The Unfurling of the Tour De France

The Tour de France was first raced in 1903, just after the turn of the century. This month they're racing over 21 stages and most of the stages are around about 180 kilometres long. Back then it was 15 stages long - every other day was a rest day. The route followed the exact as exact as I could,. hugging the coastline in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. It retook Strasbourg, so to speak, those territories that were held by the Germans after the Franco-Prussian War. Every stage was in excess of 400 kilometres.