first tour de france 1903

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18 Photographs of the Very First Tour de France in 1903

The Tour de France was founded in 1903 to promote L’Auto, the ancestor of the current newspaper L’Équipe. What is today without a doubt the biggest celebration of cycling in the world was a much, much smaller event back at the beginning of the 20th century. It consisted of just six stages but those six were extraordinarily long, with the average distance of over 400 kilometres. That’s why the riders had to have 1-3 days off between those long rides and the whole Tour ran from 1st to 19th of July. The stages were almost completely flat, just one of them featured a significant mountain.

You can check out the unique atmosphere from the beginning of this huge cycling phenomenon in the photographs below.

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Vintage photos from the First Tour de France, 1903

The winning scene at the finish of the first Tour. In the middle on the right: the winner, Maurice Garin, to his left: most likely Leon Georget.

A publicity stunt dreamed up by newspapermen, the first Tour de France saw a rag-tag bunch of cyclists waved off from outside a bar on the outskirts of Paris in 1903. Rapidly the Tour expanded into a race will legendary champions, a set of iconic leader’s jerseys, and a wanderlust that took the race into the farthest corners of France.

Henri Desgrange, the editor of L’Auto (ancestor to today’s l’Equipe ), was desperate to find a way to win a circulation war with competing sports newspaper Le Vélo . The Tour de France was suggested to Desgrange as a sales promotion.

It was to have been a five-week race, from 1 June to 5 July, with an entry fee of 20 francs. These conditions attracted very few cyclists: one week before the race was due to start, only 15 competitors had signed up.

Desgrange then rescheduled the race from 1 to 19 July, increased the total prize money to 20,000 francs, reduced the entry fee to 10 francs, and guaranteed at least five francs a day to the first 50 cyclists in the classification. After that, 79 cyclists signed up for the race, of whom 60 actually started the race.

The 1903 Tour de France was run in six stages. Compared to modern stage races, the stages were extraordinarily long, with an average distance of over 400 km (250 mi).

Cyclists had one to three rest days between each stage, and the route was largely flat, with only one stage featuring a significant mountain. The cyclists were not grouped in teams but raced as individuals

The riders get ready to start. Note that what constitutes effective cycle clothing hadn’t been settled.

In 1903, it was normal for a professional cyclist to hire pacers, who would lead them during the race. Desgrange forbade this: it was originally intended that in the final, longest, stage pacers would be allowed, but this was rescinded after the fifth stage.

To ensure that the cyclists rode the entire route, stewards were stationed at various points around the course. The yellow jersey for the leader in the general classification had not yet been introduced, but the leader was identified by a green armband.

Sixty cyclists, all professionals or semi-professionals, started the race, of whom 49 were French, 4 Belgian, 4 Swiss, 2 German, and one Italian; 21 of them were sponsored by bicycle manufacturers, while 39 entered without commercial support.

Advertising poster for the event.

The pre-race favorite, Maurice Garin, won the first stage and retained the lead throughout. He also won the last two stages and had a margin of almost three hours over the next cyclist.

After celebrating with champagne, the riders cycled to Parc des Princes, where they made several laps of honor before an adoring crowd, to the sound of a bugle.

The circulation of L’Auto increased significantly due to this event; a special edition of 130,000 copies was made after the race was over, and normal circulation increased from 25,000 to 65,000. The big success made sure that the Tour de France was scheduled again for 1904. The cyclists had also become national heroes.

Garin would also win the next year’s race only to then be disqualified along with eight other riders for cheating including the illegal use of cars and trains.

The first kilometer in the history of the Tour de France.

The ancient bidon and the feeding zone.

Marcel Kerff.

The first stage finish line in Lyon.

The finish in Bordeaux, which saw the first-ever foreign winner of a stage, the Swiss Charles Laeser.

Maurice Garin, in his trademark white coat and flat cap racing in the 1903 Tour.

Maurice Garin is greeted by enthusiastic fans.

Leon Georget signs in under the watchful eye of an official. To minimize cheating riders signed in a stops along each stage.

Willie Hume.

The winner Maurice Garin.

Lucien Pothier.

The 1903 Tour de France winner Maurice Garin.

Maurice Garin pictured after his victory in the first stage.

Maurice Garin.

The Tour De France became a tradition. Pictured here are the cyclists in 1906.

(Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons / Flickr).

Updated on: June 15, 2022

Any factual error or typo?  Let us know.

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The Birth of the Tour de France

By: Christopher Klein

Updated: May 8, 2023 | Original: June 28, 2013

On July 1, 1903, 60 men mounted their bicycles outside the Café au Reveil Matin in the Parisian suburb of Montgeron. The five-dozen riders were mostly French, with just a sprinkle of Belgians, Swiss, Germans and Italians. A third were professionals sponsored by bicycle manufacturers, the others were simply devotees of the sport. All 60 wheelmen, however, were united by the challenge of embarking on an unprecedented test of endurance—not to mention the 20,000 francs in prize money—in the inaugural Tour de France.

