As Kirkham, then 27, and Munro, 26, rode off in stage one a 143-strong peloton from SaintCloud in the outskirts of Paris to the port city of Le Havre, the Great War was looming. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, that triggered it took place several hours after that year’s Tour got under way.

Many Australians have raced the Tour that began as a publicity stunt in 1903 to boost sales of the former French sports daily L’Auto. Kirkham, Munro and four others in the Australian team travelled by ship for seven weeks from Melbourne to Toulon in the south of France to race their bikes in a hope of a Tour start. Those four others were Charlie Piercey, George Bell, Charles Snell and Fred Keefe.

While only Kirkham and Munro raced in the 1914 Tour, the number of Australians who did in the years that followed was to increase, starting with Sir Hubert Opperman, who rode it in 1928 alongside Ernie Bainbridge and Percy Osborne and New Zealander Harry Watson. Opperman returned to the Tour in 1931 to race with Frankie Thomas, Richard "Fatty" Lamb and "Ossie" Nicholson.

Then came a steady flow – including John Beasley in 1952 and 1955, Russell Mockridge in 1955, Bill Lawrie in 1967, Don Allan in 1974 and 1975 and Phil Anderson in the 1980s and 1990s.

In the 2000s a flood of Australians took part, from triple green jersey winner Robbie McEwen and Cadel Evans (in 2011, the first Australian to win the race), to the Australians entered for the 2014 race that starts in Leeds on Saturday.

Opperman was especially influenced by Kirkham, who was born in Lyndhurst but farmed in Carrum, south-east of Melbourne. They became mates and training partners. Opperman was like a sponge as he listened to Kirkham's tales of the Tour and his advice. In the May, 1947, edition of The Australian Cyclist, Opperman wrote of their first meeting being "like Jack Dempsey talking to a 'prelim' boy".

Kirkham’s grandson Paul Trevenen proudly recognises his place in cycling history. "It was very much like a boyhood adventure," Trevenen said. "It must have been exciting heading off with no lights, no modern brakes or gears. They were probably reading off a sketchy old map at times."

Trevenen is in England with his daughter Kate, her husband Andy and their two children Angus, 6, and 19-month-old Isla, for Saturday’s grand depart to commemorate Kirkham and Munro’s feat in 1914.

Munro’s son, Alan, who is now 93, still admires the daring and adventure of his father, who was born in Warrnambool but grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Coburg.

Alan, who raced in Europe in 1947, but never in the Tour, recalls "they raced with fixed gears, and had to carry their own tools and tyres. It was pretty hard."

So how has the booming Australian interest in the Tour come about?

A look out the window at many roads and streets give a clue. Club riders and commuters are out riding their bikes every day.

Then there is the race itself, and the increased media coverage by Australian print, radio, online outlets and especially SBS, the TV rights holders.

SBS has broadcast the Tour since 1991, first showing half-hour highlights packages, then in 2003 broadcasting selected stages live, and since 2005 showing every stage live.

Attendance has also rocketed. Tour owner Amaury Sports Organisation estimated last year's Tour drew 12 million spectators over its three weeks.

Australians were prominent among them. Many were clients of the touring groups who have turned "cyclo tourism" into a boom industry.

It was a vastly different scene back in 1914.

It was a remarkable feat for Kirkham and Munro to make it to the start even as two standouts of the credentialled Australian team that travelled to France in December 1913. They tried for selection in the Tour by competing in many of the early races, a plan Munro hatched during a motorcycle trip through Europe with trainer Percy Power in 1913.

Kirkham and Munro were selected by the French Phebus-Dunlop team as domestiques – or helpers – for Frenchman Georges Passerieu, who in 1906 was runner-up.

The 15-stage Tour was brutal. The route was mainly dirt roads – and there was certainly no bitumen over the Pyrenees and Alps.

After Passerieu quit on stage three, the Australians – dubbed "the Cannibals" by an admiring French press – seized their opportunity to race for themselves. Kirkham placed 17th and Munro 20th; the overall winner was Belgian Philippe Thys.

But the challenge for the Australians was not over once the finishing line at Paris passed under their wheels. With war declared five days after the finish, returning home as fast as possible became the priority.

Reports remain vague about how they achieved this. Both families are uncertain.

There was suggestion they rode day and night from Paris to Switzerland and then into Italy where, at Naples, they booked on a ship home.

But Kirkham’s name also appears on the passenger list of a ship called The Beltana that was to leave in September from “Port B” – but it is not known where Port B was, or whether she stopped en route.

Either way, when they arrived back home, fame and fortune was not waiting for them.

Kirkham stopped racing, then made a successful return in 1920. But in 1924 he broke a leg when hit by a car. A delay in his treatment is understood to have led to him to catch pneumonia that developed into tuberculosis. He died in 1929.

Munro, meanwhile, continued to help the sport develop in Victoria as generations of cyclists emerged. But in September 1980, he died after experiencing heart problems. Sadly his passing came before Anderson became the first Australian to wear the Tour’s yellow jersey in 1981.