The 1908 Tour de France was the sixth running of the annual Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It was organised by the newspaper L'Auto, and took place between 13 July and 9 August. The Tour was split in 14 stages, with a total distance of 4,497 kilometres (2,794 mi).
The start of the 1908 Tour de France
Lucien Petit-Breton, celebrating his victory in the 1908 Tour de France.
In road bicycle racing, a Grand Tour is one of the three major European professional cycling stage races: Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España. Collectively they are termed the Grand Tours, and all three races are similar in format, being three-week races with daily stages. They have a special status in the UCI regulations: more points for the UCI World Tour are distributed in Grand Tours than in other races, and they are the only stage races allowed to last longer than 14 days, and these differ from major stage races more than one week in duration.
Image: Jacques Anquetil 1966
Image: Felice Gimondi 1966
Image: Eddy Merckx Molteni 1973
Image: Bernard Hinault 1978 (cropped)