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The 1903 race was created to sell copies of the paper L'Auto. The figure is taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

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The first Tour de France was a newspaper stunt

The 1903 race was created to sell copies of the paper L'Auto

The first Tour de France started on 1 July 1903, organised by the newspaper L'Auto to boost its circulation. Riders covered stages of enormous length, sometimes riding through the night. The race has been held every year since, apart from interruptions during the two world wars.

Peloton of Tour de France 2023 in Tourmalet — Hugo LUC · CC BY-SA 4.0 · licence · source

Where this comes from

Encyclopaedia Britannica

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Sports trivia

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Tags: cycling, france, history

The first Tour de France was a newspaper stunt: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: The 1903 race was created to sell copies of the paper L'Auto. The figure is taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a sports fact?: Yes. It sits on the Sports shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.