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The First World War called a halt to the Tour shortly after the 1914 race, but as soon as was humanly possible, Desgrange and the Tour were back again. In 1919 the riders raced across the bombed-out battle fields of northern France, a symbol of hope in a grey rubble-strewn wasteland.

But the colour of the 1919 Tour de France was yellow. Desgrange always looked for ways to improve his race. One criticism he’d heard was that spectators could never tell which of the riders was the overall race leader when they pedalled by, so Desgrange decided that the Tour leader should wear a distinctive jersey. The legend goes that yellow was chosen because it was the colour of L’Auto’s pages. However, it is also said that yellow was the only colour left in suitable numbers when Desgrange needed the jerseys in a hurry.

© Luc Claessen

The Tour grew into the number one international cycling event between the two World Wars. Cycle road racing was very a popular sport in many European countries and in 1909 the Tour had its first foreign winner, Francois Faber of Luxembourg. The Tour of Italy was born in the same year. Odile Defraye of Belgium won the 1912 Tour de France, and his countrymen followed him to victory in the next six editions of the race.

Ottavio Bottechia was the first Italian to win in 1924, and he did it again in 1925. Then in 1949 the Tour de France was won by cycling’s first really big international superstar, a compatriot of Bottechia’s, Fausto Coppi. Coppi could win every kind of race, he was a superb athlete, but he was more than a cyclist.