by Eric Reed
Selling the Yellow Jersey
Selling the
Yellow Jersey
The Tour de France in
the Global Era
e r i c r e e d
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
Eric Reed is associate professor of history at Western Kentucky University.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2015 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2015.
Printed in the United States of America
24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 1 2 3 4 5
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 20653- 0 (cloth)
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 20667- 7 (e- book)
doi: 10.7208/chicago/9780226206677.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Reed, Eric (Professor of history), author.
Selling the yellow jersey : the Tour de France in the global era / Eric Reed.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-226-20653-0 (cloth : alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-226-20667-7 (e-book)
1. Tour de France (Bicycle race)—History. 2. Bicycle racing —France —History.
I. Title.
gv1049.2.t68r44 2015
796.6′20944 — dc23
2014020845
This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48 – 1992 (Permanence of
Paper).
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Prologue xi
Introduction 1
1 Sport, Bicycling, and Globalization in the Print Era:
Convergences and Divergences 8
2 The Tour, Greatest of the Turn- of- the- Century Bicycle Races 23
3 The Tour and Television: A Love- Hate Story 53
4 The French School of Cycling 82
5 The Tour in the Provinces: Sport and Small Cities in the Global Age 110
6 The Tour’s Globalizing Agenda in the Television Age 139
7 The Global Tour and Its Stars 168
Afterword: Doping and the Tour on the World Stage 194
Appendix 197
Notes 201
Bibliography 227
Index 241
Acknowledgments
I could not have fi nished this project without time and money. I would like
to thank Syracuse University and the Embassy of France to the United States
for funding my initial research with fellowships and grants. Western Ken-
tucky University and WKU’s History Department funded my follow- up re-
search and gave me a sabbatical leave that I used to write the fi rst draft of the manuscript.
French archivists and scholars welcomed me warmly. The staffs of the
municipal archives in Caen, Brest, Strasbourg, and Pau were particularly
helpful. Archivists Christine Juliat (Pau Municipal Archives) and Roger Nou-
garet (Crédit Lyonnais /Crédit Agricole /BNP Paribas Archives) helped me
track down key primary sources. I am grateful to Patrick Fridenson of the
École des hautes études en sciences sociales and Jacques Augendre of L’Équipe for the invaluable advice they provided when I fi rst began my research.
I have been fortunate to have talented, thoughtful mentors and colleagues.
Michael Miller and Chris Thompson have encouraged and inspired my re-
search from the start. Tony Harkins, Glenn Lafantasie, and Andrew McMi-
chael offered me excellent advice about the publication process. Robert Di-
etle, Phil Dehne, Arwen Bate, and anonymous reviewers read an early draft of
the manuscript and responded with insightful, brutal, useful comments that
improved the book. I would like to thank Doug Mitchell, Tim McGovern,
Susan Karani, Levi Stahl, and Margaret Hagan at the University of Chicago
Press for shepherding the manuscript from proposal to book. I am grateful to
Rich Weigel, Jeanie Adams-Smith, and Sarah Jameson for their help editing
late versions of the manuscript. Beth Plummer and Patti Minter were kind
enough to listen to me complain.
My family has been patient and generous. My dad has shown unfl agging,
viii
a c k n o w l e d g m e n t s
sometimes obsessive enthusiasm for my project and asked me hard ques-
tions about the Tour and France that made this a better book. My mom has
inspired me to be a better teacher, which has improved my writing. Kathy
Ames’s and Kenly Ames’s careful editing fi xed many of the book’s weaknesses
and errors. The remaining errors are mine.
I cannot repay my many debts to Kenly Ames. Kenly has supported me
without question since we met. I am lucky that she accepted my marriage
proposal. I hope that our two beautiful boys will be proud of my book one
day. I dedicate this book to Kenly and our sons.
f i g u r e 1 . Map of France with selected locations. Map by CJ Johanson, map data courtesy of Esri /AND
Data Solutions, B. V. / European Environmental Agency.
Prologue
I saw the Tour de France for the fi rst time on America’s Independence Day,
July 4, 1992. I was traveling with my former college roommate, Craig, when
we came upon the Tour by chance as we passed through San Sebastián, Spain.
We were avid readers of Ernest Hemingway and had embarked on a literary
pilgrimage to Pamplona to participate in the annual San Fermín Festival and
the Running of the Bulls, which were made famous in the Anglophone world
by the novel The Sun Also Rises. The festivities that brightened San Sebastián that day to celebrate the prologue, or ceremonial kickoff, of the 1992 Tour
convinced us to stay and take in the fi rst professional bike race either of us had ever seen.
