Tour de france on itv4
The first Tour de France was arranged by French newspaperman Henri Desgrange as a publicity stunt for his paper, L'Auto in 1903.The race featured 60 riders covering more than a 1,000 miles. that proved highly popular among spectators along the route .The race was also a huge success for L'Auto whose circulation rose from 25,000 to 65,000 that year.