Which famous race was first organised in 1903 to increase sales for the magazine L'Auto?
"Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists of 21 day-long stages over the course of 23 days. The race was first organized in 1903 to increase sales for the newspaper ""L'Auto"" and is currently run by the Amaury Sport Organisation. The race has been held annually since its first edition in 1903 except when it was stopped for the two World Wars. As the Tour"
"it duly won on January 16, 1903 and thus ""L'Auto"" was renamed. There are slightly varying reports about the reason for the breakaway of ""L'Auto"". Either the advertisers withdrew their custom whilst planning a paper of their own, or an alternative version has it that Giffard banished them. Either way, ""Le Vélo"" was directly involved in a 'circulation war' that only one side could win. ""Le Vélo"" had always achieved good circulation boosts from the cycle races it sponsored, including the second edition of the 1200 km Paris–Brest–Paris in 1901, as well as the yearly Bordeaux–Paris and Paris–Roubaix one-day classics."
"name to ""L'Auto"" it in turn created the Tour de France race in 1903 to boost falling circulation. In 1900 de Dion led a group of wealthy anti-Dreyfusards including Édouard Michelin to start a rival daily sports paper, ""L'Auto-Velo"". De Dion and Michelin were particularly concerned with ""Le Vélo"" – which reported more than cycling – because its financial backer was one of their commercial rivals, the Darracq company. De Dion believed that ""Le Vélo"" gave Darracq too much attention and him too little. De Dion was an outspoken man who already wrote columns for ""Le Figaro"", ""Le Matin"" and"
"not only by ""Le Petit Journal"" but ""L'Auto-Velo"", edited by Henri Desgrange. For the first time, professionals were segregated from the ""touriste-routier"" group (in which a 65-year-old finished in just over 200 hours). The newspapers organized a telegraph system to relay results to their Paris presses, and the public followed the exploits of Maurice Garin, who won in just over 52 hours over 112 other professionals. So many newspapers were sold that Géo Lefèvre at L'Auto suggested an even bigger race, the Tour de France. Under Henri Desgrange's leadership, the first Tour happened in 1903. The next Paris-Brest was in"
"won the overall classification and five stages. For L'Auto, the newspaper that organized the Tour de France, the race was a success; the circulation had increased to 100,000. 1905 Tour de France The 1905 Tour de France was the third edition of the Tour de France, held from 9 to 30 July, organized by the newspaper ""L'Auto"". Following the disqualifications after the 1904 Tour de France, there were changes in the rules, the most important one being the general classification not made by time but by points. The race saw the introduction of mountains in the Tour de France, and"
"3’30"" ahead of Georges Lemaître (Peugeot), followed by Doriot (Peugeot) at 16’30"", René Panhard (Panhard) at 33’30’’ and Émile Levassor (Panhard) at 55’30”. The official winners were Peugeot and Panhard as cars were judged on their speed, handling and safety characteristics, and De Dion's steam car needed a stoker which was forbidden. On 18 July 1896 Giffard organised the inaugural Paris Marathon on behalf of ""Le Petit Journal"", although he was editor of ""Le Vélo"", suggesting a cooperative commercial relationship. The event followed on from the success of the marathon in the 1896 inaugural Olympics. Gifford started the race before"
"1903 Tour de France The 1903 Tour de France was the first cycling race set up and sponsored by the newspaper ', ancestor of the current daily, '. It ran from 1 to 19 July in six stages over , and was won by Maurice Garin. The race was invented to boost the circulation of ', after its circulation started to plummet from competition with the long-standing '. Originally scheduled to start in June, the race was postponed one month, and the prize money was increased, after a disappointing level of applications from competitors. The 1903 Tour de France was"
"Francs per year of export alone. Since races were necessary to promote the brands, they interceded with the government who finally agreed with the race. The Council of Ministries and the President gave their support to the race on February 17, 1903, while the ACF had been accepting applications since January 15. In just 40 days over 300 drivers enrolled, many more than expected. The net worth of the cars involved in the race surpassed 7 million Francs. The race was to span over 1307 kilometers, in three legs: Versailles – Bordeaux (552 km), Bordeaux – Vitoria (km 335) and"
