This year’s Tour de France also sees the elimination of finish-line and mid-race time bonuses. The Tour typically awarded 20-, 12- and 8-second bonuses to the top-three men across the line. Several mid-race bonuses of 6, 4 and 2 seconds were also awarded at various “hot sprints” across the course. That means that the time awarded to riders in Paris will be the exact amount of hours, minutes and seconds it took to race the entire Tour.

For the first time since 1966, the Tour de France will begin without the opening prologue to decide the first yellow jersey. The short, but intense race against the clock was a popular way for the public to get their first look at the Tour’s biggest stars and an ideal way to select the first leader for the race. That’s bad news for Team CSC-Saxo Bank star Fabian Cancellara, who’s twice won the opening prologue. “I’m a little sad that there’s no opening prologue, because I’ve had good success and it’s nice to start the Tour with the yellow jersey,” Cancellara said. “But this year there are no time bonuses and the first stage is a sprint, so who knows, maybe I can still wear the jersey. Maybe I can win the first stage! The main goal is to try to stay close and be in position to take the yellow jersey if I can do well in the first time trial Tuesday.”