At 3:16 p.m., the cyclists turned the pedals of their bicycles and raced into the unknown.

Nothing like the Tour de France had ever been attempted before. Journalist Geo Lefevre had dreamt up the fanciful race as a stunt to boost the circulation of his struggling daily sports newspaper, L’Auto. Henri Desgrange, the director-editor of L’Auto and a former champion cyclist himself, loved the idea of turning France into one giant velodrome. They developed a 1,500-mile clockwise loop of the country running from Paris to Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes before returning to the French capital. There were no Alpine climbs and only six stages—as opposed to the 21 stages in the 2013 Tour— but the distances covered in each of them were monstrous, an average of 250 miles. (No single stage in the 2013 Tour tops 150 miles.) Between one and three rest days were scheduled between stages for recovery.

The first stage of the epic race was particularly dastardly. The route from Paris to Lyon stretched nearly 300 miles. No doubt several of the riders who wheeled away from Paris worried not about winning the race—but surviving it.

Unlike today’s riders, the cyclists in 1903 rode over unpaved roads without helmets. They rode as individuals, not team members. Riders could receive no help. They could not glide in the slipstream of fellow riders or vehicles of any kind. They rode without support cars. Cyclists were responsible for making their own repairs. They even rode with spare tires and tubes wrapped around their torsos in case they developed flats.

And unlike modern-day riders, the cyclists in the 1903 Tour de France, forced to cover enormous swathes of land, spent much of the race riding through the night with moonlight the only guide and stars the only spectators. During the early morning hours of the first stage, race officials came across many competitors “riding like sleepwalkers.”

Hour after hour through the night, riders abandoned the race. One of the favorites, Hippolyte Aucouturier, quit after developing stomach cramps, perhaps from the swigs of red wine he took as an early 1900s version of a performance enhancer.

Twenty-three riders abandoned the first stage of the race, but the one man who barreled through the night faster than anyone else was another pre-race favorite, 32-year-old professional Maurice Garin. The mustachioed French national worked as a chimney sweep as a teenager before becoming one of France’s leading cyclists. Caked in mud, the diminutive Garin crossed the finish line in Lyon a little more than 17 hours after the start outside Paris. In spite of the race’s length, he won by only one minute.

“The Little Chimney Sweep” built his lead as the race progressed. By the fifth stage, Garin had a two-hour advantage. When his nearest competitor suffered two flat tires and fell asleep while resting on the side of the road, Garin captured the stage and the Tour was all but won.

The sixth and final stage, the race’s longest, began in Nantes at 9 p.m. on July 18, so that spectators could watch the riders arrive in Paris late the following afternoon. Garin strapped on a green armband to signify his position as race leader. (The famed yellow jersey worn by the race leader was not introduced until 1919.) A crowd of 20,000 in the Parc des Princes velodrome cheered as Garin won the stage and the first Tour de France. He bested butcher trainee Lucien Pothier by nearly three hours in what remains the greatest winning margin in the Tour’s history. Garin had spent more than 95 hours in the saddle and averaged 15 miles per hour. In all, 21 of the 60 riders completed the Tour, with the last-place rider more than 64 hours behind Garin.

For Desgrange, the race was an unqualified success. Newspaper circulation soared six-fold during the race. However, a chronic problem that would perpetually plague the Tour de France was already present in the inaugural race—cheating. The rule-breaking started in the very first stage when Jean Fischer illegally used a car to pace him. Another rider was disqualified in a subsequent stage for riding in a car’s slipstream.

That paled in comparison, however, to the nefarious activity the following year in the 1904 Tour de France. As Garin and a fellow rider pedaled through St. Etienne, fans of hometown rider Antoine Faure formed a human blockade and beat the men until Lefevre arrived and fired a pistol to break up the melee. Later in the race, fans protesting the disqualification of a local rider placed tacks and broken glass on the course. The riders acted a little better. They hitched rides in cars during the dark and illegally took help from outsiders. Garin himself was accused of illegally obtaining food during a portion of one stage. The race was so plagued by scandal that four months later Desgrange disqualified Garin and the three other top finishers. It, of course, wouldn’t be the last time a Tour winner was stripped of his title.

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1903 Tour de France

1st edition: july 1 to july 18, 1903, results, stages with running gc, startlist, photos and history.

1904 Tour | Tour de France Database | 1903 Tour Quick Facts | 1903 Tour de France Final GC | Stage results with running GC | startlist | The Story of the 1903 Tour de Franc e |

Map of the 1903 Tour de France

Les Woodland's book Dirty Feet: How the great unwashed created the Tour de France is available as an audiobook here .

