In July 1903 a group of cyclists left Paris at the start of an epic country-wide race. The first Tour de France took the riders across the high mountains of the Alps and Pyrenees, over roads little better than cart tracks. Travelling vast distances over day and night, the riders had to carry their own repairs, find their own food and drink and ride without support. Today's riders are pampered by comparison - the modern Tour organization supplies their every need; yet the Tour de France continues to be the toughest ordeal of sporting endurance yet devised, and the ultimate test for professional cyclists: man and bicycle pitted against all kinds of terrain and weather, in unremitting competition for three weeks with their rivals. Tales of great solo rides, amazing fortitude and gallantry, misfortune and triumph over the odds emerge from the race's remarkable history; and the riders who have ridden the Tour, lost and won it to take the yellow jersey, the most coveted prize in cycling, are a breed apart. In Tour de France, Graeme Fife offers a compelling insight into the mystique of the race, the unique allure it has always exercised on devoted bike fans and occasional enthusiasts alike. Combining meticulous research with a pacey, fluent narrative style, Fife, a professional writer and a keen cyclist paints a colourful, human, memorable picture of the men - champions and team men - whose exploits have made the Tour a durable fascination.