thomas and Ben Swift for Team Sky, HTC-Highroad’s sprint supremo Mark Cavendish and Garmin-Cervelo road captain David Millar. Denmark and Kazakhstan were also represented by five riders at the Grand Depart.

45

Unsuprisingly, France started their home Tour with the most riders. Next came Spain with 26, while Belgium and Italy were both represented by 15 cyclists.

1

Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Ireland, Estonia, Slovakia, Austria, Canada and New Zealand started with one rider in the race.

18

Eighteen riders from 198 starters – or just over nine per cent – have abandoned the Tour before the first rest day, including a host of general classification contenders, not least Team Sky leader Bradley Wiggins. Stage nine alone saw seven riders retire, including Alexandre Vinokourov, Jurgen Van den Broeck and David Zabriskie.

17

Mark Cavendish’s two stage wins in week one takes the Manx Missile’s total Tour tally to 17. Cavendish shares eighth place in the list of all-time Tour de France stage winners with Frenchman Jean Alavoine, who won his 17 stages between 1909 and 1923.

3,412,546

The overall prize pot for the Tour de France stands at €3,412,546, which is divvied up according to a rider’s final position on the general classification, as well as prizes throughout the race for stage winners, jersey holders, intermediate sprints and mountain points, combativity and the team classification.

Each team splits the money it wins – not just between riders, but mechanics, soigneurs and the bus driver also – and €1,127,346 (approximately €50,000 per team) of the total prize fund is handed out by the Tour organisers to help cover each team’s expenses.

450,000

The winner of the Tour de France earns €450,000. A weighty cheque but small fry in world sport terms; the men’s and women’s singles champions at the Wimbledon tennis tournament each take home £1,100,000.

Second place in the Tour is worth €200,000, while third place gets €100,000. Finishing from fourth to 90th pays out between €70,000 and €450, while every other finisher nets just €400. We’ll bring you a full breakdown of the Tour de France prize pot as the race nears Paris.