How Tour de France cycle race evolved over 100 years ago A knee injury has forced defending champion Bradley Wiggins to pull out of the Tour de France. THEY were the hard men of cycling. When bike riders would pedal hundreds of kilometres throughout the night with only moonlight showing the way. Mug's guide to the 100th Tour de France When they'd swig from wine bottles, smoke cigarettes and wear goggles to protect their eyes but no helmet to protect their head. Their steel-framed bikes weighed a whopping 15kg and riders had to carry their own spare tyres and tubes wrapped around their torso. Your guide to Tour de France lingo Maurice Garin (centre in white jumper) the winner of the first ever Tour de France in 1903. Image from The Nationaal Archief/The Hague/Flickr Commons. For three decades they also had to ride in the one gear unless stopping to change wheels. There were no support cars and no soigneur at their beck and call with a fresh drink bottle or spare wheel. There was no Lycra and shaved legs, no ice baths, compression garments and massage, no altitude training and energy gels. The closest they got to creature comforts were leg warmers when they reached the Alps and the only thing that resembled safety was a neck protector in case of a fall. Tough or stupid, that's how it was when the Tour de France was born in 1903. Next weekend the race celebrates its 100th edition - a streak broken only both world wars - and while much has changed, much has stayed the same. The one constant in the Tour de France's rich, proud and sometimes shameful history, is that it represents everything great about the human spirit. The courage to get through three weeks of torturous racing is not exclusive to the man who finishes first. Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain all won the Tour de France five times but often the biggest battle was being fought by those men simply trying to finish. As this year's peloton prepares to leave Corsica on June 29 for the 2013 edition, a new book titled Tour de France - Official 100th race anniversary edition captures the highs and lows of a century of the world's greatest bike race. The Tour de France was born out of an idea to save daily sports newspaper L'Auto (now known as L'Equipe) by attracting more advertising and readers, and was announced with a front-page story on January 13, 1903. Newspapermen Henri Desgrange and Geo Lefevre had met to discuss a bike race around France and initially planned for it to start in May and run over six weeks. That was eventually changed to July 1 when a total of 60 riders each paid 10 francs to enter and set off from Montgeron in northern France. By day's end, 23 riders had abandoned on the roads to Lyon which took stage winner Maurice Garin 17 hours to complete. After six stages and 2428km, Garin was crowned the inaugural Tour de France champion. Stages would typically take riders anywhere from 12-17 hours, meaning the peloton would pedal off at 9pm, throughout the night and finish the following afternoon. To compensate, riders were given 12 rest days compared to two nowadays but stages - including 467km from Paris to Lyon - were significantly longer. The Tour returned the following year with 82 starters but ended with drama as the top four riders were disqualified amid allegations of cheating by taking lifts in cars. The 1904 title was awarded to Henri Cornet who, at 19, remains the youngest winner in Tour history. Without a convoy of cars it was impossible to constantly monitor the peloton so riders were required to pass through checkpoints to receive a stamp on their wrist as proof they had stayed the course. While the focus of the Tour was for the overall classification, there were several races within the race. The Tour recognised its best climber from 1905 onwards and had a mountain classification since 1933 but didn't officially award a polka dot jersey until 1975. The green jersey was awarded from 1953 to the most consistent performer in each stage. In 1910 the Tour took its first brave steps into the Pyrenees and by 1913 the race had become so difficult that only 35 of the 140 starters finished. The race was interrupted in July, 1914, by the outbreak of war and by the end of conflict about 50 Tour riders had been killed. The race returned in 1919 and three years later crowned the oldest winner in history, Belgian Firmin Lambot, at the age of 36 years and four months. As the event grew, demands increased on organisers who according to Tour de France - Official 100th race anniversary edition, needed 20,000 francs worth of disinfectant, dressings and medicine, 500 jerseys, 1000 pairs of sunglasses, 80 bikes and 2000 spare tyres. The race underwent another significant change in 1952 when perhaps its most famous climb, the Alp d'Huez, was included in the route for the first time. Italian Fausto Coppi conquered the 13.8km climb at 7.9 per cent gradient and went on to win the Tour. The race showcased the French countryside but in 1954 it took its first steps towards becoming a Europe-wide event by starting in Amsterdam. In 1992 the Tour visited seven countries to mark the signing of the Maastricht Treaty. Greats of the Tour began to emerge in 1955 when Frenchman Louison Bobet won a hat-trick of yellow jerseys and in 1964 Anquetil became the first five-time winner. The 1970s heralded the arrival of the Eddy Merckx era. He won the Tour de France five times, and the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana on six occasions. The legendary cyclist Eddy Merckx acknowledges his adoring fans in his home town of Meise in Belgium where celebrated his 65th birthday. Lance Armstrong's string of seven consecutive victories was considered the greatest achievement in Tour history but ended in disgrace when in 2013 he admitted to doping to win all seven titles and had them stripped by the International Cycling Union (UCI). But the Tour survived and within two years (2011-12) it produced its first Australian winner in Cadel Evans and British champion in Bradley Wiggins. Every living finisher of the Tour de France, estimated at 2060, will be invited to the 2013 Tour, which will see riders climb Alp d'Huez twice in one day and finish at night under the lights of the Champs Elysees for the first time. 2011 Tour de France winner Cadel Evans of Australia. