Phoenix from the Ashes

The armistice of November 11, 1918, found France victorious but shattered. Nearly two million French soldiers had died, with millions more wounded in body and spirit. Entire regions lay in ruins, their fields poisoned by gas and pocked with shell craters. In this landscape of grief and destruction, the Tour de France's return in 1919 represented more than the resumption of a sporting event—it symbolized national resurrection.

Henri Desgrange, now in his fifties, had spent the war years writing patriotic editorials and organizing athletic competitions for soldiers. The Tour's absence had only intensified public longing for its return. When L'Auto announced the race would resume, the response was overwhelming. Despite the hardships of post-war life, riders scrambled to enter, seeing in the Tour a chance to reclaim normalcy and purpose.