1903 Tour Quick Facts:

2,428 km raced at an average speed of 25.68 km/hr.

60 starters and 21 classified finishers

Henri Desgrange , editor of L'Auto ( ancestor to today's l'Equipe) , was desperate to find a way to win a circulation war with competing sports newspaper Le Vélo . The Tour de France was suggested to Desgrange as a sales promotion. It was to be like a Six-Day race, only on the road. The race was an instant hit. L'Auto's circulation soared and Desgrange went down in history as the father of the greatest sporting event in the world.

Note that in the first edition the stages are staggeringly long. The races would have to start in the dark in order to finish stages that could take over 17 hours to complete.

A few of notes about the early Tours. Distances are approximate. Riders could abandon a stage and still start the next stage and compete for stage prizes but they were out of the race for the General Classification.

There are many different times recorded for the early Tour. Pothier's 2hr 59min 2sec second-place margin is the one given in the Tour's official centennial book.

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1903 Tour de France final complete General Classification

Rider's nationality is listed if his sponsor is not known

1903 Tour stage results and running General Classification

Stage 1: Wednesday, July 1, Paris - Lyon, 467 km

GC after Stage 1: GC times and places same as stage 1 results

Stage 2: Sunday, July 5, Lyon - Marseille, 374 km

GC after Stage 2: 1. Maurice Garin 2. Leon Georget @ 8min 52sec 3. Fernand Augereau @ 1hr 34min

Stage 3: Wednesday, July 8, Marseille - Toulouse, 423 km

GC after Stage 3: 1. Maurice Garin 2. Leon Georget @ 1hr 58min 53sec 3. Lucien Pothier @ 2hr 58min 1sec

Stage 4: Sunday, July 12, Toulouse - Bordeaux, 268 km

Stage 5: Monday, July 13, Bordeaux - Nantes, 425 km

GC after Stage 5: 1. Maurice Garin 2. Lucien Pothier @ 2hr 58min 1sec 3. Fernand Augereau @ 4hr 29min 14sec

6th and Final Stage: Saturday, July 18, Nantes - Paris, 471 km

Roster of Starting Riders

The Story of the 1903 Tour de France

This excerpt is from "The Story of the Tour de France", Volume 1 If you enjoy it we hope you will consider purchasing the book, either print or electronic. The Amazon link here will make either purchase easy.

1903. Just days after it lost the lawsuit, on Jan 19, 1903, L'Auto announced the first Tour de France. It was to be "the greatest cycling trial in the entire world. A race more than a month long: Paris to Lyon to Marseille to Toulouse to Bordeaux to Nantes to Paris." The first schedule was for a 5-week race with a May 31 start and a finish in Paris on July 5. The winner would be the racer with the lowest elapsed time racing after the 6 stages. This total time was and still is called the "General Classification".

With a week to go before the start only 15 riders were signed up. As a sign of the adaptability and willingness to change that has always characterized the Tour, Desgrange shortened and re-scheduled the race to a July 1 start and July 18 finish. There would be 2 to 4 rest days between each of the stages except for stage 4, which would be held the day after the 268-kilometer third stage. To attract more riders, expense money of 5 francs a day was promised to the first 50 racers who signed up and a 20,000 franc purse of prize money was dangled.

Desgrange got his first peloton. 60 riders departed from the now famous Cafe au Réveil-Matin in Montgeron on the southern outskirts of Paris at 3:16 PM, July 1. Of these, 21 were sponsored or professional racers. In the pack, there were a few racers who competed under a pseudonym. Racing was a sketchy business and not always held in high repute. Julien Lootens raced the 1903 Tour as Samson . Later Lucien Mazan would compete in the Tour as Petit-Breton .

Lefèvre, only 26 at the time, traveled with the race while Desgrange remained in Paris. Desgrange stationed men along the way, sometimes hidden, to make sure that the riders rode the entire route. They rode 6 stages totaling a staggering 2,428 kilometers.

Desgrange, from the very beginning, wanted his race to be a superhuman test of an individual's endurance and strength. He banned pacers from his race except for the final stage. At the time, racers employed lines of pacers to lead them, much as a protected professional rider uses his team today. At the time this was quite a change from the norm and many, including eventual winner Maurice Garin, doubted that it would work.

Maurice Garin, riding the red, white and blue tricolor bike of his sponsor, La Française, won the first stage of the first Tour, beating Émile Pagie by 55 seconds. The first stage, from Paris to Lyon, was 467 kilometers long, and it took a cruel 17 hours 45 minutes, riding both day and night, for Garin to finish. Only 37 riders were able to complete the day's racing. The 37th rider took more than 20 hours longer than Garin to get to Lyon. Hippolyte Aucouturier, one of the favorites, had to drop out with stomach cramps.

