1903 Tour de France - Race Details

Race Details

The pre-race favourites for the victory were Maurice Garin and Hippolyte Aucouturier. Garin dominated the race from the start by winning the first stage, a 471 km (293 mi) parcours from Paris to Lyon. The stage started at 15:16, and the cyclists initially rode with a speed of 35 km/h. The first cyclists abandoned after around 50 km (31 mi). At 23:00, Garin and Emile Pagie, leading the race, reached the control point in Nevers. Garin expected at that point that they would finish at 8:00 the next morning. During the night, Garin's main rival, Aucouturier, had stomach cramps, and was unable to finish the stage. Also during that first stage, the first breaching of the rules occurred: Jean Fischer had used a car as pacer, which was illegal. Pagie fell down, but got up again; he and Garin kept leading the race during the night. Around 9:00 in the morning, both reached Lyon. Garin got away from Pagie, and finished one minute ahead.

Although Aucouturier had abandoned in the first stage, and so was not eligible for the general classification, he could still start in the next stages. In the second stage, Aucouturier was able to win the sprint. In the third stage, the cyclists who were competing for the general classification started one hour earlier than the other cyclists, including Aucouturier. At the end of that stage, a group of four cyclists was away, and Eugène Brange won the sprint. Aucouturier finished 27 minutes later, but this meant that he had run the course 33 minutes faster, so Aucouturier was declared the winner of the stage. Garin retained the lead, helped by a crash of second-placed Pagie in the second stage, which eliminated him from the race. In the fourth stage, Aucouturier had a clear lead and seemed set to win a third successive stage, but was caught using the slipstream of a car, and was removed from the race. Swiss Charles Laeser (who had abandoned in the 3rd stage) took the victory, becoming the first non-French winner. As in the third stage, the cyclists departed in two groups, and Laeser was in the second group because he was no longer contending for the general classification. Laeser finished more than 50 minutes after a group of six cyclists, but he had travelled the distance 4 minutes faster than them, so he was declared the winner.

At that point, Garin was leading with Emile Georget almost two hours behind. In the fifth stage, Georget had two flat tires, and fell asleep when he stopped at the side of the road to rest, failing to finish. Thus Garin extended his lead by winning this stage, carrying nearly three hours advantage into the final day's racing. Garin had requested other cyclists in the leading group to let him win the stage, but Fernand Augereau refused to do this. Garin then had Lucien Pothier throwing his bicycle at Augerau, who then fell down. Garin, Pothier and Pasquier then continued without Pothier to the finish, where Garin easily won the sprint. Augerau still received a prize of 100 francs from Velo-Sport Nantes for the fastest final kilometer of the stage in the Nantes velodrome. The last stage was the longest, at 471 km (293 mi), and ran from Nantes to the Velodrome in Paris, where 20,000 spectators saw Garin's third stage win, as he sealed overall victory by 2 hours 59 minutes 31 seconds: this remains the greatest margin of victory in the Tour de France.