“La Grande Boucle”

Abstract

Cycling has not been analyzed intensively in the literature on the economics of sports. This article reports empirical evidence of individuals' performance in the 2004 Tour de France, searching for factors that shape riders' total ranking performance. A main aim is to investigate to what extent riders' performance is influenced by their teammates and their positions on their teams. The results show that teammates' attributes and riders' positions matter. The author also observes that riders who were successful in previous tours perform better than other participants. Furthermore, a lower body mass index leads to better performance. Finally, the author also observes differences between participating countries.