Video: The story of the Tour de France
Every July, for three weeks, a bike race takes over an entire country. Around twelve million people line the route in person. It is the third biggest sporting event on the planet, behind only the Olympics and the World Cup. And it was invented as a marketing stunt.
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This is the full story: how a failing newspaper made up a race to sell more copies, why the leader wears yellow, and how a circulation trick became the most famous bike race in the world.
Henri Desgrange and the newspaper war. The 1904 scandal that nearly killed the race in its second year. Octave Lapize shouting "Murderers!" in the Pyrenees. Tom Simpson on Mont Ventoux.
The five-time giants: Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, Indurain. Greg LeMond winning by eight seconds. The Festina affair, the Armstrong era, and the blank spaces in the record books.
And the rivalry that defines the race right now: Pogačar against Vingegaard.
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