Participants
In 2005, the UCI had started the ProTour: 20 teams were given a ProTour licence, and were required to start in all ProTour races, which included the Tour de France. The Tour de France organisation was not happy with this rule, as they wanted to be able to decide which teams would join their race. While negotiations were still ongoing, it was decided to use the UCI rule for the 2005 Tour, so all 20 ProTour teams were automatically invited. The Tour organisation could invite one extra team with a wildcard, and used this to invite the Ag2R team.
All teams were composed of nine cyclists, so 189 riders in 21 teams commenced the 2005 Tour de France. Of them, 155 riders finished.
Of the competitors in the 2005 Tour, the tallest rider was Johan Van Summeren at 1.98 metres and the shortest was Samuel Dumoulin at 1.58 metres. The heaviest rider was Magnus Bäckstedt at 95 kg, the lightest was Leonardo Piepoli at 57 kg. Christopher Horner and Laurent Lefevre shared the lowest resting heart rate, 35 beats per minute. The "average" rider in 2005 was 1.79 metres tall, weighed 71 kg, and had a resting heart rate of 50 beats per minute.
Read more about this topic: 2005 Tour De France
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“A civilization which leaves so large a number of its participants unsatisfied and drives them into revolt neither has nor deserves the prospect of a lasting existence.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)