THE two most eagerly anticipated stage races on the professional cycling calendar are Le Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia.

The importance of these events is reflected in their history, prestige, calibre of competitor and the level to which they are both an integral part of their respective country’s national identity and character.

To win the overall classification in either of these events is to set the seal on a career and enough to make you a legend.

It is also difficult in the extreme and only achievable by a handful of riders within any given generation.

Le Tour is the older and more prestigious of the two, certainly if you are French or from anywhere other than Italy… in which case the Giro takes precedence.

What the two races have in common, aside from their difficulty, is in their origin.

Most newcomers to the sport don’t realise that the most prestigious events in cycling were originally nothing more than publicity stunts to help sell newspapers.

In 1902, L’Auto editor Henri Desgrange was at the helm of a struggling paper. Sales of L’Auto had stagnated leading to a crisis meeting in November of that year.

At this meeting, a junior reporter by the name of Geo Lefevre mooted the idea of a cycle race around the “Hexagon” that is France, returning to Paris for the finish.

Desgrange was initially sceptical but L’Auto’s owner, a keen cycling fan called Victor Goddet, was enthusiastic and Le Fevre’s idea was given the thumbs up. July 1903 saw the first running of the Le Tour de France.

Somewhere between 60 and 80 competitors entered, tempted by the 12,000 Franc prize and the 3,000 Franc daily win bonus.

Throughout early Tours, cheating was rampant with rivals arranging to have each other beaten up on route, riders taking outrageous short cuts or even the train, but eventually the event became more and more formalised and came to resemble something like what we see today.

One of my favourite stories of the early Tour de France was in 1910 when the organisers were contemplating sending the race over the Pyrenees.

Desgrange was doubtful it could be done by bicycle so sent the route planner Adolphe Stenies down to take a look.

Steines had a nightmare with the route blocked by snow, a long hike through the middle of the night and a casual tumble into a ravine.

He sent the following response “Have crossed the Tourmalet. Road Passable to vehicles. No snow.”

And so, in July, the riders went over the high mountains for the first time. Without any gears on their bikes.

When rider Octave Lapize passed the organisers’ car at the top of the Tourmalet he spat venomously: “Vous etes des assassins” (you are murderers).

Le Tour has made legends out of those willing to put their bodies through extremes of physical anguish; names such as Jacques Anquetil (the first man to win five Tours), Eddy Merckx (five-time winner), Bernard Hinault (five-time winner), Miguel Indurain (five-time winner), and now perhaps our own Chris Froome will add his own name to the list of multiple winners.

In similar circumstances, the Giro d’Italia was conceived by a paper man in 1909 to boost sales of La Gazzetta dello Sport.

At this time, La Gazzetta already ran two one-day races; Milan-San Remo (Mark Cavendish is a past winner) and the Giro di Lombardia, so the thought of organising a long stage race was not completely out of the blue.

The first Giro started on May 13, 1909, covered some 2,500 kilometres and was won by Italian rider Luigi Ganna.

Italian riders were to dominate the event, winning every race until 1950 and making legends of the holy trinity of Italian cycling; Alfredo Binda (five wins) Gino Bartali (three-time winner) and the great Fausto Coppi (five-time winner – would have been many more but for WWII) who died tragically young at the age of 40.

This Italian dominance came under threat first in the 1960s when Frenchman Jacques Anquetil added two Giro wins to his Tour de France victories and then in spectacular style in the 1970s when Eddy Merckx swept all before him.

From 1997 onwards, Italian riders have reasserted their dominance over their home event by winning all but three of the intervening races to 2013.

Like Le Tour, the Giro takes place over three weeks, but tends to make more of a feature of mountain stages. Some say to unfairly favour typically smaller Italian riders who specialise on the climbs, with many steep uphill finishes.

Another wildcard factor in the Giro is the weather, which in May, in the Alps and Dolomites, can be below freezing and/or snowing.

One more interesting point, the famous Maillot Jaune (Yellow Jersey) was so coloured to match the colour of the paper L’Auto was printed on.

The Italian counterpart, the Maglia Rosa (Pink Jersey), to match the paper of La Gazzetta.