The 1903 Tour de France cycling competition was first staged in history. Previously there had been competition covering vast distances, such as Paris-Brest route of 1,200 km in 1891 and Paris-Bordeaux 576 km also in 1891. However, it was the French journalist Géo Lefèvre who developed the idea of a competition staged to elapse from the French territory. Lefèvre proposed to the director of the sports newspaper l'Auto, Henri Desgrange, create a cycling event to promote the newspaper.
Thus, the July 1, 1903 the first Tour de France started in Montgeron, near Paris, where 60 riders took the start covering the opening stage of 467 km to Lyon. The tour consisted of six stages in a total of 2,428 km. The Frenchman Maurice Garin was the first Tour winner in history, completing the test at a speed of 25 km / h. Received a prize of 6075 francs.
The following editions of the Tour de France was marred by a series of scandals that culminated in the exclusion of the top four in the overall standings of the Tour de France 1904, partly as a result of unauthorized use of the railway. The period before World War I is seen in retrospect as a time hero because at that time regularly cover daily distances of 400 kilometers. With hindsight, it looks amazing if you consider the modest crew of that time and poor quality of roads that used to be cobbled.
Then stepped in the mountain stages. So, in 1905 produced the first ascent Ballon d'Alsace in the Vosges. Later, in 1910, rose for the first time the Tourmalet in the Pyrenees and in 1911 began the promotion of the Alps. In this period include the Belgian cyclist Philippe Thijs, who was the first rider to achieve three victories in the Tour. Unfortunately his career, like many professional cyclists in Europe, was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I in 1914, which caused the suspension from competition for four editions.
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