overview
The history of the Tour De France dates back all the way to the 1900s. It has been around since before the two world wars, and has survived them both, and now it remains today the most well know and popular cycling event. It began with 60 cyclers who intended to race on July 1st, 1903 a distance of 2,414km over the course of six stages each of which consisted of 402km on average as a publicity stunt to raise the popularity of a newspaper. The race has continued every year since then except for 1915-1918, and 1940-1946 during the wars. During the first years of the Tour De France the riders rode with spare tires, and tubes around their bodies because they were responsible for their own repairs. The riders of the race also spent majority of it riding during night, which was much less safe than during the day (http://www.history.com/news/the-birth-of-the-tour-de-france-110-years-ago)(http://www.history.com/news/the-birth-of-the-tour-de-france-110-years-ago (http://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/2010/jul/16/tour-de-france-riders-fitness).
Created in 1903 the Tour De France was a publicity stunt to raise the popularity of the newspaper L’auto. The race was originally set to be five stages and take place from May 31, to July 5, but since this attracted only fifteen riders the rules and other were changed. They cut the length of the race down to 19 days and set the dates July 1 - July 19, offered the racers a daily allowance if they kept over 20km/h on all stages of the race (equivalent to what he would've earned in a typical working day), cut the entry fee down from twenty to ten francs, set the first place prize at 12,000 francs, and the stage winners prizes to 3,000 francs. This attracted 6080 men who now wished to participate in the race. This race was won by Maurice Garin who beat the second place winner by 2h 59m 21s and the last place competitor who did not drop out by 64h 47m 22s
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France).
Henri Desgrange the first organizer of the Tour De France and French bicycle racer, sports journalist, who set twelve world track cycling records including the hour record of 35.325km, said that the second Tour De France in 1904 would likely be the last. He said this likely because of the cheating that was all too apparent, disqualifications of riders such as Maurice Garin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France).
Though Desgrange’s thought of the Tour De France being over were soon silenced when he began organizing the third Tour in 1905, where he planned it to be longer and have eleven stages, and to take place all in daylight to make cheating much more obvious. The newspaper that started this all had its popularity rise so greatly that it forced its main competitor Le Velo to go out of business in the second year, and L’auto achieved circulation to 250,000 in 1908 and achieve its record for the time 854,000 in 1933. L’auto’s popularity has only increased since (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France).
The early rules of the Tour De France were quite simple. A rider was only allowed a personal pacer on the first and last stages of the race, multiple gears were prohibited, teams were allowed but teammates were not allowed to pace each other, riders must mend their own bikes, and start and finish with the same bike (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France).
Teams have always been a integral part of the Tour De France and will always remain important. The first tours were open to whoever wished to participate, and most riders had teams that would look after them. The private entrants were called touriste-routiers from 1923 and were allowed to take part provided that they make no demands of the organizers. In post 1930 tours there was no room for individual racers, so Desgrange created regional teams, generally from France to provide those who could not have qualified otherwise, thus absorbing touriste-routiers into regional teams (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France).
The distances of the race have varied greatly over the years and continue to change. For example the tour originally went around the perimeter of France. The shortest tour ever was 2,428km in 1904 and the longest tour ever was 5,745km in 1926. Though because of doping scandals in the 1960s, cheating; which made the race only take place during they and thus shorten daily distances, and scandals throughout history like Lance Armstrong’s doping scandal the Union Cycliste Internationale placed a limit on daily and overall distances of riders. They also imposed rest days, and drastically changed the route of the tour from the perimeter of France to zig zag across the country, all while maintaining a kind of loop. This all led to the modern tour to typically having twenty one stages, and never more than 3,500km (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France).
Created in 1903 the Tour De France was a publicity stunt to raise the popularity of the newspaper L’auto. The race was originally set to be five stages and take place from May 31, to July 5, but since this attracted only fifteen riders the rules and other were changed. They cut the length of the race down to 19 days and set the dates July 1 - July 19, offered the racers a daily allowance if they kept over 20km/h on all stages of the race (equivalent to what he would've earned in a typical working day), cut the entry fee down from twenty to ten francs, set the first place prize at 12,000 francs, and the stage winners prizes to 3,000 francs. This attracted 6080 men who now wished to participate in the race. This race was won by Maurice Garin who beat the second place winner by 2h 59m 21s and the last place competitor who did not drop out by 64h 47m 22s
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France).
Henri Desgrange the first organizer of the Tour De France and French bicycle racer, sports journalist, who set twelve world track cycling records including the hour record of 35.325km, said that the second Tour De France in 1904 would likely be the last. He said this likely because of the cheating that was all too apparent, disqualifications of riders such as Maurice Garin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France).
Though Desgrange’s thought of the Tour De France being over were soon silenced when he began organizing the third Tour in 1905, where he planned it to be longer and have eleven stages, and to take place all in daylight to make cheating much more obvious. The newspaper that started this all had its popularity rise so greatly that it forced its main competitor Le Velo to go out of business in the second year, and L’auto achieved circulation to 250,000 in 1908 and achieve its record for the time 854,000 in 1933. L’auto’s popularity has only increased since (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France).
The early rules of the Tour De France were quite simple. A rider was only allowed a personal pacer on the first and last stages of the race, multiple gears were prohibited, teams were allowed but teammates were not allowed to pace each other, riders must mend their own bikes, and start and finish with the same bike (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France).
Teams have always been a integral part of the Tour De France and will always remain important. The first tours were open to whoever wished to participate, and most riders had teams that would look after them. The private entrants were called touriste-routiers from 1923 and were allowed to take part provided that they make no demands of the organizers. In post 1930 tours there was no room for individual racers, so Desgrange created regional teams, generally from France to provide those who could not have qualified otherwise, thus absorbing touriste-routiers into regional teams (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France).
The distances of the race have varied greatly over the years and continue to change. For example the tour originally went around the perimeter of France. The shortest tour ever was 2,428km in 1904 and the longest tour ever was 5,745km in 1926. Though because of doping scandals in the 1960s, cheating; which made the race only take place during they and thus shorten daily distances, and scandals throughout history like Lance Armstrong’s doping scandal the Union Cycliste Internationale placed a limit on daily and overall distances of riders. They also imposed rest days, and drastically changed the route of the tour from the perimeter of France to zig zag across the country, all while maintaining a kind of loop. This all led to the modern tour to typically having twenty one stages, and never more than 3,500km (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France).