{{If the Tour de France founder Henri Desgrange could have magically transported himself forward to the100th edition and discovered that the hot favorite was Kenyan-born Briton Chris Froome, with not a French contender in sight, then he might have abandoned the idea altogether.}}
Desgrange and his editorial colleagues on the newspaper L’Auto came up with the idea of a cycle race around France to boost its flagging circulation and a non-French winner was the last thing they would have wanted.
Maurice Garin duly obliged in the 1903 edition, but more importantly the “Grand Boucle” had successfully captured the French public’s imagination and with the exception of two world wars has been raced every year since.
Despite a raft of doping scandals — this year’s Tour is the first since Lance Armstrong confessed to cheating and was stripped of his seven titles — and the tragic deaths of leading riders such as Tommy Simpson and Fabio Casartelli — its popularity as the greatest free sporting spectacle in the world has endured.
For a race conceived by a journalist, it has undoubtedly provided rich material to fill countless column inches, not to mention ample opportunities for their photographic colleagues to capture the drama of the moment and France’s stunning scenery.
Mapping Le Tour, published in conjunction with the centenary race, chronicles the history of the race in images and route maps of each year, plus a stage-by-stage preview of the 2013 edition.
It reveals that the Tour has visited every region of France apart from Corsica — so fittingly, and to mark the special anniversary, this year’s race will start Saturday with three road stages on the hilly Mediterranean island.
{Above; In 1903, Riders tackle the stage from Toulouse to Bordeaux in the first ever edition of the Tour de France.}
{Tour de France 2013 below}
CNN
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