Tour de France First Race

The first Tour de France, held in July 1903, was a grueling multi-stage bicycle race that grew into the most famous event in cycling. Sixty riders set off to cover roughly 2,400 kilometers around the country, and the race that began as a publicity stunt became an annual fixture of French summers and a global sporting institution.

The Tour was born from commercial rivalry. L'Auto, a Paris sports newspaper founded in 1900, was struggling against its competitor, Le Vélo. Staff at L'Auto, including the cycling journalist Géo Lefèvre and the editor Henri Desgrange, looked for a way to boost circulation. Lefèvre is generally credited with suggesting a race lasting many days and crossing the whole country, an idea Desgrange embraced after some hesitation. Newspapers of the era often sponsored sporting spectacles, and long road races were already popular in France, but nothing on this scale had been tried.

The race was divided into six stages, run between major cities with long rests in between: Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Nantes, and back to Paris. Stages were extremely long by modern standards, often exceeding 400 kilometers, and some began in the middle of the night. Riders used heavy, single-geared bicycles on rough, often unpaved roads, and they had to repair their own machines. Many competitors were professionals, but others were adventurous amateurs who paid their own way. Maurice Garin, a French rider born in Italy, won the opening stage and went on to take the overall victory by a wide margin. Only a minority of the starters, about 21, are usually reported to have finished.

The race proved a commercial success, and L'Auto's sales rose substantially. Its second edition, in 1904, was marred by accusations of cheating, including riders taking trains or being helped by supporters, and Garin was later disqualified. Desgrange nearly abandoned the event, but it survived and expanded. Over the following years, organizers added mountain stages in the Pyrenees and the Alps, which became its defining tests. The leader's yellow jersey was introduced in 1919, reportedly echoing the color of L'Auto's paper.

The Tour was interrupted by the two world wars but resumed each time. It now draws riders from across the world and millions of roadside spectators, with a global television audience. Its history has also included controversy, notably repeated doping scandals. Still, the basic idea of a punishing circuit of France, born from a newspaper's search for readers, remains remarkably intact.