The first Tour de France started at 3 pm on the 1st of July in 1903 from the Café au Reveil Matin (Paris).
Most of the stages started in the middle of the night, the last one (6th) started at 9 pm the day before it finished.
Maurice Garin, one of the biggest favourites and later winner of the race, led the general classification since the first stage.
Although the first Tour de France didn’t include big mountains, there were still a few ascents to climb, like the Col du Pin-Bouchain (759 m) or the Col de La Republic (1116 m)
If someone didn’t finish a stage, he was out of the general classification, but was still allowed to start and eventually could win the next stage. This happened on the second stage, which was won by Hippolyte Aucouturier, and on the 4th one, won by the Swiss rider Charles Laeser.
Do you like to read about the early days of road cycling races ?
You should check out my Patreon page where you can find longer articles with vroader socio-cultural-historical context about this topic.
Click the image below to read the introduction post (free article)