"In 1894, when Giffard was editor in chief of newspaper ""Le Petit Journal"", he organised what is considered to be the world's first car race from Paris to Rouen, sporting events were a tried and tested form of publicity stunt and circulation booster. The paper promoted it as a ""Competition for Horeseless Carriages"" (Concours des Voitures sans Chevaux) that were ""not dangerous, easy to drive, and cheap during the journey"". Thus it blurred the distinctions between a reliability trial, a general event and a race, but the main prize was for the first across the finish line in Rouen. 102"
"station, where he worked for the rest of his life. 1903 Tour de France The 1903 Tour de France was the first cycling race set up and sponsored by the newspaper ', ancestor of the current daily, '. It ran from 1 to 19 July in six stages over , and was won by Maurice Garin. The race was invented to boost the circulation of ', after its circulation started to plummet from competition with the long-standing '. Originally scheduled to start in June, the race was postponed one month, and the prize money was increased, after a disappointing level"
"and Garin took French nationality 21 December 1901. In 1902 Garin won Bordeaux–Paris, a race of 500 km from south-west France. The Tour de France began to promote a new daily sports newspaper, ""L'Auto"" ahead of the largest paper in France, ""Le Vélo"", which sold 80,000 copies a day. Some of ""Le Vélo"" 's advertisers had disagreed with the paper's support for Alfred Dreyfus, a soldier found guilty of selling secrets to the Germans but eventually acquitted after being sent to Devil's Island. The Tour was to promote their new rival paper, ""L'Auto"". The editor, Henri Desgrange, planned a five-week"
"of January 1911. Until the late 1920s, few if any other events used the term. Rallying itself can be traced back to the 1894 Paris–Rouen Horseless Carriage Competition (""Concours des Voitures sans Chevaux""), sponsored by a Paris newspaper, ""Le Petit Journal"", which attracted considerable public interest and entries from leading manufacturers. Prizes were awarded to the vehicles by a jury based on the reports of the observers who rode in each car; the official winner was Albert Lemaître driving a 3 hp Peugeot, although the ""Comte"" de Dion had finished first but his steam powered vehicle was ineligible for the"
"de France founded in his name that he stayed away from the pioneering race in 1903 until it looked like being a success. Three years after the foundation of ""L'Auto-Vélo"" in 1900, a court in Paris decided that the title was too close to its main competitor, Giffard's ""Le Vélo"". Thus reference to 'Vélo' was dropped and the new paper became simply ""L'Auto"". It was printed on yellow paper because Giffard used green. Circulation was sluggish, however, and only a crisis meeting called ""to nail Giffard's beak shut"", as Desgrange phrased it, came to its rescue. Then, on the first"
"the 1906 race outside Le Mans was the first genuinely international race to carry the label ""Grand Prix"". Until the First World War it was the only annual race to be called a Grand Prix (often, ""the"" Grand Prix), and is commonly known as ""the first Grand Prix"". Notes Footnotes Bibliography 1906 French Grand Prix The 1906 Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France, commonly known as the 1906 French Grand Prix, was a motor race held on 26 and 27 June 1906, on closed public roads outside the city of Le Mans. The Grand Prix was organised by the"
"By 1903, in a bid to stem falling circulation, ""L'Auto"" launched the initial Tour de France, and the success of the race boosted its circulation, to the detriment of ""Le Velo"". In 1904 ""Le Vélo"" ceased its activities and ""L'Auto"" eventually transmogrified into ""L'Équipe"" in 1944. Le Vélo Le Vélo was the leading French sports newspaper from its inception on 1 December 1892 until it ceased publication in 1904. Mixing sports reporting with news and political comment, it achieved a circulation of 80,000 copies a day. Its use of sporting events as promotional tools led to the creation of the"
"from New York to Paris) by 26 days (still the largest winning margin in any motorsport event ever). The Italians arrived later in September 1908. The race was of international interest with daily front page coverage by ""The New York Times"" (a cosponsor of the race with the Parisian newspaper ""Le Matin""). The significance of the event extended far beyond the race itself. Together with the Peking to Paris race which took place the year before it established the reliability of the automobile as a dependable means of transportation, eventually taking the automobile from an amusement of the rich to"
"Le Vélo Le Vélo was the leading French sports newspaper from its inception on 1 December 1892 until it ceased publication in 1904. Mixing sports reporting with news and political comment, it achieved a circulation of 80,000 copies a day. Its use of sporting events as promotional tools led to the creation of the Paris–Roubaix cycle race in 1896, and the popularisation of the Bordeaux–Paris cycle race during the 1890s. Its demise was a consequence of the creation of the Tour de France by ""L'Auto"", a rival newspaper that had been founded in 1900 from the intense animosity generated by"
