Tour de France – Costs and Benefits

I’m suffering from Tour de France withdrawal symptoms. For three weeks we had the telly on in the background in the afternoons, so we could keep tabs on what was going on and sit down and concentrate for the exciting bits. The cats still haven’t adapted. They end up on my chair about 4.30pm every [...]

Cadel Evans Wins – Cadella Cavendish Arrives

I’d been planning a blog about the economic impact of the Tour de France. I’ve done lots of research and it’ll make for interesting reading. But as I sat down to make a start on it this evening, in between watching the exciting last stage of the Tour, I noticed an unfamiliar shape out in [...]

French Revolutions – Book Review

Time for a seasonal book review. The Tour de France is in its last exciting week, so here’s a look at French Revolutions: cycling the Tour de France by Tim Moore.
I stumbled upon this book listed on Gerry Patterson’s cycling website. Parsimonious as ever, I got a budget copy from Amazon marketplace since there was [...]

Tour de France Publicity Caravan Trivia

This year, 2011, the caravan, a 45-minute long procession, consists of :

160 crazy vehicles
600 people
33 brand names
16 million freebies
12 gendarmes
4 traffic regulator motorcyclists
3 medical cars

 
A couple of other facts. Each advertiser invests between €200,000 to € 500,000. And 39% of spectators only come to see the caravan!
 
The idea of the publicity caravan began in 1930.  It [...]