Yorkshire's'FIELDS OF VISION7 for the 2014 Tour de France

摘要

The Tour de France is undeniably the greatest cycle race in the world, but it started as nothing more than a publicity stunt to sell newspapers. In France, almost as soon as bicycles had been invented, newspapers started using bicycle road racing to increase their circulation. At the turn of the Twentieth Century a new magazine entitled L'Auto was launched with Henri Desgrange, a former cycle racer,as its editor. However, the magazine was struggling to gain a market share of sales. In November 1902 Desgrange had a meeting with one of the reporters, Geo Lefevre. At this meeting Lefevre proposed the idea of running a race that would be several days longer than any currently being run by other magazines. Desgrange was initially sceptical, but as he and Lefevre discussed it, Desgrange began to understand the genius of the idea. Desgrange proposed the race to the financial controller of L'Auto, taking credit for the idea himself. In 1903 the Tour de France was born.