One of the earliest French cycle races was Paris-Rouen, first started in 1869. However, cycling was still a relatively new sport when the Tour began in 1903. In 1891, 3 Newspaper men, Richard Lesclide, Maurice Martin and Pierre Giffard started 2 important races, Paris-Brest-Paris and Paris-Bordeaux. There was a certain idealism attached to cycling. The bike offered social mobility for all social classes; it was also hope an interest in cycling could help promote the infant French cycling industry. However, their main reason was commercial – a good bike race was helpful in selling papers.
Giffard went on to establish his own cycling paper Le Velo. However, during the Dreyfus affair, Giffard wrote articles supporting Dreyfus and denouncing the industrialists who supported his imprisonment. Unfortunately, these industrialists were big sponsors of the paper, so they withdrew and gave their funding to a new paper – L’Auto-Velo. This new paper (printed on yellow sheets) was managed by Henri Desgrange. For 2 years there followed a bitter battle between the 2 newspapers, both struggled with circulations of about 25,000. Organising big races was often their best marketing plan. Of the two, Desgrange had perhaps the greatest appetite for hard work and initiative, he was also keen to defeat the rival newspaper.
A journalist for L’Auto Velo, Geo Lefevre, (who used to work for Giffard) is said to have come up with the idea of a new race which would captivate the nation. Rather than just racing between 2 cities, Lefevre had the idea to have a race around the whole of France – Le Tour de France, with several stages to complete the distance. For 1902, the idea was certainly unique, there had been no previous sporting or cycling event like this. Desgrange was very cautious about the feasibility of the race, but, at the same time did see it had the potential to defeat their rivals. Thus with the enthusiasm of Lefevre, preparations were made for the Tour.
At first they had great difficulty persuading any riders to enter, it was riding into the unknown and the sponsorship money was pretty paltry (50,000 Francs). But, with promises of more prize money and a reduction in the length, eventually 78 riders made it to the start line for the first Tour de France starting on 30 June 1903.
Le Velo eventually changed into a car magazine and Desgrange’s L’Auto became the premier cycling newspaper. Interesting Degrange offered a fitting tribute to Giffard when he died in 1923.
The First Tour de France 1903
The First Tour de France was run over 6 stages and totallled 2,428 Kilometres. However, some stages were so long it could take riders 35 hours to complete them. The Tour finished in Paris on the 19th July, only a third of the riders made it to the finish. The winner was M.Garin
See also:
List of Tour de France Winners
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