Even couch potatoes can become experts on the Tour de France with this comprehensive, user-friendly guide that includes the history, strategy, stages, scoring, and stars of this annual sporting event. Readers can get in the saddle and learn:

- The varied stages from snaky time trials to killer mountain stages

- Team strategies-and the role each team member plays

- How the Tour is scored

- What the Yellow, Green, White, and Polka-Dot jerseys represent

- The meaning of peloton, tifosi, mountain goats,

- hot spots, and flamme rouge

- The characteristics of a racer, whether a patron or domestique-and the real reasons racers shave their legs

- How riders eat, drink, change clothes, and heed the call of nature without getting off their bikes

- How to follow the Tour online, on TV, in the papers, and in person