The 2013 Tour de France was the 100th edition of the race, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It started on the island of Corsica on 30 June and finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 21 July. The Tour consisted of twenty-one race stages and covered a total distance of 3,403.5 km (2,115 mi).[1]
Twenty-two teams participated in the 2013 edition of the Tour de France.[2] All of the nineteen UCI ProTeams were entitled, and obliged, to enter the race.[2][3] On 27 April 2013, the organiser of the Tour, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), announced the three second-tier UCI Professional Continental teams given wildcard invitations, all of which were French-based.[4] The presentation of the teams took place at the harbour of Porto-Vecchio on 28 June, two days before the start of opening stage held in the town. Each team arrived by boat to the stage, before being introduced to the crowd.[5]
Each squad was allowed a maximum of nine riders, therefore the start list contained a total of 198 riders.[6] Of these, 54 were riding the Tour de France for the first time.[7] From the riders that began this edition, 169 completed the race.[8] The average age of all the riders was 29.45, with 19-year-old Danny van Poppel (Vacansoleil–DCM) the youngest rider and 41-year-old Jens Voigt (RadioShack–Leopard) the oldest.[9] Of the total average ages, Cannondale was the youngest team and Saxo–Tinkoff the oldest.[10] The riders came from 34 countries; France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Australia, Belgium and Germany all had 10 or more riders in the race.[6] Riders from ten countries won at least one stage; German riders won the largest number of stages, a total of six.[11]