The fascinating and unknown story of the Tour de France's ever-changing
relationship with money and power - and the enigmatic family behind it
all.
It started with a cash drop by an English spy in occupied Paris in 1944.
Reserved for Resistance groups during the war, the money reached Émilien
Amaury, an advertising executive, who was tasked to help France return
to a free press once liberated. He soon launched a newspaper empire
that - unbeknown to him - would own the rights to run what would become
one of the greatest sporting events in history.
Le Tour, once a struggling commercial phenomenon, began to rise in
popularity across much of western Europe in the glum years after the
Second World War, lifting the mood of the hungry and despondent French.
But with the increased interest in the event, exacerbated by the
creation of television and the internet, came several cultural threats
to national heritage. Multiple attempts to wrest power and profits from
the latest generation of the Amaury family - who still own the race and
take tens of millions of euros home in dividends - have followed, but
not without a fight.
Fast-paced and fastidiously researched, Le Fric illustrates how moments
off the bike at the Tour de France are every bit as gripping as the
battle for the yellow jersey.
