Tour de France

Origins

The Tour de France was created in 1903. The roots of the Tour de France trace back to the emergence of two rival sports newspapers in the country. On one hand was Le Vélo, the first and the largest daily sports newspaper in France^[12] which sold 80,000 copies a day.^[13] On the other was L'Auto, which had been set-up by journalists and business-people including Comte Jules-Albert de Dion, Adolphe Clément, and Édouard Michelin in 1899. The rival paper emerged following disagreements over the Dreyfus Affair, a cause célèbre (in which de Dion was implicated) that divided France at the end of the 19th century over the innocence of Alfred Dreyfus, a French army officer convicted—though later exonerated—of selling military secrets to the Germans.^{[n 1]} The new newspaper appointed Henri Desgrange as the editor. He was a prominent cyclist and owner with Victor Goddet of the velodrome at the Parc des Princes.^[14] De Dion knew him through his cycling reputation, through the books and cycling articles that he had written, and through press articles he had written for the Clément tyre company.

L'Auto was not the success its backers wanted. Stagnating sales lower than the rival it was intended to surpass led to a crisis meeting on 20 November 1902 on the middle floor of L'Auto's office at 10 Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, Paris. The last to speak was the most junior there, the chief cycling journalist, a 26-year-old named Géo Lefèvre.^[15] Desgrange had poached him from Giffard's paper.^[16] Lefèvre suggested a six-day race of the sort popular on the track but all around France.^[16] Long-distance cycle races were a popular means to sell more newspapers, but nothing of the length that Lefèvre suggested had been attempted.^{[n 2]} If it succeeded, it would help L'Auto match its rival and perhaps put it out of business.^[17] It could, as Desgrange said, "nail Giffard's beak shut."^[18][19] Desgrange and Lefèvre discussed it after lunch. Desgrange was doubtful but the paper's financial director, Victor Goddet, was enthusiastic. He handed Desgrange the keys to the company safe and said: "Take whatever you need."^[20] L'Auto announced the race on 19 January 1903.

The first Tour de France (1903)

Maurice Garin, winner of the first Tour de France standing on the right. The man on the left is possibly Leon Georget (1903)