Selling the yellow jersey
Subtitle: the Tour de France in the global era
By: Eric Reed
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 251
ISBN-13: 9780226206530
Subjects: Tour de France (Bicycle race); Bicycle racing; History
Description: "Today the Tour remains one of the most-watched annual sporting events on television and a global commercial juggernaut ... Reed examines the Tour's development in France as well as the event's global athletic, cultural, and commercial influences. The race is the crown jewel of French cycling, and at first the newspapers that owned the Tour were loath to open up their monopoly on coverage to state-owned television. However, the opportunity for huge payoffs prevailed, and France tapped into global networks of spectatorship, media, business, athletes, and exchanges of expertise and personnel. In the process, the Tour helped endow world cycling with a particularly French character, culture, and structure, while providing proof that globalization was not merely a form of Americanization, imposed on a victimized world. Selling the Yellow Jersey explores the behind-the-scenes growth of the Tour, while simultaneously chronicling France's role as a dynamic force in the global arena"--Publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-240) and index.