Runner-up Lucien Pothier was handed a lifetime ban by French governing body the Union Vélocipédique Française (although he was later permitted to start the Tour again, in 1907), while fourth-placed Hippolyte Aucouturier, again one of the race favourites, having failed to finish the first stage of the 1903 race due to illness, was one of those believed to have cheated by gripping a cork in his mouth that was attached to a string tied to the back of a car.
Spectators use tacks and pebbles to sabotage the stage between Nantes and Paris
| Start: Paris, France, on 9 JulyFinish: Paris, France, on 30 July | |
| Total distance: 3021 km (1877 miles)Longest stage: 348 km (216 miles) | |
| Highest point:Col Bayard: 1246 m (4088 ft) Mountain stages: 2 | |
| Starters: 60Finishers: 24 | |
| Winning time: 35 pointsAverage speed: 27.481 kph (17.075 mph) | |
| 1. Louis Trousselier (Fra) 35 points2. Hippolyte Aucouturier (Fra) 61 points 3. Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq (Fra) 64 points |
Despite the race having tackled the Col de la République in its previous two editions, the third Tour de France entered new territory in 1905 by introducing its first serious, leg-crunching, lung-busting climb in the shape of the Ballon d’Alsace. It was also made up of shorter stages, albeit with an increase in their number – up to eleven from six.
After his despair at the previous year’s mass cheating, race director Henri Desgrange almost cancelled the 1905 Tour as early as its first stage, during which tacks were again thrown onto the road. All the riders punctured apart from 1904 runner-up Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq, though eventual overall race winner, Louis Trousselier, was nevertheless able to recover and win stage 1 from Paris to Nancy.
For stage 2, between Nancy and Besançon, it was out with the Col de la République and in with the Ballon d’Alsace, in the Vosges mountains. Wrongly, the Ballon d’Alsace is considered the Tour’s first major climb, but it was recognised as such by the race organisers more for its steepness than its height: at 1178 m (3865 ft), it is just 17 m (56 ft) higher than the Col de la République. Indeed, the Col Bayard, climbed later, on stage 4 of the 1905 Tour, stands at 1246 m (4088 ft).
With an average grade of 6.9 per cent, climbed from the north from the town of St-Maurice-sur-Moselle, Desgrange predicted that none of his race’s participants would be able to ride over the Ballon d’Alsace. René Pottier, however, had other ideas, stomping on the pedals to become the first rider to the top of the climb, although he was overtaken later in the stage by Hippolyte Aucouturier.
Overall race winner Trousselier – victorious thanks to five stage wins and Desgrange’s newly introduced points, rather than time, system of determining the winner – was a deserving Tour champion, but gambled his winnings away in a single, celebratory evening after the finish in Paris.
Frenchman Louis Trousselier was the first rider to win the Tour de France on points
| Start: Paris, France, on 4 JulyFinish: Paris, France, on 29 July | |
| Total distance: 4546 km (2825 miles)Longest stage: 480 km (298 miles) | |
| Highest point:Col Bayard: 1246 m (4088 ft) Mountain stages: 2 | |
| Starters: 76Finishers: 14 | |
| Winning time: 31 pointsAverage speed: 24.463 kph (15.201 mph) | |
| 1. René Pottier (Fra) 31 points2. Georges Passerieu (Fra) 39 points 3. Louis Trousselier (Fra) 59 points |
The 1906 edition of the Tour was a true tour of France, increased to thirteen stages from eleven, and reaching further afield than ever before: up to Lille in the north, Nice in the southeast, Bayonne in the furthest southwest corner, close to the Spanish border, and Brest, in Brittany, to the northwest.
It was also the first time that a stage started in a different town to the finish the previous day, when Douai hosted the start of stage 2, some 40 km (25 miles) from the Lille finish of stage 1.
It was a real Tour of ‘firsts’: for the first time, too, the race ventured outside French territory, when the stage from Douai dipped into German-held Alsace-Lorraine, and the city of Metz (today inside the French border), on its way to Nancy.
When it came to the competition, René Pottier, the man who had stunned the cycling world the previous year by managing to ride up the supposedly unridable Ballon d’Alsace, did it again, making it first to the top of the same climb when it featured on stage 3, and this time holding his advantage all the way to the finish in Dijon.
Having already won stage 2, and by taking another four stage wins en route to Paris, including the tough fifth stage over the Côte de Laffrey and the Col Bayard, Pottier beat the always-consistent Georges Passerieu – a Frenchman who finished in the top ten in every stage, including winning two stages – on points, 31 to 39. It was the rider with the fewest points who won, stage winners being awarded one point, two points being awarded for second place, etc., and was a system race organiser Henri Desgrange was to retain until the 1913 Tour, which reverted to being contested on time.
Pottier, it seemed, had an illustrious career ahead of him, having proved himself at the Tour as the sport’s best climber.
René Pottier was unbeatable in the mountains
| Start: Paris, France, on 8 JulyFinish: Paris, France, on 4 August | |
| Total distance: 4488 km (2789 miles)Longest stage: 415 km (258 miles) | |