Thursday, April 11, 2024

Cycling began in the late-19th century as a gimmick to sell newspapers

Newspapers thought that they could increase sales by covering cycling races. The longer the distance the better for the newspapers. They would create their own cycling competitions to increase the sales at their newspapers.

Henri Desgrange owner of L'Auto and he launched the first Tour de France as a way to sell newspapers, bike racing would promote sales of L'Auto and crush competing road races by Le Velo.

the yellow jersey was first introduced in 1919 mid tour so spectators could identify the leader. It was yellow because that was the color of the paper that L'Auto was printed on.




No comments:

Post a Comment