Three former winners of the Tour, François Faber, Octave Lapize and Lucien Petit-Breton had died fighting in World War I. Two other former winners, Philippe Thys and Odile Defraye started the race.[1] The war had been only over for seven months, so most cyclists did not have a chance to train enough for the Tour.[2] For that reason, there were almost no new younger cyclists, and the older cyclists dominated the race.[3]