'The history of the Tour is a huge history, with fantastic, epic stories. I'm just one of the actors on the stage of TDF history...looking at the photos and history of the 100 years of the Tour I was able to learn this history' - Lance Armstrong (5-times winner) The Tour de France is the world's largest annual sporting event with worldwide audience figures only exceeded by the Olympics and the Football World Cup. Yet its first edition in 1903 was little more than an outlandish publicity stunt staged by L'Auto newspaper to increase its circulation throughout France. But by the end of the century, no single sporting event could compare for excitement, passion and adventure - not to mention sheer physical difficulty - and few could claim to have had such a fascinating and even turbulent history. Year by year, this book chronicles the first one hundred years of the Tour capturing its true spirit. It draws on an unprecedented wealth of photography and journalism from L'Equipe's archives.
- ISBN10 1841882399
- ISBN13 9781841882390
- Publish Date 10 June 2004
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 2 February 2005
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Orion Publishing Co
- Imprint Weidenfeld Nicolson Illustrated
- Format Paperback
- Pages 360
- Language English