Today, that abandonment would put an end to his Tour. Back then, a racer was allowed to race for stage wins even if he had failed to finish a previous stage, which Aucouturier did. A racer who failed to finish a stage was out of contention for the overall lead. Pagie, the victim of a crash in the second stage had to abandon the Tour. He never rode the Tour again.

On the first stage, a racer was caught cheating. Jean Fischer was seen pacing behind a car. I haven't found any particular record of a sanction for this breach of the rules. If Desgrange could have known what 1904 was to bring, perhaps he would have made an example of Fischer.

Aucouturier, who was quite revived after dropping out of the first stage, won the second and third stages, from Lyon to Marseilles and Marseilles to Toulouse. Garin maintained his lead, by this time almost 2 hours over second place Léon Georget who would drop out of the race in stage 5. Garin won the penultimate stage, still in the lead.

On July 19, 21 of the 60 finished. The 20,000 spectators at Paris' Parc de Princes velodrome saw Maurice Garin win the final stage and win the Tour. The final finisher came in over two days later. While the famed "Yellow Jersey" worn by the man leading the Tour would not be adopted until 1919, Garin was given a green armband to signify his lead during the 1903 Tour, and the Lanterne Rouge or Red Lantern was used to designate the rider in last place. Arsène Millocheau has the dubious fame of being the first Lanterne Rouge by coming in at 64 hours, 57 minutes, 8 seconds behind Garin in total time.

Garin, riding for the powerful La Française team, was nicknamed "the Chimney-Sweep" for his occupation before he became an accomplished professional bicycle racer. He won the first stage and held the lead throughout the Tour. His win was no accident. He was by far the finest and strongest racer in the Tour. He was already a two-time winner of Paris-Roubaix as well as a victor of Bordeaux-Paris and Paris-Brest-Paris.

Garin pocketed 6,125 francs for his exploit, enough to buy a gas station where he worked the rest of his life after retiring from racing. To this day, a gas station still stands on the spot of Garin's old station. But as Les Woodland noted in The Unknown Tour de France , no one working there has any idea about the importance of the former owner of the site. Garin is quite forgotten.

Adjusting for currency and inflation across a century is highly inaccurate, but those 6,000 francs Garin won should be something like $40,000 in U.S. dollars. Garin's winning margin of 2 hours and 49 minutes remains the largest in Tour history. The first Tour at 2,428 kilometers remains the second shortest ever. The 1904 Tour was shorter than the 1903 version by 8 kilometers. The average speed for this first Tour was 25.679 kilometers per hour. The 50th Anniversary Tour in 1953 averaged 34.593 kilometers per hour and the speed of the Centennial 2003 Tour was 40.94 kilometers per hour. There were dramatic changes in equipment, training, roads, diet, Tour rules and sometimes even doping over the next 100 years that made this increase possible.

The Tour was a fantastic success. Circulation of L'Auto boomed. 130,000 copies were printed for the final stage (an increase of 100,000). Le Vélo went out of business and the Tour de France was born. Desgrange, knowing talent when he saw it, hired Giffard to write for L'Auto.

Final 1903 Tour de France General Classification:

© McGann Publishing

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The Picture Show

Daily picture show, photo: first tour de france winner, 1903.

Claire O'Neill

The first Tour de France, 1903 The Nationaal Archief/The Hague/Flickr Commons hide caption

The first Tour de France, 1903

It's hard to ignore the miserable-looking guy on the left, which the Nationaal Archief in The Hague identifies as "probably Leon Georget (not sure)." The photo, from the museum's Flickr site , shows the winner of the first-ever Tour de France, Maurice Garin.

It actually appears in a larger hodgepodge collection of photos showing the Tour de France through the years. We were charmed by the outfits, bikes and scenes in the images — and thought we'd share a few more.

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Finish of the First Tour de France

Maurice Garin won the first Tour de France, on July 19th, 1903, by a margin of almost three hours.

Products of the bicycling craze of the 1890s in France included an army regiment mounted on bicycles and numerous flourishing bicycle-connected businesses as well as a public appetite for races. Besides track events in ‘velodromes’, there were long-distance road races, from Paris to Vienna and St Petersburg, for instance, and from Paris to Rome. The Tour de France, which began as a newspaper circulation-booster, was an unexpected by-product of the Dreyfus Affair. In 1899 the bicycle newspaper Le Vélo , which sold 80,000 copies a day, ran a pro-Dreyfus piece that caused a fierce falling out with a major advertiser, the bicycle manufacturer Comte Dion. With other manufacturers, including Clément and Michelin, Dion started a rival sports sheet called L’Auto . The editor was Henri Desgranges, winner of the world one-hour record in 1893. When one of his assistants suggested a race round France, Desgranges saw the possibilities.

