Pantano Cosa City Map Poster

About Pantano Cosa

This is a list of cyclists who have won the Tour de France, which started in 1903. The race has been run annually since its first edition, with the exception of 1915–1918 (due to World War I) and 1940–1946 (due to World War II). The Tour began as a publicity stunt staged by newspaper "L'Auto", after rival publication "Le Vélo" had accused it of being too conservative; L'Auto's founder Henri Desgrange later said he wanted to prove that his paper was not afraid to launch something new. He also hoped he could raise circulation through what would be a very expensive endeavour. After some organisational difficulties, the first Tour de France took place in 1903 using many mountain stages from an earlier event called Paris-Brest-Paris; only 65 entrants started this inaugural event and just 48 finished within six days on average for an overall speed record at that time: 24 hours for 532 km (335 miles).