Iconic moments, legendary cyclists, stories from the first decade of Tour de France history. From the first Tour de France started in 1903. Peloton&Tales blogposts about the early years in the history of Tour de France.
1913 was the first times, when the route of the race went anti-clockwise. Six former Tour de France winner started the race (Louis Trousselier, Lucien Petit-Breton, François Faber, Octave Lapize, Gustave Garrigou and Odile Defraye), which is still a record.(Please note, that 3 of them, Petit-Breton, Faber and Lapize would not survive the 1st world … Read more
Odile Defraye was the first Belgian cyclist to win the Tour. Moreover, he was the first Belgian having a serious chance to win the race, so all Belgians in the race, regardless of their team, were helping him. Which, of course, made Henri Desgrange quite furious. Originally, Gustave Garrigou, winner of the previous edition was … Read more
After frequent visits to Alsace-Lorraine since 1906, the German authorities did not allow the race to cross the border anymore. The tension before World War I was growing already. The Alps were intorduced to the race, Col du Galibier became Henri Desgrange’s favourite climb. In the 9th stage Maurice Brocco was disqualified for serving another … Read more
The mighty ascents of the Pyrenees, including Col du Tourmalet were introduced to the race. The broom wagon, picking up the cyclists who abandoned the race, was introduced too. In the tenth stage, over the four mountains in the Pyrenees, cyclists were allowed to finish the stage in the broom wagon and still start the … Read more
150 cyclists started the race, this was a new record. Nevertheless, although being sponsored and racing in a team was allowed, 112 participants were still independent riders. In the end, 55 cyclists managed to complete the course. Another record was broken, which still stands: François Faber won 5 consecutive stages. Faber was also the first … Read more
The early history of Tour de France is full with strange stories. Not necessarily great stories, sometimes quite unpleasant ones, as it, for example, happened at the 9th edition (1911) of the famous French grand tour. Paul Duboc (1884-1941) rode Tour de France twice (1908 and 1909) before, and earned some success (a stage victory … Read more
It was the first time, when the podium of the general classification was not entirely French. The 2nd in overall François Faber, although born and lived in France was originally a Luxembourgian. Lucien Petit-Breton became the first cyclist to win the Tour de France twice after he repeated his success from previous year. At one … Read more
Henri Pépin was neither an eccentric aristocrat, nor a rookie cyclist when he hired two other persons to join him to ride the Tour de France just for fun. Pépin (1864-1915) was an active cyclist in the 19th century already. He even published a book about him and (possibly) his son riding a tandem from … Read more
Between 1905 and 1912 points decided who is the best rider of the peloton. The first cyclist to cross the finish line received 1 point. Other cyclists received one point more than the cyclist who passed the line directly before him, plus an additional point for every five minutes between them, with a maximum of … Read more
The flamme rouge (red flag), indicating the final kilometre of the stage, was introduced to the race. The first stage ended in Lille and the next one started in Douai, thus this was the first time a Tour de France stage did not depart where the previous finished. Tour de France went abroad for the … Read more