Differences From The 1914 Tour De France
Three former winners of the Tour, François Faber, Octave Lapize and Lucien Petit-Breton had died fighting in the war. Two other former winners, Philippe Thys and Odile Defraye started the race. The war had been only over for seven months, so most cyclists did not have a chance to train enough for the Tour. For that reason, there were almost no new younger cyclists, and the older cyclists dominated the race. The organisation did not make it easy for the cyclists: with 5560 km it was longer than all the previous Tours, and since then only the 1926 Tour de France has been longer.
The bicycle manufacturers had also suffered from the war, and were unable to sponsor teams of cyclists. They worked together, and sponsored more than half of the cyclists under the name "La Sportive", but effectively all the cyclists rode as individuals. Cyclists were divided in an A-category (professional) and a B-category (amateurs).
In previous years, cyclists had to take care of their own food during the race. In 1919, the tour organisation took care of this.
Read more about this topic: 1919 Tour De France
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