I grew up a Philadelphia sports fan, cut my teeth on professional hockey’s
infamous “Broad Street Bullies,” and blossomed into a full- blown adoles-
cent sports junkie during the heyday of basketball legend Julius Erving and
baseball hall- of- famer Mike Schmidt. As a kid playing under my driveway
basketball hoop, I attempted to mimic “Dr. J’s” amazing “fi nger roll” layups.
I also enjoyed watching professional wrestling on television in the days when
teenage boys still hotly debated its legitimacy as veritable athletic competi-
tion. I was fortunate to witness some classic Philadelphia sports moments at
the Spectrum and Veterans Stadium, including a game of the Phillies’ 1980
World Series championship run. But the closest personal encounter I ever
had with any of my athletic idols came during a connection stopover in the
Pittsburgh airport in 1985 when I noticed rising World Wrestling Federation
star “Brutus Beefcake” sitting across the concourse from me eating yogurt.
The Tour’s intimacy was alien to my experience and impressed me. Before
the prologue began, spectators gathered quietly behind the starting gate near
the competitors, who were easily spotted by their loud, colorful racing uni-
xii
p r o l o g u e
forms. Since I read widely about many sports, including professional cycling,
I recognized the faces and jerseys of some of cycling’s famous champions as
they war
med up in San Sebastián’s streets. French Tour hero Laurent Fignon,
wearing his trademark blond ponytail and round, metal- framed glasses,
rolled past me an arm’s length away as he warmed up. American Greg Le-
Mond, the fi rst non- European to win the Tour, pedaled by lazily with team-
mates and was so close I could hear his banter and laughter.
Unusual events delayed the start of the prologue. Basque separatists used
the Tour’s visit as an occasion to trumpet their political agenda to the world.
They blew up a car near the race route to ensure that evening newscasts
would note their activism. Unfazed, Craig and I retreated to a tapas bar in
San Sebastián’s cramped old quarter near the port while we waited for the
race to begin. Only in retrospect, as I racked my brain for a research project
to which I could devote the fi rst years of my career as a historian, did I realize that the Tour was living history worthy of serious academic inquiry. More
than just an unusually intimate, spectator- friendly sporting event, the Tour
carried immense cultural, political, and social meaning for those who experi-
enced it, whether they were American hitchhikers, European cycling fans, or
angry Basque separatists.
What Is the Tour?
In order to understand the Tour’s historical signifi cance, it is important to
grasp how the race works as an athletic competition and entertainment spec-
tacle. The event’s distinctive traits shape its itinerary; determine which towns host the race, which businesses sponsor it, and which racers win and become
heroes; and account for the Tour’s enduring popular appeal in France and
elsewhere. Although the Tour has evolved greatly since Parisian journalists
created it in 1903, many of the Tour’s basic characteristics remain constant.
The Tour is a three- week, approximately 4,000- kilometer (2,500- mile) bi-
cycle race staged on the roads of France and Western Europe in June and July.
The Tour was the fi rst road race of its kind and remains the most prestigious
cycling event in the world. Its popularity and profi tability spawned other “national” cycling tours. The race is also a major media and commercial event: By
the 1980s, organizers claimed that the Tour was the third-largest televised spectacle in the world, behind only soccer’s World Cup and the Olympic Games.
Since the Tour’s creation, sports journalists have organized the race. The
journalist organizers choose the race participants and sponsors, create the
itinerary and rules of the competition, and provide the infrastructure of cars, trucks, and communication equipment necessary to stage the event. By the
p r o l o g u e
xiii
1990s, the Tour’s caravan and entourage included approximately 1,000 ve-
hicles and nearly 4,000 cyclists, team sponsors, publicity agents, coaches and
managers, police offi cers, race offi cials and organizers, international judges, technicians, road crews, physical therapists, and journalists. Until 1987, the
organizers wore two hats — they wrote for daily newspapers and planned
the race. Prior to 1939, Henri Desgrange, founder of the sports daily L’Auto, controlled the Tour’s organization. After the Second World War, Desgrange’s
associate Jacques Goddet, editor of L’Auto’s postwar successor, L’Équipe, directed the Tour along with Félix Lévitan, editor of Le Parisien libéré ’s sports section. After 1987, the jobs of staging and reporting on the Tour were nomi-nally separated, although the Tour organization continues to draw journalists
into its fold.
The central principle of the Tour is simple: the rider who completes the
entire course in the shortest time wins. Racers compete for the symbol of the
Tour’s overall individual championship, the “yellow jersey” ( maillot jaune), the most coveted and lucrative prize in cycling. Individuals also compete
for other important prizes, such as the “polka- dot jersey” ( maillot à pois), awarded to the strongest mountain climber; the “green jersey” ( maillot vert), won by the fastest sprinter; and scores of other cash or symbolic prizes such
as “most competitive rider” and even “nicest rider.” Cyclists can win glory
and fortune on the Tour even without winning the yellow jersey. Riders’ Tour
successes lead to fame, endorsement deals, and racing contracts.
