The 1903 competition was run only in six fairly flat stages, unlike the mountainous 21 stage event i

The 2013 Tour de France marks the 100th of the event s history, which began in 1903 (the competition was put on hold during the two world wars). Strangely, this inaugural event of 1903 had it s origins in one of France s greatest political scandals the Dreyfuss Affair. In 1894 a young French artillery officer of Jewish descent, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, was convicted of high treason but then, years later, was proven to be innocent in the light of new evidence, evidence which the military attempted to suppress. The ensuing debate over Dreyfuss innocence, and the wider issues of anti-semitism in which it was embedded, divided the nation. One such division occurred within international car rentals in brazil France s most popular cycling magazine L Velo , causing it to split into two when an anti-Dreyfuss contingent broke away to form L Auto-Velo . L Velo s owner won a court case forcing L Auto-Velo to change their name, which they did, to L Auto , a move which saw their sales subsequently plummet. In an effort to boost their waning popularity, and win back their cycling fans, L Auto set up the Tour de France in 1903. It was a hugely successful campaign which caused their sales to increase 6-fold during and after the race and, eventually, pushed L Velo into bankruptcy.
The 1903 competition was run only in six fairly flat stages, unlike the mountainous 21 stage event it would grow to become, however, each of these 1903 stages were extraordinarily long, with an average distance of over 400 km (250 mi), more than double the distance of today s. 60 cyclists, all professionals or semi-professionals, started the race, of whom 49 were French, 4 Belgian, 4 Swiss, 2 German, and one was Italian, Maurice Garin, the pre-race favourite who eventually went on to win the event. Garin would go onto also win the next year s race only to then be disqualified along with eight other riders for cheating including the illegal use of cars and trains.
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Selections of the forty beautiful woodblock illustrations from Everard Digby's De Arte Natandi (The Art of Swimming) published in 1587, considered the first English treatise on the practise. Continued
An Edward Lear story concerning a man, referred to simply as E.L., taking the grave risk of going out for a walk on a windy day and living the consequences. These ten rare sketches are in a bound edition living in the Frederick R. Koch Collection international car rentals in brazil at the Beinecke Rare Continued
A Miles Brothers film of the legendary heavyweight prize boxing match between Bill Squires and Tommy Burns, played out at Ocean View, California, on July 4th 1907. Weighing in at a measly 178 pounds, the 5 7 Canadian Burns was a 10-1 underdog against Australia s Bill Squires who was coming off Continued
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