it was to have been a five-week race, from 1 june to 5 july, with an entry fee of 20 francs. these conditions attracted very few cyclists: one week before the race was due to start, only 15 competitors had signed up. desgrange then rescheduled the race from 1 to 19 july, increased the total prize money to 20,000 francs, reduced the entry fee to 10 francs and guaranteed at least five francs a day to the first 50 cyclists in the classification. after that, 79 cyclists signed up for the race, of whom 60 actually started the race.