Editing Tour de France (section)

===Origins===
The Tour de France was created in 1903. The roots of the Tour de France trace back to the emergence of two rival sports newspapers in the country. On one hand was ''[[Le Vélo]]'', the first and the largest daily sports newspaper in France,{{sfn|Boeuf|Léonard|2003|p=23}}{{sfn|Nicholson|1991|p=}} on the other was ''[[L'Auto]]'', which had been set up by journalists and businesspeople including Comte [[Jules-Albert de Dion]], [[Adolphe Clément]], and [[Édouard Michelin (born 1859)|Édouard Michelin]] in 1899. The rival paper emerged following disagreements over the [[Dreyfus Affair]]. De Dion, Clément 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 ''Le Vélo'' gave Darracq too much attention and him too little. De Dion was rich and could afford to indulge his whims. The new newspaper appointed [[Henri Desgrange]] as the editor. He was a prominent cyclist and owner with Victor Goddet of the [[velodrome]] at the [[Parc des Princes]].{{sfn|Goddet|1991|p=16}}

''L'Auto'' sales were lower than the rival it was intended to surpass, leading to a crisis meeting on 20 November 1902 on the middle floor of ''L'Auto''{{'}}s office at 10 Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, Paris. The last to speak was the chief cycling journalist, a 26-year-old named [[Géo Lefèvre]].{{sfn|Woodland|2007|p=}} Lefèvre suggested a six-day race of the sort popular on the track but all around France.{{sfn|Goddet|1991|p=20}} Long-distance cycle races were a popular means to sell more newspapers, but nothing of the length that Lefèvre suggested had been attempted.<ref group="n">Giffard was the first to suggest a race that lasted several days, new to cycling but established practice in car racing. Unlike other cycle races, it would also be run largely without pacers.</ref>