Tour de France

The Tour de France is a men's professional road cycling race that takes place over multiple stages, mostly in France. It is the oldest and most respected of the three Grand Tours, alongside the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España.

The race was first run in 1903 as a way to boost sales for the newspaper *L’Auto*, a forerunner of *L’Équipe*. It has been held every year since, except during the two World Wars (1915–1918 and 1940–1946). As its fame grew, the route became longer and attracted more international riders. Today, it is part of the UCI World Tour, meaning most competing teams are UCI WorldTeams, though the organizers can also invite others.

The Tour usually takes place in July. Although the specific route changes each year, the basic structure stays the same: it includes time trials, sections through the Pyrenees and the Alps, and—since 1975, with the exception of 2024—a final stage finishing on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Modern editions have 21 day-long stages spread over 23 or 24 days, covering about 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles). The race alternates direction each year, going clockwise or counterclockwise around France.

Between 20 and 23 teams, each with eight riders, usually compete. Every stage is timed, and each rider’s total time is added up from all previous stages. The rider with the lowest cumulative time leads the race and wears the yellow jersey. While the overall winner gets the most attention, there are other competitions within the Tour: a points classification for sprinters (green jersey), a mountains classification for climbers (polka-dot jersey), a young rider classification for those under 26 (white jersey), and a team classification based on the top three finishers from each team on each stage. Winning a single stage is also a big achievement, often done by a team’s sprint specialist or a rider in a breakaway.

A similar race for women existed under different names from 1984 to 2009. After pressure from campaigners and professional women riders, a one- or two-day event called La Course by Le Tour de France was held from 2014 to 2021. The first Tour de France Femmes took place in 2022.

**History**

**Origins** The Tour de France began in 1903. Its roots lie in a rivalry between two French sports newspapers. The first, *Le Vélo*, was the country’s biggest daily sports paper. The second, *L’Auto*, was founded in 1899 by journalists and businessmen including Comte Jules-Albert de Dion, Adolphe Clément, and Édouard Michelin. This rivalry grew out of disagreements over the Dreyfus Affair. De Dion, Clément, and Michelin were upset with *Le Vélo* because its financial backer was their commercial rival, the Darracq company. De Dion thought *Le Vélo* gave Darracq too much coverage and him too little. Being wealthy, he could afford to act on his grievances. The new paper hired Henri Desgrange as editor, a well-known cyclist who co-owned the Parc des Princes velodrome with Victor Goddet.

*L’Auto* sold fewer copies than its rival, leading to a crisis meeting on 20 November 1902 at the paper’s office in Paris. The last to speak was the chief cycling journalist, 26-year-old Géo Lefèvre. He proposed a six-day race across France, similar to track races but much longer. Long-distance bike races were a proven way to sell newspapers, but nothing as ambitious as Lefèvre’s idea had ever been attempted.

**The first Tour de France (1903)** The first Tour was planned as a five-stage race from 31 May to 5 July, starting in Paris and passing through Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, and Nantes before returning to Paris. Toulouse was added later to break up the long stretch across southern France. Stages were meant to run through the night and finish the next afternoon, with rest days in between, but this was too hard and expensive for most riders. Only 15 people entered. Desgrange, never fully convinced, nearly cancelled the idea. Instead, he shortened the race to 19 days, moved the dates to 1–19 July, and offered a daily allowance to riders who averaged at least 20 km/h (12 mph) on all stages—about what a factory worker would earn in a day. He also cut the entry fee from 20 to 10 francs and set the first prize at 12,000 francs, with 3,000 francs for each stage winner. The winner would earn six times what most workers made in a year. This attracted 60 to 80 entrants (the higher number may include serious inquiries and dropouts), including professionals, amateurs, unemployed people, and adventurers.

The first Tour started near the Café Reveil-Matin in the village of Montgeron. The starter, Georges Abran, waved them off at 3:16 p.m. on 1 July 1903. *L’Auto* did not put the race on its front page that morning. Competitors included eventual winner Maurice Garin, his sturdy rival Hippolyte Aucouturier, German favorite Josef Fischer, and various adventurers, including one who raced as “Samson.” Many riders dropped out after the early stages because the physical demands were too great. Only 24 remained by the end of the fourth stage. The race finished on the outskirts of Paris at Ville d’Avray.