This article originally appeared as part of the Cyclingnews 25th anniversary series, and to mark such an important milestone, the editorial team published 25 pieces of work that look back at the sport over the last quarter of a century.
The men's Tour de France is rich in history, with its beginnings in 1903. A women's version found its roots much later, and under a different organisation, as a one-off multi-day race won by the Isle of Man's Millie Robinson in Normandy in 1955.