The first race in 1903 took nineteen days in six formidable stages, from Paris to Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Nantes and back to Paris. The stages varied in length from 274km (170 miles) to as much as 467km (290 miles), with a total distance of just over 2400km (1,500 miles ). A parade of cars, festooned with advertising and throwing free samples to spectators, travelled two hours ahead of the cyclists. Of sixty competitors from France, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, including professional team riders and freelance amateurs, twenty-one finished the gruelling course and the race was won by a Frenchman, Maurice Garin, ‘the Little Chimney-Sweep’, by a margin of close to three hours. The last finisher came in two days behind.

Garin also won the second race in 1904, but he and the next three finishers were all disqualified for cheating. The early races were notorious for mayhem. Riders strewed broken glass and nails in the road to cause punctures behind them, competitors were given drinks that made them sick, many got surreptitious tows from cars or motorbikes, some were held up and delayed by hired thugs. The excitement was intense and L’Auto ’s circulation more than doubled. Le Vélo went bankrupt.

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The First Tour de France (1903)

The 2013 Tour de France marks the 100th of the event's history, which began in 1903 (the competition was put on hold during the two world wars). Strangely, this inaugural event of 1903 had it's origins in one of France's greatest political scandals - the Dreyfuss Affair. In 1894 a young French artillery officer of Jewish descent, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, was convicted of high treason but then, years later, was proven to be innocent in the light of new evidence, evidence which the military attempted to suppress. The ensuing debate over Dreyfuss' innocence, and the wider issues of anti-semitism in which it was embedded, divided the nation. One such division occurred within France's most popular cycling magazine L'Velo , causing it to split into two when an anti-Dreyfuss contingent broke away to form L'Auto-Velo . L'Velo 's owner won a court case forcing L'Auto-Velo to change their name, which they did, to L'Auto , a move which saw their sales subsequently plummet. In an effort to boost their waning popularity, and win back their cycling fans, L'Auto set up the Tour de France in 1903. It was a hugely successful campaign which caused their sales to increase 6-fold during and after the race and, eventually, pushed L'Velo into bankruptcy.

The 1903 competition was run only in six fairly flat stages, unlike the mountainous 21 stage event it would grow to become, however, each of these 1903 stages were extraordinarily long, with an average distance of over 400 km (250 mi), more than double the distance of today's. 60 cyclists, all professionals or semi-professionals, started the race, of whom 49 were French, 4 Belgian, 4 Swiss, 2 German, and one was Italian, Maurice Garin, the pre-race favourite who eventually went on to win the event. Garin would go onto also win the next year's race only to then be disqualified along with eight other riders for cheating including the illegal use of cars and trains.

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The winning scene at the finish of the first Tour. In the middle on the right: the winner, Maurice Garin, to his left: most likely Leon Georget - Source

Advertising poster for the event - Source

The first kilometre in the history of the Tour de France - Source

Marcel Kerff - Source

The finish in Bordeaux, which saw the first ever foreign winner of a stage, the Swiss Charles Laeser - Source

Lucien Pothier - Source

The winner Maurice Garin - Source

Jul 18, 2013

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Tour de France archive: the 1903 origin of the Tour - video

Source: L'Equipe

Fri 28 Jun 2013 13.51 BST First published on Fri 28 Jun 2013 13.51 BST

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The First Tour de France in 1903

Updated: Apr 15

The 1903 Tour de France marked the inaugural cycling race organized and sponsored by L'Auto, predecessor of the present-day daily, L'Équipe. Spanning from July 1 to 19, it comprised six stages covering a distance of 2,428 km (1,509 mi), with Maurice Garin emerging victorious.

Conceived to bolster L'Auto's readership amidst competition from Le Vélo, the race was initially slated for June but was postponed by a month due to a lack of entrants. Prize money was increased to attract participants. Unlike modern Grand Tours, the 1903 edition featured fewer but significantly longer stages. Cyclists were not obligated to compete in all six stages, although doing so was necessary for general classification eligibility.

Pre-race favourite Maurice Garin dominated, winning the first stage and maintaining his lead throughout. He secured victory in the final two stages, finishing with a commanding three-hour margin over his closest rival. L'Auto's circulation soared more than sixfold during and after the race, affirming its success and prompting a rerun in 1904, following the demise of Le Vélo.

Cyclists had one to three rest days between each stage, and the route was largely flat, with only one stage featuring a significant mountain. The cyclists were not grouped in teams but raced as individuals

Cyclists competed individually, paying a fee of ten francs for overall classification or five francs per stage. With stages commencing before dawn due to their length, the final leg even started at 21:00 the night before.

While the inaugural Tour de France didn't feature mountain passes, it included several lesser cols like the col du Pin-Bouchain and col de la République.

Pacing by hired cyclists was banned by Desgrange, although initially allowed for the final stage before being rescinded. Stewards ensured riders completed the full route, and the leader was identified by a green armband, as the yellow jersey wasn't yet introduced.

