Tour De France 1903-2003

This book analyses the Tour de France over its long history both as France's most prestigious and famous sporting event and as a European and, increasingly, a world cycling competition. This study provides interdisciplinary and varied perspectives on the sporting, cultural, social, economic and political significance of the Tour within and outside France, giving a comprehensive and authoritative investigation of up-to-the minute thinking on what the Tour means, now and in the past, to competitors, to France, to the French public, to the cultural history of sport, and the sport of cycling itself. 1 The Tour de France - a pre-modern contest in a post-modern context, Hugh Dauncey and Geoff Hare; 2 The changing organisation of the Tour de France and its media coverage - an interview with race director Jean-Marie Leblanc by Dominique Marchetti; 3 The Tour de France and cycling's Belle Epoque, Philippe Gaboriau; 4 The Tour in the Inter-War years - Political Ideology, Athletic Excess and Industrial Modernity, Christopher Thompson; 5 The Economics of the Tour 1930-2003, Eric Reed; 6 The Tour as an agent of change in media production, Fabien Willel; 7 Beating the bounds - the Tour and the creation of national identity, Christophe Campos; 8 French cycling heroes of the Tour - Winners and Losers, Hugh Dauncey; 9 Se faire naturaliser cycliste - The Tour and its non-French competitors, John Marks; 10 The Tour de France and the doping issue, Patrick Mignon; 11 A cote du Tour - ambushing the Tour for political and social causes, Jean-Francois Polo; 12 Chronology of the Tour 1902-2003.