The Birth of Le Tour.  When Henri Desgranges dreamt up the Tour de France as a marketing gimmick for his newspaper l’Auto he cannot have known what his creation would become. The opening quarter century of the Tour were wild, pioneering days as the race grew ever bigger in the imagination of the public.

Right from the very first race, the fans were as passionate as they are today.  The riders battled terrible conditions, unfinished roads, cheating rivals and saboteur fans, racing over staggering distances. The blueprint for the Tour was set: the hardest race in the world, the victor immortal. And so a legend was born.