Prizes were awarded to the top eight cyclists per stage and the top fourteen in the general classification, with additional compensation for all finishers based on daily performance and overall speed.

Unlike modern stage races, cyclists who abandoned during a stage could restart the next stage, though they'd be ineligible for the general classification. Hippolyte Aucouturier, who withdrew in the first stage, returned and won the second and third stages. Charles Laeser, victorious in the fourth stage, hadn't finished the third stage.

Out of the sixty starters, primarily professionals or semi-professionals, 49 were French, with the remainder comprising 4 Belgians, 4 Swiss, 2 Germans, and one Italian. Twenty-one were sponsored by bicycle manufacturers, while 39 entered independently. Additionally, 24 cyclists participated in specific stages, with varying entries across stages.

Maurice Garin and Hippolyte Aucouturier were the top contenders for victory in the pre-race predictions. Garin asserted his dominance from the outset, clinching the first stage—a grueling 471 km journey from Paris to Lyon. Starting at 15:16, cyclists initially maintained a brisk pace of 35 km/h. However, the challenges emerged early, with the first abandonments occurring after just 50 km. By 23:00, Garin and Emile Pagie led the race, reaching the Nevers control point with expectations to conclude by 8:00 the next morning.

Overnight, Aucouturier, Garin's primary rival, suffered stomach cramps, forcing him to retire from the stage. Meanwhile, Jean Fischer violated regulations by employing a car as a pacer. Despite setbacks, Pagie persisted after falling but was unable to maintain pace with Garin, who ultimately crossed the Lyon finish line one minute ahead around 9:00 in the morning.

Despite Aucouturier's withdrawal from the first stage, rendering him ineligible for the general classification, he was permitted to continue in subsequent stages. In the second stage, he claimed victory in the sprint. However, in the third stage, separate start times were implemented, with Aucouturier among those vying for the general classification. Although he finished 27 minutes after the leading group, his adjusted time secured him the stage win.

Meanwhile, Garin maintained his lead, benefitting from Pagie's crash in the second stage, which eliminated him from contention. However, Aucouturier's bid for a third consecutive stage win was thwarted in the fourth stage when he was caught using a car's slipstream, resulting in his disqualification. Swiss cyclist Charles Laeser, who had abandoned in the third stage, seized victory, becoming the first non-French winner.

As Garin continued to dominate, Émile Georget faced setbacks in the fifth stage, enduring two flat tires and even falling asleep during a roadside rest, failing to finish the stage. Garin extended his lead by winning this stage, despite controversy arising from his tactics to secure victory. The final stage, the longest at 471 km, concluded in Ville-d'Avray instead of the Parc des Princes velodrome due to local regulations. Garin clinched his third stage win, sealing overall victory with an impressive lead of 2 hours 59 minutes 31 seconds—the largest margin in Tour de France history. The riders, upon reaching Ville-d'Avray, proceeded to the Parc des Princes, where they completed several laps of honour, concluding the race amidst a large crowd gathered to witness the event.

The Tour de France's impact on L'Auto was profound, with a special edition of 130,000 copies produced post-race, and regular circulation surging from 25,000 to 65,000. The overwhelming success ensured the race's return in 1904, solidifying the cyclists' status as national icons. Maurice Garin, the reigning champion, aimed for a repeat victory in 1904 but faced disqualification. Despite this setback, Garin's winnings from the 1903 race, totalling 6,075 francs (equivalent to approximately $40,000 and £23,000 in 2006 values), enabled him to invest in a petrol station, where he worked for the remainder of his life.

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Race information

• Date: 01 July 1903
• Start time: -
• Avg. speed winner: 26.3 km/h
• Race category: ME - Men Elite
• Distance: 467 km
• Points scale: GT.A.Stage
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• ProfileScore:
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• Departure: Montgeron
• Arrival: Lyon
• Race ranking: 0
• Startlist quality score: 310
• Won how: 0.2 km solo
• Avg. temperature:

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The First Tour de France of 1903 Through Fascinating Historical Photos

First held in 1903, the Tour de France came about as a publicity stunt dreamed up by newspaper journalists. A ragtag bunch of cyclists set off from outside a bar on the outskirts of Paris. The Tour was transformed into a race with iconic leaders’ jerseys and a wanderlust that took it to the farthest corners of France.

The editor of L’Auto (the precursor of today’s l’Equipe) was desperate to find a way to win the circulation war with Le Vélo. The Tour de France was proposed to Desgrange as a sales promotion. The race was to last for five weeks, from 1 June to 5 July. The entry fee was 20 francs. The conditions attracted a minimal number of cyclists: only 15 had registered one week before the race was due to begin. The event was then rescheduled from 1 to 19 July, the prize money increased to 20,000 francs, the entry fee was lowered to 10 francs, and the first 50 cyclists in the classification were guaranteed at least five francs a day. In the end, 79 cyclists registered for the race, 60 of whom actually started it.

