2023-07-10 10:55:35
In this month of July, the world sports scene is dominated by the Tour de France, a cycling race which is considered the most watched sporting event following the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games. To understand this news, we are going to take our readers behind the scenes of this Tour. We’re going to start by doing a bit of history. The Tour de France, also called the Grande Boucle, is a men’s cycling race in stages that crosses France with occasional incursions into neighboring countries as is the case in this year 2023.
It is the oldest since the 1st edition dates from 1903. Normally, the Tour takes place every year during the month of July, except during the two world wars. Although the route changes every year, the format of the race remains the same with two “time trials”, the passage through the mountain ranges of the Pyrenees and the Alps and the finish on the Champs-Elysées in Paris . It is gaining in importance and popularity over the editions and participation is widening. The Tour grows from a predominantly French peloton in the early years to editions with up to 40 nationalities. Modern editions consist of 21 stages spread over a period of 23 days and cover almost 3,500 kilometres. The number of teams usually varies between 20 and 22, each with 8 riders. After each stage, the riders’ times are added together with their previous times. The rider with the lowest time is classified first in the general classification and wears the coveted yellow jersey and which determines the winner of the Tour.
How was the yellow jersey born?
The yellow jersey is a distinctive yellow colored jersey worn by the rider of a cycle race to differentiate him from other riders. The idea was born during the first editions of the Tour de France. But, in the History of the Tour, we found several versions: The choice of the yellow color was suggested by one of the characters who organized the race at its beginnings and who was none other than the color of the pages of his diary of the time. Another source, and this is the most retained, dates the creation of the yellow jersey back to 1913.
The winner of this edition, the Belgian Philippe Thys, wore this jersey for the first time following a gift from one of the organizers. He had addressed him by saying: “If you win next year you will wear my jersey”. And that’s what happened in 1914. The Belgian Eddy Merckx is the rider who holds the record for holding the yellow jersey in the race for 96 days ( once morest 78 days for Bernard Hinault). The bonus paid to the winner of the Tour, and therefore the ultimate wearer of the yellow jersey, was 3,000 francs in 1919 compared to 500,000 euros in 2016.
The Tour de France and the media
Created in 1903 by the sports newspaper “L’Auto” in order to compete with another newspaper, the Tour proved to be an excellent media support for the newspapers of the time. The first live radio report was made in 1929. From then on, the radio imposed itself on the newspaper, which might only give the results the next morning. But, it was not until the year 1960 that television supplanted radio with its live television reports, thus penetrating the viewer right into the race.
Faced with this rise in power of the audiovisual sector, paper newspapers, “L’Equipe” in the lead, have not given up. At the beginning of the 90s of the last century, we witnessed another form of television broadcasting of the stages of the Tour where the TV host highlighted the French heritage with the monuments of the towns and villages crossed, the natural parks and all other attractions. . The Tour thus becomes a tourist showcase offering aerial viewpoints over the regions crossed. The year 2017 marks a turning point in the life of the Tour, since for the first time all the stages will be broadcast live and in full. Until then, only a few stages had this privilege, notably the mountain stages.
Economical consequences
The Tour de France derives its profits from three sources: the price paid by local authorities to be stage towns, the sponsorship of companies that advertise through the stages and the revenue linked in particular to television broadcasting rights which have become the main source of income. These have supplanted revenue from sponsorship and .
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