Selling the Yellow Jersey: The Tour de France in the Global Era

284 Pages·2015·1.517 MB·English

by  Eric Reed

Selling the Yellow Jersey

Selling the
Yellow Jersey
The Tour de France in
the Global Era
eric reed
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-u p 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 acknowledgments
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.