1903 Tour de France

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General classification

Rank	Name	Country	Time
1.	Maurice Garin	France	94h33'14"
2.	Lucien Pothier	France	+2h49'21"
3.	Fernand Augereau	France	+4h29'24"
4.	Rodolphe Muller	Italy	+4h39'30"
5.	Jean Fischer	France	+4h58'44"
6.	Marcel Kerff	Belgium	+5h52'24"
7.	Julien Lootens	Belgium	+9h31'08"
8.	Georges Pasquier	France	+10h24'04"
9.	François Beaugendre	France	+10h52'14"
10.	Aloïs Catteau	Belgium	+12h44'57"
11.	Jean Dargassies	France	+13h49'10"
12.	Ferdinand Payan	France	+19h09'02"
13.	Julien Girbe	France	+23h16'52"
14.	Lechartier	France	+24h05'13"
15.	Josef Fischer	Germany	+25h14'26"
16.	A. Foureaux	France	+31h50'52"
17.	René Salais	France	+32h34'43"
18.	Emile Moulin	France	+49h43'14"
19.	Georges Borot	France	+51h37'38"
20.	Pierre Desvages	France	+62h53'54"
21.	Arsène Millocheau	France	+64h57'08

The 1903 Tour de France was the first Tour de France, set up and sponsored by the newspaper L'Auto.

This cycling event was inspired by the idea of the Tour in literature, especially by a novel called Tour de France par Deux Enfants in which two boys make their way around France. The race was proposed by journalist Géo Lefèvre to his editor, Henri Desgrange, and was discussed by them over lunch at the Café de Madrid - some sources say the café, which changed names several times, was called the Taverne Zimmer- in Paris on 20 November 1902, with the first public announcement the following January. The newspaper ran the race to promote its circulation, a tactic employed by other newspapers.

The 1903 Tour began with the stage Montgeron-Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, route de Corbeil on July 1, and ended with the Vile-d'Avray, restaurant du Père stage on July 19. It only had six stages, compared to the 20 in modern tours, with a total distance of 2428km. The stages were long, with the longest between Nantes and Paris at 471km and the shortest between Toulouse and Bordeaux at 268km (compared to the 171km average stage length of the 2004 Tour de France). Sixty riders started (189 in modern 21-team Tours), with only 21 finishing. The winner won 3000 francs (about 26,500 euros in today's money).

As the journal organisateur, L'Auto provided Géo Lefèvre as the director, judge and time-keeper; Henri Desgrange was the directeur-général, although he did not follow the race.

There were no teams; all entrants were individuals. They paid a fee of 10 francs which, according to Geoffrey Wheatcroft, translates into 87.5 euros today with inflation taken into account.

The stages, at an average of just over 400km, often lasted into the night, or started in the night and lasted 24 hours.

Montgeron: this first stage, taking 27 hours and 47 minutes to complete, with the riders riding through the night. Maurice Garin won this first stage of the Tour de France. Emile Pagie was second by a minute, Léon Georget came in third. Hippolyte Aucouturier abandoned the stage but was allowed to continue by train to the next stage.
The next stage went from Lyon to Marseille.
The third stage began on 8 July and ran from Marseille to Toulouse. At this point, only 32 of the 60 riders remained in the race; this stage was won by Eugène Brange, Julien Lootens, Maurice Garin and Louis Pothier.
Toulouse to Bordeaux was the relatively short 250km stage which featured the first crash: a dog darted across the road, causing a group of 15 to fall. At this Hippolyte Aucouturier gave up and took the train to Paris.
The fifth stage connected Bordeaux to Nantes.
Finally the cyclists biked from Nantes to Paris.

Maurice Garin won the race in 94 hours 33 minutes and 14 seconds, Louis Pothier was second at 2 hours 49 minutes and 21 seconds, Augereau third at 4 hours 29 minutes and 24 seconds. The lanterne rouge (final finisher) was Arsène Millocheau, at 64 hours, 57 minutes and 8 seconds.