"be against any restriction on the automotive makers, and both Parliament and Senate agreed with a formal vote in support of his decision. Just a few days after the disaster, the newspapers lost interest in the Paris–Madrid race. The sport pages were all about another race, at the Ardennes racetrack the following June 22. Paris–Madrid race The Paris–Madrid race of May 1903 was an early experiment in auto racing, organized by the Automobile Club de France (ACF) and the Spanish Automobile Club, Automóvil Club Español. At the time in France there was a great interest in international car races. In"
"Desgrange was cautious and suggested that he and Lefèvre lunch at the Taverne Zimmer in the boulevard de Montmartre. The subject wasn't mentioned until coffee, Lefèvre recalled, and the most Desgrange would say is that he would discuss it with Victor Goddet, the ""L'Auto"" financial manager. Lefèvre said he was sure Desgrange was passing the buck. Instead, Goddet was delighted and was said to have pointed at the safe and invited Desgrange to take all he needed. ""L'Auto"" announced the race on January 19, 1903. Although Desgrange liked to be called ""the father of the Tour"", the idea was not"
"1933 French Grand Prix The 1933 French Grand Prix was a Grand Prix motor race which was run on 11 June 1933, in Montlhéry, France. Organized by the French Automobile Club, it was XXVII running of the Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France. The race, which was held over 40 laps, was won by the Italian driver Giuseppe Campari in a privately entered Maserati. It was to be Campari's final victory, as he was killed just three months later at Monza. Philippe Étancelin and George Eyston, both in privateer Alfa Romeos, finished in second and third, respectively. In an"
"Dreyfus in the Dreyfus affair. France was divided over the justice of his trial for selling military secrets to the Germans. The paper's largest advertisers, anti-Dreyfusards such as Count Jules-Albert de Dion, Adolphe Clément and Édouard Michelin believed Dreyfus guilty and removed their advertising from the paper. They then launched a rival paper, at first called L'Auto-Vélo and then simply L'Auto. A circulation war broke out between the two papers. Le Vélo's biggest publicity stunts included staging a second edition of the Paris–Brest–Paris cycle-race in 1901, that he had created in 1891. ""L'Auto's"" response came on 19 December 1902, when"
"newspaper that he edited, ""L'Auto"". With him were Victor Goddet, the newspaper's treasurer, an engineer named Durand, and an architect, Gaston Lambert. It was Lambert who said he could turn the hall into a sports arena with a track 333 metres long and eight metres wide. He finished it in 20 days. The first meeting there, on 20 December 1903, had an audience of 20,000. They paid seven francs for the best view and a single franc to see hardly anything at all. The seating was primitive and there was no heating. The first event was not a cycle race"
"- were killed and the race was stopped by the French authorities at Bordeaux. Further road based events were banned. From the 32 entries representing 12 different automobile manufacturers, at the 1906 event, the Hungarian-born Ferenc Szisz (1873–1944) won the race in a Renault. This race was regarded as the first ""Grande Épreuve"", which meant ""great trial"" and the term was used from then on to denote up to the eight most important events of the year. Races in this period were heavily nationalistic affairs, with a few countries setting up races of their own, but no formal championship tying"
"The race was a coup for ""Le Petit Journal"", bringing circulation increases. However, the logistics were daunting enough that organizers settled on a ten-year interval between editions. Perhaps the most unusual entrant was a petrol-powered Peugeot Type 3 Quadricycle, driven by Auguste Doriot and Louis Rigoulot. In order to publicly prove its reliability and performance Armand Peugeot had persuaded Pierre Giffard to have its progress certified by his network of monitors and marshals, the distance being about three times further than any road vehicle had travelled before. After a 3-day journey from Valentigny to Paris, they started immediately behind the"
"floor of the paper's offices in the rue du Faubourg-Montmartre in Paris, a 26-year-old cycling and rugby writer called Géo Lefèvre suggested a race round France, bigger than any other paper could rival and akin to six-day races on the track. The Tour de France proved a success for the newspaper; circulation leapt from 25,000 before the 1903 Tour to 65,000 after it; in 1908 the race boosted circulation past a quarter of a million, and during the 1923 Tour it was selling 500,000 copies a day. The record circulation claimed by Desgrange was 854,000, achieved during the 1933 Tour."
