1930-1939: Adapt to survive

The controversies of the 1920s and the overt commercialism of the Tour put many people off the race when this new decade dawned.

The lack of French success also did not help the race in its homeland.

Early Tours had become dominated by teams

There were experiments with team time trials and then national squads in the late 1920s, including substitute riders coming "off the bench" if someone was injured.

But these were cosmetic changes and still left teams run by cycle-makers in charge, an appalling situation for race founder Henri Desgrange.

He believed 1929 winner Maurice Dewaele had won by default, because of his teams' strength rather than individual ability.

After almost three decades the Tour's father announced radical changes for 1930:

• Cycle manufacturers' teams were replaced by national squads of eight riders, picked by Desgrange and paid by the Tour itself
• Everyone would ride identical bikes
• A publicity caravan was introduced to make up the cash shortfall from the absence of the cycle-makers and their teams.

The 1930 changes had a happy result for the French, uniting a group of exceptional riders in a common national cause.

Home riders took the first five Tours of the 1930s, with two wins each for Andre Leducq - "le joyeux dédé" ("the happy dude") - and for "le taciturn" Antonin Magne.

Such were the home country's riches that by 1934 Magne's second victory was not universally popular - many thought the wrong Frenchman had won.