Tour de France 1903 - the First Tour de France
On the 20th November 1902 the journalist Geo Lefevre, from the newspaper L'Auto, sat down in a cafe with his editor, Henri Desgrange - he had an idea to boost circulation of the newspaper. The idea was the Tour de France.
The details quickly came together and by January 1903 the race had been announced in the newspaper.
Sixty riders started the first Tour de France, on 1st July 1903. The conditions were hard, with the stages frequently taking place on roads that were in a very poor state.
Outside help was not permitted and cyclists had to maintain and repair their own bikes when problems arose. M Lefevre acted as judge and timekeeper for the race.
Teams did not exist - just individuals who entered the race for themselves, having first paid a small entrance fee. There was no sponsorship, and certainly no publicity caravan preceding the arrival of the riders on the course! The bikes of course were very basic and heavy when compared with those ridden by modern competitors.
Just 21 riders were to finish, after six long and gruelling stages totalling 2,428 kilometres. Individual stages were from 270 to 470 kilometres each, substantially more than in current Tour de France competitions. Competitors frequently had to contine cycling late into the night.
Competitors were allowed to enter a stage even if they had withdrawn from an earlier stage, although they were no longer eligible to win the overall prize. Hence Hippolyte Aucouturier won the 2nd and 3rd stages despite not completing the 1st stage.
The route followed was: Paris - Lyon - Marseille - Toulouse - Bordeaux - Nantes - Paris. Mountain stages were not to be added to the Tour de France until 1905.
The average speed achieved in this first contest was almost 26kmh - an extraordinary feat given the condition of the roads, the basic bikes used, and the rule prohibiting spare bike parts or assistance in making repairs when problems arose.
Despite a fine effort by several other riders the lead was with Maurice Garin from the first stage - he went on to win the 1903 tour with a lead of almost three hours over Lucien Pothier, who was placed second. Garin won 6,075 gold francs for his efforts. (Maurice Garin also came first in the 1904 Tour, but was later disqualified from collecting the prize, along with those who came 2nd, 3rd and 4th.)
For the newspaper (later to become L'Equipe) the Tour de France 1903 was an enormous success, boosting their circulation very substantially and putting their rival, Le Velo, out of business.
