Shop Fantasy Central Golf Guide Email Travel Subscribe SI About Us Tour de France 2000 Tour de France Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6 Stage 7 Stage 8 Stage 9 Stage 10 Stage 11 Stage 12 Stage 13 Stage 14 Stage 15 Stage 16 Stage 17 Stage 18 Stage 19 Stage 20 Stage 21 Map

 
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Tour de France Timeline: 1918-1903

Updated: Wednesday July 03, 2002 10:47 AM

1999-1982 | 1981-1966 | 1965-1950 | 1949-1934 | 1933-1919 | 1918-1903
1915-1918
No tour because of World War I. Past tour champions Faber, Petit-Breton and Octave Lapize die.
1910
Race director Henri Desgrange directs the tour through the Pyrenees for the first time. Adolpho Hilieri of Italy is the first tour fatality when he has a bathing accident on a rest day.
1909
In the first seven days of the tour 50 riders are forced out. Riding in his third tour, 22-year-old Francois Faber is compared by both the public and the media to Pottier, especially when he wins five consecutive stages, one better than Pottier. Faber finishes with six stage wins, prompting his manager to reportedly call him "the god who came down to ride a bicycle."
1907
Lucien Petit-Breton of France becomes the first multiple and consecutive winner of the tour in 1907 and 1908.
1905
Stages are shortened in an effort to cut down on the long night stages. The Ballon d'Alsace is added, becoming the first major climb of the event. Rene Pottier proves his standing as the first true climber, winning despite pulling a muscle in a fall the day before the stage including the Ballon d'Alsace. However, Pottier withdraws from the tour the following day.
1903
The first tour begins July 1, 1903, when 60 cyclists set off on the 2,500-kilometer (1,553.5 mile), six-stage, 19-day race. The tour is promoted by the newspaper l'Auto in an attempt to supplant a rival newspaper, Le Velo.
1999-1982 | 1981-1966 | 1965-1950 | 1949-1934 | 1933-1919 | 1918-1903

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