Prior to 1930, organizers sometimes invited individuals and sometimes
entire teams to participate in the race. Since the late 1930s, however, orga-
nizers have always selected cycling teams, not individual riders, to compete
in the Tour. Only members of these teams may race. Since the late 1930s, all
participants have been professional cyclists selected by the Tour organizers.
Prior to the 1960s, the Tour alternated between “national team” and “corpo-
rate team” formats. In the national team format, organizers invited most of
the major cycling nations — France, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Spain, Switzer-
land, Germany, and Luxembourg — to send a team to compete under na-
tional fl ags. In these years, organizers complemented the national teams with
several regional teams from France. Since 1969, the Tour has been organized
in the corporate team format. Businesses or other entities sponsor groups of
professional riders who participate in races throughout Europe during the
cycling season (early spring through early fall), and elsewhere around the
world throughout the year. Corporate team riders publicize their patrons
by wearing the sponsor’s brand marks and colors in competition. The Tour
selects approximately twenty professional teams according to the rankings
determined by the International Cycling Union (UCI), the sport’s governing
xiv
p r o l o g u e
body. Nine riders compete on each team. The Tour’s team prizes promote
intense competition among the cycling groups, and sponsors use their teams’
successes as important advertising tools. Thus, although the organizing prin-
ciple of the Tour is simple — the fastest man wins — the reality of the race is far more complicated. Racers compete not only to win the individual title,
but also to help the rest of their team to win and to publicize their sponsors.
Individuals have no chance of winning the Tour without the help of their
teams because the itinerary of the race poses arduous physical challenges to
the riders. The event is broken up into approximately twenty sections, called
stages, each of which is ridden on a different day. Every year, Tour organizers choose different communities to host each stage of the Tour. Potential host
towns compete fi ercely with one another for the favor of the Tour’s leader-
ship before the organizers announce the itinerary in autumn. Each Tour
consists of a combination of three types of stages — fl atland races, mountain
climbs, and time trials. The fl atland stages are the longest of the Tour, up to 359 kilometers (223 miles) in the post – Second World War era. During the
fl atland stages, generally held in the West and North of France, riders battle against stiff winds and stifl ing summer heat. The mountain stages are shorter, averaging approximately 200 kilometers (124 miles), and are even more exhausting. Riders ascend out of green valleys on steep, winding roads while
the hot summer sun burns their necks. Barren, windblasted rock replaces the
lush vegetation at higher altitudes. Freezing temperatures, sleet, and snow-
blocked passes sometimes await them as they approach Alpine and Pyrenean
summits, and dark storms boil out of the high mountain valleys with little
warning. In the time trials, which are short stages of about fi fty to seventy
kilometers (thirty to forty-fi ve miles) during which individual riders leave the starting gate alone and try to complete a course in the fastest time possible,
each man battles wind, hills, and the clock without the help of his teammates.
Because of the harsh natural conditions faced by the riders and the extreme
efforts required of cyclists to overcome them, the attrition rate is very high. In some past Tours, up to half of the contestants dropped out of the race.
The physical diffi culties facing the riders, as well as the complexities of the Tour as a sporting competition, shape the racing strategies employed by individual competitors and their teams. The most basic strategic consideration
is that an individual cyclist cannot ride as fast as a group of racers, no matter how strong he is. Whenever possible, cyclists race in groups, which reduces
wind resistance and, thus, the amount of work done by each rider. Most con-
testants spend almost the entire Tour riding in the peloton, or main body of
riders, in order to conserve enough energy to fi nish the Tour (see fi g. 2 for an example of drafting). Because of the aerodynamic and manpower advantage
p r o l o g u e
xv
f i g u r e 2 . The Belgian national team leads the peloton near La Roche- sur- Yon, close to the central French coast. Riders pedal in an echelon formation to draft off one another to protect themselves from the strong wind, July 9, 1938. Courtesy of National Archives.
gained by racing in a large group, the peloton can sustain very high speeds
for long periods of time on fl at roads, if many riders work together and share time pedaling at the head of the peloton. For perspective, Czech rider Ondrěj
Sosenka set a UCI individual one- hour world speed record in 2005 when he
raced 49.7 kilometers in an hour on a Moscow track. The same year, the Tour
peloton’s speed averaged between 45.1 and 48.6 kilometers per hour in the
eight fastest mass- start stages. Thus, for eight full days of racing that year, the entire peloton of more than 150 riders traveled at average speeds very close to the individual world record for a single hour of racing.