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani) Source: News Limited In the early years riders would survive gruelling stages on limited supplies of bread and water and, on occasion, drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes. According to Tour de France - Official 100th race anniversary edition riders on the 1914 Tour de France reportedly drank Koto wine containing Peruvian coca which provided significant stimulating benefits. The wine was available to riders for 3.50 francs per bottle and was also used to numb the pain of three weeks of racing. Drinking alcohol while racing is unthinkable to the modern rider who feasts on pasta, oats and fruit before stages and tops up during the race with energy gels and electrolyte drinks. Riders embarked on the first editions of the Tour de France on 15kg bikes - a stark contrast to today's 7kg carbon flying machines - and wearing goggles, neck protectors and long-sleeve sweaters. One of the most significant advances in bike technology came in 1937 with the introduction of the humble derailleur which enabled riders to change gears, a crucial part of surviving torrid climbs. In 1973 Spaniard Luis Ocana's used a lightweight titanium bike and 1985 heralded the arrival of revolutionary disc wheels and Oakley sunglasses, which looked more like ski goggles, while aero helmets became all the rage in the 1990s. Cleats were well advanced but riders were still racing with their shoes in cages up until the late 1980s. The first American to win the Tour, Greg Lemond, revolutionised time trialling in 1989 when he used triathlon bars to extend his position on the bike and win the 24.5km time trial and the yellow jersey. Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong. According to some journalists, doping in cycling is as old as the sport itself. Doping was blamed for at least one rider collapsing on Mont Ventoux in 1955 and in 1967 British rider Tom Simpson died on the same climb amid debate as to whether it was caused by sunstroke, doping or alcohol - or all three. As a result the following year's Tour de France was dubbed The Tour of Good Health. In 1996 Dane Bjarne Riis dethroned five-time winner Indurain only to admit in 2007 that he cheated to win by using blood booster EPO. German Jan Ullrich won the Tour in 1997 and while never stripped of his title, he was not allowed to start the 2006 race in the wake of the Operacion Puerto investigation into doping in the sport. The 1998 Festina Affair took the sport by storm when a soigneur with Spanish team Festina was stopped at the France/Belgium border and police found EPO in his car. That was followed in 1999 by the first of seven consecutive victories for Armstrong. But a dogged investigation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency uncovered systematic cheating by his US Postal Service team and in 2013 Armstrong finally admitted to cheating. Alberto Contador (2010) and Floyd Landis (2006) were also stripped of their Tour titles for doping. Belgian legend Merckx is considered the greatest cyclist in history and in 1969 won the first of his five Tour de France titles. He won his last Tour in 1974 and holds the record for the most days spent in yellow with 111. In 1964 Anquetil became the first five-time winner, a feat repeated by fellow Frenchman Hinault in 1985 and Indurain in 1992. Of the sprinters, German Erik Zabel is the only rider to have won the green jersey six times. Irishman Sean Kelly won four while five riders including Aussie Robbie McEwen have won three. Australia's greatest springer in cycling, Robbie McEwen. Australia has a rich and proud history at the Tour de France, dating back to Sir Hubert Opperman who finished 12th in 1931. In 1981 Phil Anderson became the first non-European to wear the Tour's yellow jersey, a feat he achieved again in 1982 when he also became a Tour de France stage winner. McEwen became the greatest sprinter Australia has ever produced when he won three green jerseys in 2002, 2004 and 2006, and Stuart O'Grady our most versatile by this year equalling the record (17) of most Tour participations by anyone in history. But undoubtedly Australia's crowning moment at the Tour de France came in 2011 when Evans became the nation's first Tour winner. Australian cycling has never been stronger and will boast a record for rider representation and even its own national team when the 100th Tour rolls off from Corsica next weekend. They will cover 3360km in 23 days and although they'll sleep in hotels, be transported in state-of-the-art buses and ride $15,000 carbon-fibre bikes, they'll need the same guts and determination just to finish as those brave souls who pedalled into the night in 1903. Tour de France by Francoise and Serge Laget, Philippe Cazaban and Gilles Montgermont is published by Quercus, RRP $39.99