Tour de France - Cycling, Tour History

1903: The race was founded to boost the circulation of l'Auto newspaper, as a form of competition with its main rival Le Vélo, which was sponsoring the most famous bicycle events in France - the Bordeaux-Paris and the Paris-Brest races.
l'Auto editor Henri Desgrange was the first professional racing cyclist and set the first record for distance covered in one hour (35.325 kilometres)
July 1, 1903: The sixty competitors in the first Tour de France left Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, in the Paris district to race some 2,428 kilometres in just six stages
There were between one and four rest days between each stage
Prizemoney of 20,000 gold francs was shared among the 60 riders, with 6075 going to inaugural Tour winner Maurice Garin
Garin arrived in Paris nearly three hours ahead of runner-up Lucien Pothier and almost 65 hours ahead of the 21st and last to finish
From 1903 until 1929 teams were organised according to bicycle brand names
1905: After being based on overall time for the first two years, the classification was based on a points system (designed in an attempt to reduce the temptation to cheat)
1906: The hilly region of Alsace was first traversed
1909: Luxembourger Francois Faber became the Tour’s first non-French winner after taking out six stages and finishing in the top ten on all 14
1910: The Pyrénées were incorporated into the route for the first time
1910: The Tour suffered its first fatality, but not on the road - Adolphe Hélière was electrocuted by a jellyfish while bathing in Nice on the rest day there
1912: Eugène Christophe completes the longest ever solo breakaway, 315 kilometres into Grenoble
1913: The Tour reverts to a time-based classification
1913: In one of the most famous incidents in the Tour’s history, Christophe led stage six by five minutes at the top of the Tourmalet, only for his forks to snap on the descent. He collected the pieces and ran until he reached the village of Ste. Marie de Campan, where he found a forge, lit the fire, shaped a piece of metal and repaired his bicycle. Despite losing more than four hours he carried on and finished seventh overall. The forge still stands and the building is a national monument.
From 1915 through 1918 the Tour was suspended due to the First World War
1919: The traditional yellow jersey was introduced on stage 11 from Grenoble to Geneva when Desgrange gave one to leader Christophe to make him stand out from the rest of the bunch. Christophe wore it for three stages until, on the penultimate stage, his forks broke – again!
1920: Phillipe Thys became the first triple Tour winner, taking out four stages and finishing in the top five on all 15, while Belgians filled the top seven places overall
1922: The Tour crossed the Col de Vars and Col d’Izoard for the first time, Christophe’s forks snapped yet again (he found another forge) and 37-year-old Firmin Lambot became the oldest winner and the first to win the Tour without claiming a stage win
1923: Time bonuses of two minutes per stage were awarded for the first time
1923: Team directors were allowed to give riders technical assistance for the first time
1924: Ottavio Bottechia becomes the first Italian winner and the first rider to hold the yellow jersey from start to finish
1926: After 23 years of starting in Paris, Evian was the first provincial city chosen as the departure point
International starting points have been: Amsterdam (1954), Brussels (1958), Cologne (1965), The Hague (1973), Charleroi (1976), Leiden (1978), Berlin (1987), Luxembourg (1989), San Sebastian (1992), s'Hertogenbosch (1996) and Dublin (1998)
1927: In an effort to suppress the negative tactics of the major teams, Desgrange introduced a form of Team Time Trial, with 16 separated starts
1928: A four-man Australasian team - Hubert Opperman (finished 18th), Harry Watson (28th), Perry Osbourne (38th) and Ernest Bainbridge (retired on stage 15) – featured in the race
From 1930 to 1961 riders were grouped into national teams making it easier to drum up patriotic support
1930: The publicity caravan was introduced to raise money that had previously been supplied by the manufacturers and radio coverage also began
1933: Spaniard Vincente Trueba became the first King of the Mountains
1937: The Derailleur gear systems, already widely in use amongst even casual cyclists, were introduced for the Tour
1938: On the final stage, Tour greats Antonin Magne and André Leducq broke away together and finished arm in arm, giving Leducq his twenty-fifth and final Tour de France stage win
From 1940 through 1946 the Tour wasn’t held due to the Second World War
1952: The first televised racing and the first climb of L'Alpe d'Huez
From 1962 to 1966 brand-name teams were re-introduced, then in 1967 and ‘68 national teams made a reappearance, before brand names came back for good
1967: Tom Simpson, the best British rider of his day, died on Mont Ventoux, a victim of the heat, his own fierce determination and doping
1968: As a result of Simpson’s death, after taking amphetamines, drug tests were introduced
1969: Belgian Eddy Merckx became the only man to sweep all three titles, not only winning the Tour by 17 minutes, but also claiming the green jersey for the points classification and taking the best climber's prize
1975: The polka dot jersey for the King of the Mountains and the white jersey for the best young rider were introduced
1975: The Tour finished on the Champs Elysées in Paris, as it has done each year since
1976: The first prologue time trial was held
1976: The Tour’s great ‘bridesmaid’, Raymond Poulidor, retired after finishing third at the age of 40, having never worn the yellow jersey despite finishing second overall five times and third three times over 15 years
1978: Riders strike over split stages and transfers
1981: Phil ‘Skippy’ Anderson becomes the first Australian to wear the yellow jersey
1982: Anderson becomes the first Australian to win a stage and is awarded the white jersey as best young (under 25) rider
1983: Amateurs were permitted to compete for the first time
1984: The Women's Tour de France was inaugurated, with a shorter course being created
The Women’s Tour de France was called the Tour of the EEC in 1990 and ‘91, only to revert to its old name in 1992.
