1903 Tour de France

The 1903 Tour de France was the first Tour de France, set up and sponsored by the newspaper Auto. This cycling event was inspired by the idea of the Tour in literature, especially a novel called Tour de France par Deux Enfants, wherin two boys make their way around France.

The 1903 Tour began with the stage Montgeron-Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, route de Corbeil on the 1 July, and ended with the Vile-d'Avray, restaurant du Père stage on 19 July. It only had 6 stages (compared to the 20 in modern tours), with a total distance of 2428 kilometres. The stages themselves were surprisingly long--with the longest being run between Paris and Lyon at 467 kilometres, and shortest between Toulouse and Bordeaux at 268 kilometres (compare this to the 171 average stage length of the 2004 Tour de France). 60 riders raced (108 race in modern 12-team Tours), with only 21 people finishing. The winner won 3000 Franc (about 26,500 Euros in today's money).

As the journal organisateur, the newspaper Auto provided Géo Lefèvre as the director, judge and time-keeper. Henri Desgrange was the Directeur Général; he was also the editor of the sponsor newspaper. The newspaper ran the race as an advertisement for itself--as had many other newspapers in other fields previously. At this point, there were no cycling teams--all entrants were individuals. They paid a fee of 10 Franc which, according to Geoffrey Wheatcroft, translates into 87.5 Euros when one takes inflation into account.

The stages, at an average of just over 400 kilometres, would often last into the night, or even start in the night and last 24 hours. Montgeron--this first stage was the lengthiest--took 27 hours and 47 minutes to complete, with the riders riding through the night. Maurice Garin won this first stage of the Tour de France. Emile Pagie was second by a minute, Léon Georget came in third. Hippolyte Aucouturier abandoned the stage but was allowed to continue by train to the next stage. The next stage went from Lyon to Marseilles. The third stage began on 8 July and ran from Marseilles to Toulouse. At this point, only 32 of the 60 riders remained in the race; this stage was won by Eugène Brange, Julien Lootens, Maurice Garin and Louis Pothier. Toulouse to Bordeaux was the relatively short 250 kilometre stage, which featured the first crash of the Tour de France: a dog darted across the road, causing a following-group of 15 cyclists to fall over. At this Hippolyte Aucouturier finally gave up and took the train to Paris.

Maurice Garin won the race at 94 hours 33 minutes and 14 seconds, Louis Pothier was second at 2 hours 49 minutes and 45 seconds after the leader, Augereau was third at 4 hours 29 minutes and 38 seconds behind the leader. The lanterne rouge (final finisher) was Millocheau at 64 hours 47 minutes and 22 seconds behind Garin.