The 1903 Tour de France had six stages. A typical stage race distance was over 400 km, which is exceptionally long compared to modern stage races. Between each stage, cyclists had one to three rest days. The route was essentially flat, with one mountainous stage. Cyclists did not race in teams but as individuals. Cycling professionals often hired pacers to lead them during races in 1903. After the fifth stage, Desgrange decided not to allow pacers. It was initially planned to allow pacers in the final, longest stage. Stewards were stationed at various points to ensure that cyclists rode the entire route. There was no yellow jersey for the leader in the general classification, but a green armband identified the leader.

The race featured sixty cyclists, all professionals or semi-professionals, of which 49 were French, 4 Belgian, 4 Swiss, 2 Germans, and one Italian; 21 of them had sponsors, while 39 didn’t have any. Maurice Garin won the first stage and retained the lead throughout. He also won the last two stages and had a three-hour margin over the next cyclist. In addition to champagne, the riders rode to Parc des Princes, where they made several laps of honor in front of an adoring crowd over the sounds of a bugle.

After the race was over, a special edition of 130,000 copies was printed, and the normal circulation increased from 25,000 to 65,000 copies. After the immense success of 1904, the Tour de France was scheduled again for 1905. In addition to winning the next year’s race, Garin would be disqualified along with eight other riders for cheating, including using cars and trains illegally. The cyclists had also become national heroes.

#1 The winning scene at the finish of the first Tour.

In the middle on the right: the winner, Maurice Garin, to his left: most likely Leon Georget.

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#2 The riders get ready to start. Note that what constitutes effective cycle clothing hadn’t been settled.

#3 Advertising poster for the event.

#4 The first kilometer in the history of the Tour de France.

#6 The ancient bidon and the feeding zone.

#7 Marcel Kerff.

#8 The first stage finish line in Lyon.

#9 The finish in Bordeaux, which saw the first-ever foreign winner of a stage, the Swiss Charles Laeser.

#10 Maurice Garin, in his trademark white coat and flat cap racing in the 1903 Tour.

#11 Maurice Garin is greeted by enthusiastic fans.

#12 Leon Georget signs in under the watchful eye of an official.

To minimize cheating riders signed in a stops along each stage.

#13 Willie Hume.

#14 The winner Maurice Garin.

#15 Lucien Pothier.

#16 The 1903 Tour de France winner Maurice Garin.

#17 Maurice Garin pictured after his victory in the first stage.

#18 Maurice Garin.

#19 The Tour De France became a tradition. Pictured here are the cyclists in 1906.

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The Untold Truth Of The First Tour De France Winner, Maurice Garin

In 1903, Maurice Garin became the first winner of the Tour de France. One year later, he became the second winner of the Tour de France and the first to lose his title amid accusations of cheating.

A native of Arvier, Italy, Maurice-François Garin was born in 1871. As reported by WBUR , Garin was a small child, who was thin and short in stature. According to legend, Garin's parents took advantage of his small size to smuggle him into France — where he was promised work as a chimney sweep. In an interview with WBUR, historian Peter Crossin said Garin's parents were given "a big piece of cheese" as a down payment for their son's services.

Although he spent several years working as a chimney sweep, and subsequently earned the nickname "The Little Chimney Sweep," WBUR reports Garin also worked as a delivery boy in northern France. As was customary at the time, Garin made his deliveries on a bicycle. In the mid to late 1800s, Garin realized he was skillful and fast on a bicycle. He also started to enjoy riding his bicycle for sport in addition to making his deliveries.

Garin entered his first bicycle race in 1890. However, the race was only open to professionals. Determined and undeterred by the rules, Garin joined the race moments after the official start. Garin sped past all the other competitors and ultimately won the race.

The birth of the Tour de France

Although Maurice Garin won the race, he was disqualified because he was not an official entrant. Therefore, as reported by WBUR , he was not eligible for the 150-france prize.

Between 1892 and 1903, Maurice Garin legitimately participated in 11 races in Italy and France . As reported by Cycling Ranking , Garin placed in the top 10 in eight of those races and won the Paris-Roubaix in 1898.

Prior to 1903, bicycle races were run in a point-to-point form. However, the proposed Tour de France would be run in stages over a period of 19 days. As reported by WBUR, the grand prize was 3,000 francs, which was nearly three times the average annual salary at the time.

History reports the Tour de France was created by journalist Geo Lefevre, who wanted to feature the race in his L'Auto sports newspaper. Lefevre hoped the news surrounding the unconventional race would increase his subscriptions and ultimately save the struggling publication.

