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The History

The Tour de France was founded in 1903 by Henri Desgrange as a publicity stunt to boost the circulation of the newspaper L'Auto and it was an immediate success.

The 60 cyclists in the first event were asked to cover a brutal course of 2,500km in just six stages over 19 days, often riding through the night and on bikes which bore no resemblance to the machinery used today.

Frenchman Maurice Garin was the first winner - along with L'Auto whose sales figures increased from 25,000 to 65,000 thanks to the race, in the process accounting for its great rival Le Velo.

Both the distance of the race - up to 4,500km in 1907 - and L'Auto's circulation (which rose to a quarter of a million in the space of five years) grew exponentially as the first of many controversies which have hit the event throughout its history came to the fore.

But it was the introduction of mountain stages in the Pyrenees and then the Alps in 1910 and 1911 respectively which really began to shape the race into something we know today.

The yellow jersey (maillot jaune) - worn by the race leader - was introduced when the Tour de France resumed after the first World War while another feature which is still obvious today was introduction of the publicity caravan in 1930.

There was a relative lack of French success in the early years and the race didn't take place at all after 1939 until 1947 as the second World War intervened.

But the French public were celebrating when Louison Bobet became the first rider to win the race three years in succession between 1953 and 1955.

It was another Tour de France great in Jacques Anquetil who hogged the limelight soon after that as he became the first man to win five Tours between 1957 and 1964.

It was his great rivalry with compatriot Raymond Poulidor which really captured the imagination though, Poulidor finishing second five times as he first had to battle with Anquetil and then had the misfortune to run into Eddy Merckx.

Just before Merckx's era, the Tour was scarred by the death of British rider Tom Simpson who died on the climb to Mont Ventoux in 1967.

But the headlines were then made for all the right reasons by Merckx. Nicknamed 'The Cannibal', Merckx's display when winning the Tour at his first attempt in 1969 will surely never be matched.

Not only did he have an astonishing 17 minutes to spare over his rivals but he also took the green points jersey and finished as top climber (for which the polka-dot jersey was introduced in 1975), the only time the clean sweep has been achieved.

The Belgian won four years in a row from 1969 onwards and added a fifth title in 1974 and his dominance of the race has rarely been matched since.

Bernard Hinault did his best to emulate him as he too won on his debut and finished in yellow five times between 1978 and 1985 while America's Greg Lemond continued the trend of multiple winners with three victories, the most memorable of which saw him edge out Laurent Fignon by just eight seconds in 1989, two years after Stephen Roche had won for Ireland.

Two men have dominated the Tour since then - Miguel Indurain and Lance Armstrong.

Spain's Indurain triumphed five times on the trot from 1991 onwards, symbolically overpowering Lemond to claim the first of his yellow jerseys. He became the fourth man to win five Tours, along with Anquetil, Merckx and Hinault.

He was pretty much unbeatable in time trials and that too was one of Armstrong's strengths, though there was so much more to the story than that.

After the Tour had been dogged by drugs controversies - 1998 had been a low point - it was Armstrong's incredible victory in 1999 after a remarkable recovery from cancer which went down in history as one of the great sporting achievements.

He went on to unprecedented success in the Tour as he became the first man to win seven Tours, having a perfect record right through to his retirement after his 2005 victory.

The Tour's ability to create great sporting moments while also generating unwanted headlines was perfectly illustrated last year when Floyd Landis came home first yet now faces the prospect of being struck from the record books after he tested positive for synthetic testosterone.

That was the latest entry in the race's fascinating history and it remains to be seen what unfolds in 2007 which will start with a prologue in London before 20 more stages (11 flat, seven mountain and two time trials) see the cyclists cover 3,550km on the way to Paris.