The 1903 Tour de France was the first cycling race set up and sponsored by the newspaper , ancestor of the current daily, . It ran from 1 to 19 July in six stages over , and was won by Maurice Garin. The race was invented to boost the circulation of , after its circulation started to plummet from competition with the long-standing . Originally scheduled to start in June, the race was postponed one month, and the prize money was increased, after a disappointing level of applications from competitors. The 1903 Tour de France was the first stage road race, and compared to modern Grand Tours, it had relatively few stages, but each was much longer than those raced today. The cyclists did not have to compete in all six stages, although this was necessary to qualify for the general classification. The pre-race favourite, Maurice Garin, won the first stage, and retained the lead throughout. He also won the last two stages, and had a margin of almost three hours over the next cyclist. The circulation of increased more than sixfold during and after the race, so the race was considered successful enough to be rerun in 1904, by which time had been forced out of business. Origin After the Dreyfus affair separated advertisers from the newspaper , a new newspaper was founded in 1900, with former cyclist Henri Desgrange as editor. After being forced to change the name of the newspaper to in 1903, Desgrange needed something to keep the cycling fans; with circulation at 20,000, he could not afford to lose them. When Desgrange and young employee Géo Lefèvre were returning from the Marseille–Paris cycling race, Lefèvre suggested holding a race around France, similar to the popular six-day races on the track. Desgrange proposed the idea to the financial controller Victor Goddet, who gave his approval, and on 19 January 1903, the Tour de France was announced in . It was to have been a five-week race, from 1 June to 5 July, with an entry fee of 20 francs. These conditions attracted very few cyclists: one week before the race was due to start, only 15 competitors had signed up. Desgrange then rescheduled the race from 1 to 19 July, increased the total prize money to 20,000 francs, reduced the entry fee to 10 francs and guaranteed at least five francs a day to the first