L'Auto editor Henri Desgrange, who was a former champion cyclist, worked with Lefevre to organize the 1,500-mile race, which would begin in Paris and pass through Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, and Nantes, before returning to Paris. As reported by History, each stage of the race was an average of 250 miles and the cyclists were scheduled for one to three days of rest between each stage.

Unlike the modern Tour de France, the first race was conducted on unpaved roads.

Maurice Garin begins with an unfair advantage

History reports the first Tour de France cyclists rode as individuals and were not on teams. They also did not wear helmets, did not have the assistance of support cars, and were responsible for repairing their own bicycles.

As reported by WBUR , only 10 of the participants in the inaugural Tour de France were professional cyclists. The others were hobbyists, who simply wanted a chance at the generous prize money.

Although teams were prohibited in the first Tour de France, Maurice Garin partnered with several other riders, who called themselves "La Française." WBUR reports the group vowed to work together throughout all six stages of the race. However, four of the riders broke from the group during the fifth stage.

Historian Peter Crossin said Garin was already leading the race at that point, and he told his three companions that he planned to win the fifth stage as well. Another racer, Fernand Augereau, reportedly replied, "I think I can win. Why should I let you win?"

WBUR reports Garin told one of the members of his group to "knock Augereau off his bike." Although Augereau faltered, he got back on his bicycle and re-joined the race. Garin reacted by telling the same man to push Augereau over again. The man complied with the request, but Garin was worried Augereau would simply get back up and continue riding. 

Determined to win the race, Garin took things into his own hands. 

Winning the first Tour de France

To prevent his challenger from completing the race, Maurice Garin grabbed Augereau's bike and began "jumping up and down on his wheels and smashing them to pieces, rendering the bike completely useless." WBUR reports Garin's abhorrent behavior was witnessed by several other participants. One of the racers was so disturbed, he gave his own bike to Augerau so he could at least complete the race.

The first stages of the race were not well attended. However, by the last stage, Cossins said "Parisians turned out in the tens of thousands ... They could barely get the road clear before the riders came through."

Although he cheated, Garin ultimately won the inaugural Tour de France, and his contempt for the rules was overlooked. "They wanted to portray him as this heroic athlete who was doing everything in the right way, to be a kind of stereotype of French manhood — of being upright and honest and strong," Cossins said. As reported by WBUR, Henri Desgrange and Geo Lefevre also counted on Garin's success, and his perceived good reputation, to sell their newspapers and to ensure the Tour de France would become an annual event.

Despite the fact that it was essentially ignored by the race's organizers and the local media, Garin's cheating did not go unnoticed. In fact, getting away with it only encouraged the riders, including Garin, to cheat even more during the second Tour de France .

Maurice Garin wins, then loses

WBUR reports the long stretches of night racing helped facilitate the cheating, as it was simply too dark for anyone to see what was happening. "There were riders throwing tacks down, nails and other stuff on the roads ... There were people getting onto trains and jumping between cities on trains," Cossins said. "There were riders getting towed by motor bikes and motor cars."

During the last stage of the second Tour de France, Paris was struck with a heavy rainstorm. The cyclists and organizers both agreed to forgo the last kilometer of the race. Although Hippolyte Aucouturier was named the winner of the last stage, Maurice Garin was the overall winner.

Despite reports of cheating, Cycling Archives reports the organizers of the race were "happy with the original result." However, the Union Vélocipédique Française, or the UVF, received multiple complaints from the participants and subsequently launched an investigation into the accusations of cheating. At the conclusion of their investigation, 12 participants, including Garin, were ultimately disqualified.

As reported by Cycling Archives, Garin refused to acknowledge his disqualification. Instead, he insisted he was the "rightful winner" of the first and second Tour de France.

After a seven-year break, Garin raced in the Paris Brest, where he ranked 10th, and the Circuit de Touraine, where he ranked 11th. Those two races, which were in 1911, were his last.

Garin's racing career ends

Throughout his racing career, Cycling Ranking reports Maurice Garin was awarded the Tour badge, the Rider of the Year badge, nine Rider of the Year Italy badges, a Rider of the Year France badge, three Tour Stage badges, six Maillot Jaune badges, two Roubaix badges, six Anciens badges, an Endurance badge, and 14 Victory badges. His current overall rank is 633.

Following his retirement from racing, Garin opened a gas station. As reported by WBUR , Garin's gas station was popular with motorists, as the former cyclist would often share stories about his racing days while he was filling their tanks. Cossins said Garin ran his gas station for more than 40 years. In addition to earning enough to support his family, Garin seemed content with his new life and the memories he made while racing. As reported by Cyclist , Garin also opened a small bicycle shop, which sold bikes that Garin personally designed.

Garin died in 1957 at the age of 85. His accomplishments were commemorated with the construction of the Stade Vélodrome Maurice Garin. As reported by Sensettee, the original building was demolished and rebuilt in 1990. However, it is currently operated by the Minister of Youths and Sports.