It’s that time of year when you have a very good reason to draw the curtains to block the sun, and sit and watch television: the Tour de France. Whilst other sporting events may tempt you too, the Tour is the only sporting event that can provide you with the best part of a month’s worth of entertainment as you join the riders through different countries and landscapes.

Broadcast to a television audience across 190 countries, and with live spectators that reach up to 12 million in number, the Tour de France is a global phenomenon, The Watch Gallery have created an infographic to demonstrate how the numbers involved in its support and staging are equally impressive. From the speedy time trials that follow the River Rhine, and allow the favourites to consider their rivals, to the brutal gradients of the Alps that separate the men from the boys; the Tour de France is an emotional journey of strength, endurance and of course, competition.

In 1989, Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon were separated by the narrowest margin yet of 8 seconds between coming first and second. In this race, and it is easy to forget that it is a race rather than a display of endurance, every second counts.

To celebrate all that the Tour encompasses, The Watch Gallery have compiled an infographic to show the variety of considerations that the Tour provokes – 60km of cabling that has to be laid daily to enable the broadcast to the near half a million saucissons that were distributed to the spectators along the roadside.