 Because Tour director Henri Desgrange was dissatisfied with the tactics used in the long flat stages in the previous years, the individual team start format was introduced, similar to the later team time trial.In this concept, used in stages 1 to 9, 14 and 18 to 23, teams left fifteen minutes after each other.The concept did not make the race more interesting, so after the 1929 Tour de France, it was removed again.