After the 1904 Tour de France, some cyclists were disqualified, most notably the top four cyclists of the original overall classification, Maurice Garin, Lucien Pothier, César Garin and Hippolyte Aucouturier. Maurice Garin was originally banned for two years and Pothier for life, so they were ineligible to start the 1905 Tour de France. Of these four, only Aucouturier (who had been "warned" and had a "reprimand inflicted" on him), started the 1905 Tour. They were disqualified by the Union Vélocipédique Française, based on accusations of cheating when there were no race officials around. In 1904 Tour, it was difficult to observe the cyclists continuously, as significant portions of the race were run overnight, and the long stages made it difficult to have officials everywhere.
Because these disqualifications had almost put an end to the Tour de France, the 1905 event had been changed in important ways, to make the race easier to supervise:
The stages were shortened so that no night riding occurred.
The number of stages increased to 11 stages, almost double from the previous year.
The winner was selected on points, not time.
The first cyclist to cross the finish line received 1 point. Other cyclists received one point more than the cyclist who passed the line directly before him, plus an additional point for every five minutes between them, with a maximum of ten points. In this way, a cyclist could not get more than 11 points more than the cyclist that crossed the finish line just before him.
Despite the rule changes, there were still protesters among the spectators; in the first stage all riders except Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq punctured due to 125 kg of nails spread along the road. The first stage was won by Louis Trousselier. Trousselier was serving the army, and had requested his commander leave for the Tour de France; this was allowed for 24 hours. After he won the first stage and led the classification, his leave was extended until the end of the Tour. From 60 starting cyclists, only 15 cyclists reached the finish line within the time limit; 15 more reached the finish after the limit and the rest(14) took the train. The Tour organizer Desgrange wanted to stop the race, but was persuaded by the cyclists not to do so, and allowed all cyclists to continue with 75 points.
1. Louis Trousselier (Fra) en 11h25'00" (moy : 29.781 km/h)
2. Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq (Fra) à 3'00"
3. René Pottier (Fra) à 4'00"
4. Hyppolite Aucouturier (Fra) à 26'00"
5. Henri Cornet (Fra)
6. Augustin Ringeval (Fra) à 1h40'00"
7. Emile Georget (Fra) à 2h40'00"
8. Germain Fourchotte (Fra)
9. Julien Gabory (Fra) à 2h48'00"
10. Henri Lignon (Fra) à 3h39'00"
11. Paul Chauvet (Fra) à 3h53'00"
12. Elie Monge (Fra) à 5h00'00"
13. Eugène Ventresque (Fra)
14. Philippe Pautrat (Fra) à 5h08'00"
15. Jean-Baptiste Fischer (Fra) à 5h20'00" Sluiten