Sixty riders pedaled away from the Café au Réveil-Matin in Montgeron to launch the first Tour de France, a race conceived by journalist Henri Desgrange to boost sales of the sports newspaper L'Auto. The grueling event covered six stages and nearly 2,428 kilometers; Maurice Garin, a chimney sweep turned cyclist, won the overall title and became the race's first legend.
The Tour de France was born not from athletic idealism but from a circulation war. L'Auto's rival newspaper, Le Vélo, dominated French sports journalism, and Desgrange's business manager Géo Lefèvre proposed a multi-stage bicycle race around the country as a way to sell papers. Desgrange was initially skeptical but relented, and the gamble paid off spectacularly — L'Auto's circulation multiplied many times over during the race.
The stages themselves were brutal, some stretching over 400 kilometers and run through the night, with riders navigating unpaved roads by the light of oil lamps. There were no team support cars; riders fixed their own punctures and occasionally faced sabotage from rivals or angry locals who threw nails or broken glass onto the road.
Maurice Garin, nicknamed "the Little Chimney-Sweep" for his previous trade, crossed the finish line in Paris nearly three hours ahead of the second-place rider. The race was such a commercial triumph that Desgrange, who had feared it might ruin him, made it an annual fixture — one that would survive two world wars and become cycling's ultimate proving ground.
Key people: Henri Desgrange, Maurice Garin