 The tour was long in 1928, most of it on unsealed roads, and the riders used heavy, fixed wheel bicycles.There were 22 stages, ranging from 119 kilometres to 387 kilometres.As the Australasians were relatively inexperienced (they had never raced in Europe before) and were a trade team of four competing against teams of 8 to 10 cyclists, the French media predicted they would only last a few stages before pulling out.