|Around the Academy:
The race was started by Henri Desgrange as a publicity stunt.
He came up with the crazy idea of a bike race round France in order to raise the profile of L'Auto, the newspaper he worked for.
The first race was a huge success.
Sixty riders covered an amazing 2,500 kilometres spread over six stages.
They barely slept and were expected to ride through the night.
The road conditions were dreadful and riders had to repair their own punctures.
But the incredible efforts of the riders had captured the imagination of the French public and doubled the circulation of L'Auto.
Desgrange's publicity stunt was such a roaring success it put its rival paper Le Velo out of business!