In that year the race rode, or more walked[citation needed], first the col d'Aubisque and then the nearby Tourmalet.

Both climbs were mule tracks, a demanding challenge on heavy, ungeared bikes ridden by men with spare tires around their shoulders and their food, clothing and tools in bags hung from their handlebars.

The assistant organiser, Victor Breyer, stood at the summit of the Aubisque with the colleague who had proposed including the Pyrenees, Alphonse Steinès.

[5] Since 1905, the organising newspaper l'Auto named one cyclist of the Tour de France the meilleur grimpeur (best climber).

In order to recognize climbers, the Tour de France director, Henri Desgrange, decided that cyclists should receive a bonus for reaching the tops first.

[8] The Tour's organizer Félix Lévitan decided to use the jersey used by the cyclist Henri Lemoine as a tribute to him.

As a consequence, the sponsor, Chocolat Poulain, decided to change its wrappings of chocolate bars and covered them in a polka dot wrapper.

A few of the toughest climbs were originally given different individual points scales, and were thus listed as "uncategorised" (Hors catégorie, a term that has since passed into the French language to refer to any exceptional phenomenon); however, since the 1980s, the hors catégorie climbs have been merged into the single scale and have effectively become, despite the name, just a top category above category 1.

[18] The points gained by consecutive riders reaching a mountain top are distributed according to the following classification:

During the 2000s, the Tour de France organization decided to double the points awarded at the top of certain ascents: For 2020, "Double points will be awarded at the top of passes or at the finish of stage 17 at Méribel Col de la Loze, the highest peak in the 2020 Tour (2,304 masl)".

According to Van Impe, focusing on the mountain classification was started by cyclists such as Laurent Jalabert and Richard Virenque, but compared to modern mountain classification specialists, "they could really climb, and they could win sprints on hors category climbs or even win the stage".

Media related to Mountains classification in the Tour de France at Wikimedia Commons