1903, MAURICE GARIN WINS THE FIRST TOUR DE FRANCE

Today afternoon, The Grandma has been watching Le Tour de France. She likes cyclism and she is a great follower of this amazing event. She has remembered Maurice Garin, who won the first Tour on a day like today in 1903.

Maurice-François Garin (3 March 1871-19 February 1957) was an Italian-French road bicycle racer best known for winning the inaugural Tour de France in 1903, and for being stripped of his title in the second Tour in 1904 along with eight others, for cheating. He was of Italian origin but adopted French nationality on 21 December 1901.

Garin was born the son of Maurice-Clément Garin and Maria Teresa Ozello in Arvier, in the French-speaking Aosta Valley in north-west Italy, close to the French border. The name Garin was the most common in the native village of Maurice, called Chez-les-Garin, belonging to five of the seven families. They had four daughters and five sons, of whom Maurice was the first son.

In 1885 the family left Arvier to work on the other side of the Alps, almost to the Belgian border.

Garin worked as a chimney sweep. He later moved to France. By the age of 15, he was living in Reims as a chimney sweep. He moved to Charleroi in Belgium but by 1889 he was back in France, at Maubeuge.

Garin's younger brother, Joseph-Isidore, died in 1889. The father died shortly afterwards in Arvier. Garin's brothers François and César stayed in northern France and, with Maurice, opened a cycle shop in the lower end of the boulevard de Paris in Roubaix in 1895. Brothers César and Ambroise also competed as professional cyclists.

Garin moved to Lens, Pas-de-Calais in 1902 and lived there the rest of his life. He bought his first bicycle for 405 francs, twice what a forge worker would earn in a week of 12-hour days, in 1889. Racing did not interest him but he did ride round the town fast enough to be called a madman -le fou.

Until 2004, it was said that Garin had taken French nationality when he was 21, in 1892 but in 2004, the reporter Franco Cuaz found the naturalizing act and Garin took French nationality 21 December 1901.

He began racing in northern France in the same year when the secretary of the cycling club at Maubeuge persuaded him to enter a regional race, Maubeuge-Hirson-Maubeuge, over 200 km.

Garin became a professional by chance. He planned to ride a race at Avesnes-sur-Helpes, 25 km from where he lived. He arrived to find it was only for professionals. Not allowed to compete, he waited until the riders had left, raced after them and passed them all. He fell off twice but finished ahead of the racers. The crowd was enthusiastic but the organisers less so. They refused to pay him the 150 francs due to the real winner, so spectators raised 300 francs among themselves. Garin became a professional.

His first true professional win was in a 24-hour race in Paris in 1893. It was held on the Champ de Mars, site of the Eiffel Tower. The riders competed, as was the custom, behind a succession of pacers. The event took place in February and the cold drove out riders one after the other. Garin rode 701 km in 24 hours, beating the only other rider to finish by 49 km.

The first Paris–Roubaix was in 1896; Garin came third, 15 minutes behind Josef Fischer.

The Tour de France began to promote a new daily sports newspaper, L'Auto ahead of the largest paper in France, Le Vélo, which sold 80,000 copies a day. Some of Le Vélo's advertisers had disagreed with the paper's support for Alfred Dreyfus, a soldier found guilty on trumped up charges of selling secrets to the Germans but eventually acquitted after being sent to Devil's Island. The Tour was to promote their new rival paper, L'Auto.

The editor, Henri Desgrange, planned a five-week race from 31 May to 5 July. This proved too daunting and only 15 entered. Desgrange cut the length to 19 days and offered a daily allowance.

The race began at the Au Reveil Matin café at a crossroads in Montgeron, south of Paris, and ended in Ville-d'Avray, another suburb, having circuited France in six days of racing over 2,428 km. One stage, between Nantes and Paris, was 471 km. Sixty riders started at an entry fee of 10 francs and 21 finished. Garin won 3,000 francs for finishing first in 94h 33m 14s, or 6,125 francs in all with his other prizes. Lucien Pothier was second and Fernand Augereau third.

Garin retired from cycling and ran his garage in Lens until his death. The garage is still there, although wholly changed from Garin's era.

