The Tour e France started in 1903 and is the world's largest cycling tournament/race. It is a 23-day, 21-stage bicycle road race usually run over more than 3,500 kilometres (2,200 mi). The route traces a circuit around most areas of France, and often passes into neighbouring countries. The race is broken into stages from one town to another, each of which is an individual race. The time taken to complete each stage is added to a cumulative total for each rider, to decide the outright winner at the end of the Tour.