1986: American Greg Lemond became the first non-European winner
1988: Spaniard Pedro Delgado won despite testing positive to a drug banned by the IOC but not cycling authorities
1989: Laurent Fignon looked to have his third Tour win well in hand when he led by 42 seconds going into the final stage, a short 24km time trial in Paris, but Lemond began an aerodynamic revolution on the banks of the Seine, using aero bars and a low profile bike to win the Tour by an incredible eight seconds
The early 90s were dominated by Big Mig, the Extra Terrestrial, with freakish Spaniard Miguel Indurain winning an unprecedented five Tours in a row from 1991 through 1995 (Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx each won four in a row while Bernard Hinault did four in five years)
1992: Indurain, who had a resting heartbeat of 29 beats per minute and lungs which could scoop up eight litres of air, was always unbeatable against the clock but excelled himself this year when he won the time trial in Luxembourg by an incredible three minutes
1994: Indurain made a strong statement to answer his critics by attacking in the Pyrenees when a young Marco Pantani tempted him to follow up a climb
1995: Italian Fabio Casartelli, Olympic gold medallist in Barcelona and a popular member of the Motorola team, died after crashing on a Pyrenean descent
1996: Dane Bjarne Rijs attacked Indurain repeatedly throughout the Tour and cracked the Spaniard on an amazing day in the Alps, but his win raised eyebrows as he’d been around for a while without any similar performances
1997: After the first Danish winner the year before, Jan Ullrich became the first German to win the Tour
1998: Marco Pantani’s win – the first by an Italian in 33 years – was overshadowed by a doping scandal after French police found EPO a team car days before the race, leading to teams being disqualified from the race and riders, team bosses and doctors being arrested
1999: American Lance Armstrong, who had fought of life-threatening cancer, claims the Tour for the first time.
2000: Armstrong claims his second Tour by six minutes, while Ullrich is second for the third time
2001: Erik Zabel claims an unprecedented sixth-straight green jersey while Armstrong makes it three straight wins
2002: Robbie McEwen is the first Australian to win a green jersey. Armstrong's fourth win is by his biggest margin, over seven minutes in front of Joseba Beloki.
2003: Armstrong endured a dramatic three weeks, but claimed his fifth win by just over a minute from his old rival Ullrich. Baden Cooke won the green jersey by edging out McEwen by a wheel on the Champs Elysees.
2004: Armstrong claims an unprecedented sixth win, some six minutes clear of his nearest rival, German Andres Kloden. McEwen wins his second green jersey.
2005: Armstrong bows out as a winner for a seventh time, by just under five minutes from Italian Ivan Basso, while Australian Cadel Evans finishes eighth, nearly 12 minutes behind, in his debut Tour. Thor Hushovd takes the green jersey ahead of O'Grady and McEwen.
2006: With Armstrong stepping away from the sport there was finally to be another winner but the event was disrupted on race-eve when a host of riders, including general classification hopes Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich - as well as Australian Allan Davis - were kicked out because of their possible involvement in a Spanish police investigation into doping. Even worse was to come just days after the race though when eventual winner Floyd Landis was found to have tested positive to a banned substance. During stage 16 he had fallen more than eight minutes off the pace and was written off but the following day launched a 120km solo breakaway that saw him roar back into contention and within 30 seconds of the lead he would regain during stage 19's time trial and not relinquish on the final days. But he was found to have failed a doping test after providing a sample following his amazing stage 17 win. The 'B' sample test also showed elevated levels of testosterone and Landis was dumped by his team and banned from riding, but he has still not been officially stripped of his title, which would go to Spaniard Oscar Pereiro Sio if that is the final outcome.
2007: The Tour began with a Prologue in London and passed through Belgium and Spain, and doping controversies once again took the gloss off the event, which was only really decided by the results of the Stage 19 time trial. Three individual riders and two entire teams were withdrawn during the race following positive doping tests, including pre-race favorite Alexandre Vinokourov and his Astana team. Following Stage 16, the holder of the yellow jersey, Dane Michael Rasmussen, was removed from the Tour and sacked by his Rabobank team, which accused him of lying about the reasons for missing several drug tests earlier in the year. Heading into the final time trial, the top three riders - Spaniard Alberto Contador, Australian Cadel Evans and American Levi Leipheimer - were separated by 2 minutes 49 seconds and although Evans and Leipheimer couldn't quite close their respective gaps, the margins were greatly reduced and the Tour ended with the smallest-ever spread of only 31 seconds across the top three riders, Contador finishing a mere 23 seconds clear of Evans, with Leipheimer just eight seconds further back. The big Belgian Tom Boonen won the green sprinter's jersey for the first time while Tour debutante Mauricio Soler of Colombia claimed the polka dot jersey.
2008: The race began without the traditional Prologue, instead a flat stage from Brest to Plumelec got Le Tour underway. Again, doping would tarnish the event with stage winner Riccardo Ricco pulling his whole Saunier-Scott-Duval team out of the tour after testing positive to EPO. Fellow stage winners Stefan Schumacher and Leonardo Peopil would also test positive. Bernhard Kohl, who won the polka dot jerset and finished third, would later test positive to EPO as well and lose his titles and retire. But it wasn't all bad news, with the battle for the general classification title an epic one. Seven riders would hold the yellow jersey, while Brit Mark Cavendish won four of the 21 stages. Australian Cadel Evans took the yellow jersey in stage 10 and held it narrowly until stage 15 when Franck Schleck took control. The title would be decided on stage 17, when Carlos Sastre took control and gained a two-minute advantage. That was cut to under a minute by Evans by the end of the Tour, but the Spaniard's lead was never under serious threat. Sastre would also end up with the polka dot jersey when Kohl was later banned, while Denis Menchov was promoted to third. Oscar Freire won the green sprinters' jersey.

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