More information: Cyclist

Successful change leaders exemplify excellence, 
visionary planning, adaptive leadership, a
nd active engagement to navigate challenges a
nd inspire their team towards sustainable organisational evolution.

Maurice Garin

1903, START OF FIRST 'TOUR DE FRANCE' BICYCLE RACE

The Grandma likes cycling, and she has been watching the 2021 Tour de France on TV. This competition is one of the most prestigious, and it started on a day like today in 1903.

The 1903 Tour de France was the first cycling race set up and sponsored by the newspaper L'Auto, ancestor of the current daily, L'Équipe.

It ran from 1 to 19 July in six stages over 2,428 km, and was won by Maurice Garin.

The race was invented to boost the circulation of L'Auto, after its circulation started to plummet from competition with the long-standing Le Vélo. 

Originally scheduled to start in June, the race was postponed one month, and the prize money was increased, after a disappointing level of applications from competitors.

The 1903 Tour de France was the first stage road race, and compared to modern Grand Tours, it had relatively few stages, but each was much longer than those raced today. The cyclists did not have to compete in all six stages, although this was necessary to qualify for the general classification.

The pre-race favourite, Maurice Garin, won the first stage, and retained the lead throughout. He also won the last two stages, and had a margin of almost three hours over the next cyclist. The circulation of L'Auto increased more than sixfold during and after the race, so the race was considered successful enough to be rerun in 1904, by which time Le Vélo had been forced out of business.

More information: Le Tour

The 1903 Tour de France was run in six stages. Compared to modern stage races, the stages were extraordinarily long, with an average distance of over 400 km, compared to the 171 km average stage length in the 2004 Tour de France; cyclists had one to three rest days between each stage, and the route was largely flat, with only one stage featuring a significant mountain.

The cyclists were not grouped in teams but raced as individuals, and paid a fee of ten francs, €87.50 at 2021 prices, to compete in the race for general classification, or five francs to enter a single stage. As the stages were so long, all but the first started before dawn: the last stage started at 21:00 the night before.

The first Tour de France crossed no mountain passes, but several lesser cols. The first was the col des Echarmeaux (712 m), on the opening stage from Paris to Lyon, on what is now the old road from Autun to Lyon. The stage from Lyon to Marseille included the col de la République (1,161 m), also known as the col du Grand Bois, at the edge of St-Etienne.

More information: Eurosport

In 1903, it was normal for a professional cyclist to hire pacers, who would lead them during the race. Desgrange forbade this: it was originally intended that in the final, longest, stage pacers would be allowed, but this was rescinded after the fifth stage.

To ensure that the cyclists rode the entire route, stewards were stationed at various points around the course. The yellow jersey for the leader in the general classification had not yet been introduced, but the leader was identified by a green armband.

The fastest eight cyclists on each stage received a prize between 50 francs and 1,500 francs, varying per stage. The fourteen best cyclists in the general classification received a prize from 3,000 francs for the winner to 25 francs for fourteenth place.

The remaining seven cyclists to finish in the general classification each received 95 francs, 5 francs for each of the 19 days that the race took, provided that they had not won more than 200 francs in prize money and did not have an average speed below 20 km/h on any stage.

More information: We Love Cycling

In contrast to modern stage races, a cyclist who gave up during a stage was allowed to start again the next stage, although he would no longer be in contention for the general classification.

Thus, Hippolyte Aucouturier, who gave up during the first stage, was able to return, and won the second and third stages. Charles Laeser, winner of the fourth stage, had not completed the third stage.

Sixty cyclists, all professionals or semi-professionals, started the race, of whom 49 were French, 4 Belgian, 4 Swiss, 2 German, and one Italian; 21 of them were sponsored by bicycle manufacturers, while 39 entered without commercial support.

24 other cyclists took advantage of the opportunity to enter specific stages: one rode in both the second and fourth stages, and additionally three cyclists took part in the second stage, one in the third stage, fifteen in the fourth stage only, and a further four only competed in the fifth stage.

More information: Two Wheeled Ronin

The physical demands of cycling is
that it actually lowers your immune system,
and you expose yourself to a tremendous amount of elements
-so certain people might get a chronic overload
and develop, say, bad asthma.

Greg LeMond