In 2010 and 2012 there were 20 stages plus a "prologue", which consisted of a time trial in the city where the first stage started (Rotterdam in 2010, Liège in 2012).
The first two races, in 1903 and 1904, were over six stages. There were 11 in 1905 and 13 in 1906, and from 1907 to 1909 there were 14. From 1910 to 1924 there were 15 stages (there were no races between 1914 and 1919).
There were 18 stages in 1925 and 17 in 1926, but from 1927 to 1991 the number of stages varied between 21 and 25 – most often 22. (There were no races between 1939 and 1946.) Between 1992 and 2007 there were either 20 or 21 stages.
The race distance in 1903 was 2,428 km (an average of just under 445 km per stage). In 1905, despite a dramatic increase in the number of stages, it only increased to 2,994 km (272 km per stage), but in 1906 the 13 stages covered a total of 4,545 km (just under 350 km per stage). Since then, despite the increase in the number of stages, the overall distance never increased very much, and since the number of stages was increased to 20 or more the distance per stage has dropped dramatically. The total distance reached a peak of 5,745 in 1926 (over 17 stages – 338 km per stage) but the 22–stage races were mostly between 4,000 and 4,500 km (approximately 193 km per stage) and since 1991 it's generally been around 3,500 km (167 km per stage).
In 1903 there was only one mountain stage. In 2016, there were three "medium mountain stages" and eight "high mountain stages", as well as a mountain time trial (and an "individual time trial"). The longest stage in 2016 was Stage 5 (Limoges to Le Lioran – a medium mountain stage) at 216 km, and the shortest was the mountain time trial at just 17 km. The individual time trial was 37.5 km; apart from the two time trials, the shortest stage was the final one, from Chantilly to Paris, at 113 km.
© Haydn Thompson 2017