5 facts about Tour de France 1903
The first Tour de France started at 3 pm on the 1st of July in 1903 from the Café au Reveil Matin (Paris).
Tour de France History
Stories from the history of the most famous cycling race of the world. Learn more about the history of Tour de France. Peloton&Tales Tour de France history category.
When Tour de France went abroad before 1914
Defining historical events of the 20th century often left their marks on road cycling history. Just think about, for istance, the impact of World War 1 on the mythology of some famous races, like Paris-Roubaix. The born of the famous phase of “Hell of the North” is a quite well known story among cycling fans. … Read more
5 facts about Tour de France 1926
The 20th Tour de France, held between 20th June and 18th July 1926, was the longest edition of the race ever: a total of 5745 km long course was divided into 17 stages. Since the creation of Tour de France in 1903, the race always started from Paris (more precisely from one of its … Read more
Fausto Coppi and the Tour de France
It might sound unbelievable, but Fausto Coppi, the third Campionissio of the Italian cycling, one of the greatest legends of the sport rode Tour de France only 3 times. From our rather nostalgic point of view it appears as a longer period. But no. It happened only three times between 1949 and 1952. So big … Read more
5 facts about Tour de France 1925
After the quarell between Henri Desgrange and Henri Pelissier last year, a new rule was made, that any rider that harmed the Tour’s image would be banned for the next years. Team Automoto had a really strong line-up: Ottavio Bottecchia (Tour de France winner 1924 and 1925) , Philippe Thys (Tour de France winner 1913,1914,1920) … Read more
5 facts about Tour de France 1924
Ottavio Bottecchia became the first Italian cyclist to win Tour de France. Also, he was the first rider to take the yellow jersey on the first day and to keep it until Paris. (Leading the race from the very first day was not a novelty, it happened at the very first Tour de France already. … Read more
Five facts about Tour de France 1923
After 12 years (minus the time of First World War) of Belgian dominance, Tour de France celebrated a French winner again. Henri Pelissier and Henri Degrange didn’t like each other very much. Pelissier, alongside with his brother Francis skipped Tour de France 1921 and 1922. Desgrange wrote an article about how Pelissier would never win … Read more
5 facts about Tour de France 1920
Tour de France 1920 winner Philippe Thys became the first cyclist to win the race three times (his previous victories were dated back before First World War, in 1913 and 1914). The weather was so hot, that after 4 stages 65 of 113 cyclists had quit the race already.
5 facts about Tour de France 1919
The 13th Tour de France, held between 29 June and 27 July was the first edition after First World War. The yellow jersey was introduced during this edition of Tour de France. Most of the cyclists were racing in grey jersey, thus there must have been something, a colorful jersey for example, to distinguish the … Read more
Four scandalous Tour de France editions
In its more than 120-year-long history Tour de France, the most famous road cycling race of the world witnessed good time and bad time either. It had plenty of glourious moments, but also some shameful ones. Here are the four (arguably) most scandalous editions in the history of Tour de France . 1904 – an … Read more