The 1905 Tour de France was the third edition of the Tour de France, held from 9 to 30 July, organised by the newspaper L'Auto. Following the disqualifications after the 1904 Tour de France, there were changes in the rules, the most important one being the general classification not made by time but by points. The race saw the introduction of mountains in the Tour de France, and René Pottier excelled in the first mountain, although he could not finish the race.
Due in part to some of the rule changes, the 1905 Tour de France had less cheating and sabotage than in previous years, though they were not eliminated. It was won by Louis Trousselier, who also won four of the eleven stages.
Innovations and changes
After the 1904 Tour de France, some cyclists were disqualified, most notably the top four cyclists of the original overall classification, Maurice Garin, Lucien Pothier, César Garin and Hippolyte Aucouturier. Maurice Garin was originally banned for two years and Pothier for life, so they were ineligible to start the 1905 Tour de France. Of these four, only Aucouturier (who had been "warned" and had a "reprimand inflicted" on him), started the 1905 Tour. They were disqualified by the Union Vélocipédique Française, based on accusations of cheating when there were no race officials around. In 1904 Tour, it was difficult to observe the cyclists continuously, as significant portions of the race were run overnight, and the long stages made it difficult to have officials everywhere.
Because these disqualifications had almost put an end to the Tour de France, the 1905 event had been changed in important ways, to make the race easier to supervise:
- The stages were shortened so that no night riding occurred.
- The number of stages increased to 11 stages, almost double from the previous year.
- The winner was selected on points, not time.
The first cyclist to cross the finish line received 1 point. Other cyclists received one point more than the cyclist who passed the line directly before him, plus an additional point for every five minutes between them, with a maximum of ten points. In this way, a cyclist could not get more than 11 points more than the cyclist that crossed the finish line just before him.
As an example for this point system, the result for the first seven cyclists in the first stage is in this table:
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Results of stage 1
! Rank || Cyclist || Time || Difference with<br/>previous finisher||Extra points || Points
|-
! scope="row" | 1
| Louis Trousselier || style="text-align:right;" | 11h 25' || style="text-align:right;" | — || style="text-align:right;" | 1 || style="text-align:right;" | 1
|-
! scope="row" | 2
| Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq || style="text-align:right;" | + 3' || style="text-align:right;" | 3' || style="text-align:right;" | 1 || style="text-align:right;" | 2
|-
! scope="row" | 3
| René Pottier || style="text-align:right;" | + 4' || style="text-align:right;" | 1' || style="text-align:right;" | 1 || style="text-align:right;" | 3
|-
! scope="row" | 4
| Hippolyte Aucouturier || style="text-align:right;" | + 26' || style="text-align:right;" | 22' || style="text-align:right;" | 5 || style="text-align:right;" | 8
|-
! scope="row" | 5
| Henri Cornet || style="text-align:right;" | + 26' || style="text-align:right;" | 0' || style="text-align:right;" | 1 || style="text-align:right;" | 9
|-
! scope="row" | 6
| Augustin Ringeval || style="text-align:right;" | + 1h 40' || style="text-align:right;" | 74' || style="text-align:right;" | 11 || style="text-align:right;" | 20
|-
! scope="row" | 7
| Emile Georget || style="text-align:right;" | + 2h 40' || style="text-align:right;" | 60' || style="text-align:right;" | 11 || style="text-align:right;" | 31
|}
<!--Trousselier received one point as the winner, and Dortignac and Pottier received 2 and 3 points, being second and third. The fourth finisher, Aucouturier, was 22 minutes behind number three, so he received 5 additional points, to make 8 in total. Cornet, the next finisher, was within 5 minutes of Aucouturier, so he received only one point more, 9 points. The sixth cyclist, Ringeval, was 74 minutes behind; this would mean 15 extra points. This is more than the maximum of 11 points, so Ringeval had 20 points after the first stage instead of 24. Similar with Georget: although he was 60 minutes behind (13 points), he only received 11 extra points for this.-->
The other important introduction were the mountains. One of Desgrange's staffers, Alphonse Steinès, took Desgrange for a trip over the Col Bayard at and the Ballon d'Alsace at , that had an average gradient of 5.2% with 10% at some places,
There were two categories of riders, the coureurs de vitesse and the coureurs sur machines poinçonnées. The riders in the first category were allowed to change bicycles, which could be an advantage in the mountains, where they could use a bicycle with lower gears. The riders in the machines poinçonnées category had to use the same bicycle in the entire race, and to verify this, their bicycles were marked.
Participants
Before the race started, 77 riders had signed up for the race. Seventeen of those did not start the race, so the Tour began with 60 riders, including former winner Henri Cornet and future winners René Pottier and Lucien Petit-Breton.
Race overview
Despite the rule changes, there were still protesters among the spectators; in the first stage all riders except Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq punctured due to 125 kg of nails spread along the road. From 60 starting cyclists, only 15 cyclists reached the finish line within the time limit; 15 more reached the finish after the limit and the rest took the train.
The Tour organiser Desgrange wanted to stop the race, but was persuaded by the cyclists not to do so, and allowed all cyclists to continue with 75 points.
In the third stage, Pottier had to abandon due to tendinitis. The lead was back with Trousselier, who also won the stage.
In the fourth stage, the Côte de Laffrey and the Col Bayard were climbed, the second and third mountains of the Tour de France.
thumb|upright|[[Louis Trousselier, the winner of the 1905 Tour de France|alt=A black-and-white photograph of a man with three-colored sweater and shorts with a mustache sitting on a bicycle.]]In the fifth stage, Trousselier won, and because Aucouturier finished in twelfth place, Trousselier had a big lead in the general classification. After the fifth stage, Aucouturier could no longer challenge Trousselier for the lead.
In the seventh stage to Bordeaux, Trousselier punctured after only a few kilometers. The rest of the cyclists quickly sped away from him, and Trousselier had to follow them alone for 200 km. A few kilometers before Bordeaux, Trousselier caught up with the rest, and even managed to win the sprint. Louis Trousselier kept his lead until the end of the race, winning five stages. Trousselier was accused of bad sportsmanship: he reportedly smashed the inkstands of a control post to prevent his opponents from signing.
|-
! scope="col" | Stage
! scope="col" | Date
! scope="col" | Course
! scope="col" | Distance
! scope="col" colspan="2" | Type