The first edition of the Tour de France in 1903 was a big success. Not only for the L’Auto, which was able to increase its sell numbers but for all the cycling fans in France. Actually, it changed the history of bycicle forever.
But the growing popularity of the event caused some unexpected issues right at the second edition of the race in 1904. The prestige of winning the race was too hight.
Riders and spectators went totally mad.
Some riders were attacked and beaten by the fanatical supporters of other participants. Nails were thrown on the road, and even the cyclists cheated very intensively. Numerous riders were disqualified during the race already, mostly accused of getting lifts in cars and taking illegal feeds. Some other participants just took the train to shorten the way.
The scandal lasted till the end of the year when the French Cycling Union decided to launch an investigation and as its result, they disqualified the first four riders finished the race. The edition was originally won by Maurice Garin, now Henri Cornet was the declared the official winner of the second Tour de France. He is the youngest Tour de France winner of all time.
There were also further investigations and a total of 29 riders were excluded from the race. (The reason in most cases was never made clear and the documents of the investigations were lost, when the Tour archives were transported south in 1940.)
MORE TOUR DE FRANCE FROM THE EARLY YEARS (1903-1914)
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