"crowded with spectators, and rail stations were swarmed with people trying to reach Versailles. The crowd and the darkness convinced the organisers to delay the race start by half an hour, and to reduce the delay between cars to just one minute. The day was expected to be very hot, and the officials wanted to avoid the heat of the late morning. The starting point was in front of the Eau des Suisses at the gardens of Versailles. In the early morning of May 24, 1903, participants started at one minute intervals for the first leg to Bordeaux via Saint"
"ever to be called a Grand Prix back in 1901. For the 1930 Grand Prix a triangular, Le Mans-type track outside the city was selected. Known as the Circuit de Morlaas it should not be confused with the well-known street track in the Parque Beaumont. The French had hoped to run the race to the International Formula, but when the response was poor the event was postponed and changed to a Formula Libre event instead. The new date meant that the Italian teams were unable to attend, leaving it to be mostly an internal French affair with sixteen Bugattis, two"
"Paris–Madrid race The Paris–Madrid race of May 1903 was an early experiment in auto racing, organized by the Automobile Club de France (ACF) and the Spanish Automobile Club, Automóvil Club Español. At the time in France there was a great interest in international car races. In 1894 the Paris–Rouen was the first car race in the world, followed by races from Paris to Bordeaux, Marseilles, Dieppe, Amsterdam, Berlin and Vienna. The French government was against the idea of races being held on public streets. After the Paris–Berlin race of 1901, the minister of internal affairs M. Waldeck-Rousseau stated that no"
"his Rolls-Royce Alpine Eagle. Then in 1911 came the first Monte Carlo Rally (later known colloquially as ""the Monte""), organised by a group of wealthy locals who formed the ""Sport Automobile Vélocipédique Monégasque"" and bankrolled by the ""Société des Bains de Mer"" (the ""sea bathing company""), the operators of the famous casino who were keen to attract wealthy sporting motorists. The competitive elements were slight, but getting to Monaco in winter was a challenge in itself. A second event was held in 1912. Two ultra long distance challenges took place at this time. The Peking-Paris of 1907 was not officially"
"spring and summer of the next year. The long distance races appeared almost at the same time of the invention of the internal combustion engine at the end of the 19th century, with races being held between major cities such as Paris-Rouen in 1894, Paris-Bordeaux, Paris-Madrid and others. In those years cars and motos raced together, competing for speed (fastest time) or regularity (achieving a certain objective time). These races on open roads where very dangerous, and the successive fatal tragedies (such as 1903 Paris-Madrid) move the race to roads closed to normal traffic (before the creation of real racing"
"the honour of arranging the first race ever to be called a Grand Prix back in 1901. For the 1930 Grand Prix a triangular, Le Mans-type track outside the city was selected. Known as the Circuit de Morlaas it should not be confused with the well-known street track in the Parque Beaumont. The French had hoped to run the race to the International Formula, but when the response was poor the event was postponed and changed to a Formula Libre event instead. The new date meant that the Italian teams were unable to attend, leaving it to be mostly an"
"on the last day on the outskirts of Nice. The inaugural edition was won by Belgian Alphonse Schepers, who wore the leader's jersey from the first until the last day. The race was a success and was continued annually until 1939. Other newspapers from Southern France, ""Lyon Républicain"" and ""Marseille-Matin"", partnered with Lejeune's titles to sponsor the race. In 1939, ""Ce Soir"" and ""Le Petit Nice"" were joined by ""L'Auto"". Maurice Archambaud became the first two-fold winner. In 1940, the race was cancelled for the duration of World War II. Race founder Lejeune was sentenced to death and executed after"
"1906 French Grand Prix The 1906 Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France, commonly known as the 1906 French Grand Prix, was a motor race held on 26 and 27 June 1906, on closed public roads outside the city of Le Mans. The Grand Prix was organised by the Automobile Club de France (ACF) at the prompting of the French automobile industry as an alternative to the Gordon Bennett races, which limited each competing country's number of entries regardless of the size of its industry. France had the largest automobile industry in Europe at the time, and in an attempt"