Caravan and Business
The Tour de France
Course 1 · Chapter 8 · The Caravan, Television and the Business
The Tour is free to watch from the roadside, which raises a practical question: who pays for it? The answer is a mixture of advertising, television rights, host towns and sponsors, held together by a private company. This chapter looks at the publicity caravan that parades ahead of the riders, at how television changed the race, at the economics of teams, and at the British success that transformed the Tour's audience in the 2010s. Names, dates and figures are from general knowledge and flagged "check".
The Publicity Caravan
What it is
About two hours before the riders, a procession of decorated vehicles passes along the route, handing out free samples, hats, key rings and sweets to the crowds. It has existed since 1930 (Chapter 3). Today it includes well over a hundred vehicles from a few dozen firms, and millions of items are thrown out each year (check the figures).
Why it works
For the firms it is a chance to put their brands in front of a captive roadside audience and a television audience at once. For the organisers it is a source of revenue. For spectators it is an entertainment of its own, with floats in the shape of giant cheeses, sausages or tyres, and fans who collect the giveaways (check).
The criticism
Critics point to the waste and plastic litter left on the roads, and the organisers have promised to reduce it, with limits on throwaways and cleaner vehicles (check). The caravan is a place where the Tour's commercial and ecological arguments meet.
Who Pays for What
| Source (check each) | Note |
|---|---|
| Television rights | The largest source of income for the organisers. Broadcasters in France and around 190 other countries pay for the right to show the race (check). The French public broadcaster has long been the main partner. |
| Host towns | Fees paid by towns and regions for the right to host a start or finish (Chapter 7). |
| Race partners and the caravan | Firms sponsor the race, the jerseys and the other classifications, and buy places in the caravan. |
| Teams' sponsors | The riders' teams are paid for separately, by their own sponsors. A top team's yearly budget can be tens of millions of euros (check), some of it on the Tour itself, and the sponsor expects exposure in return. |
| Prize money | A total prize fund of about two million euros, with a winner's prize of several hundred thousand (check). Riders usually share it with their teams. |
The organiser, the private company ASO (Chapter 1), makes its money from the race and other events it owns. The riders' teams, by contrast, depend on sponsors with no direct share in the race's revenue, which has been a source of friction between teams, organisers and the international federation (check). A dispute over the structure of professional cycling in the mid-2000s, sometimes called the "cycling war", led to years of argument over which races belonged to which series (check).
Television
- The commentary. For English-speaking viewers the voices of Phil Liggett and the late Paul Sherwen defined the race for decades (check). Channel 4 popularised the Tour in Britain from the 1980s to the 1990s, and ITV, Eurosport and later other channels took over (check the current broadcasters).
- The audience. The organisers say that the race reaches billions of viewers cumulatively and that millions line the roads (check). These are marketing claims, counted in ways that favour large numbers, and an independent historian would ask how they were measured.
- New media. Streaming, social media and a Netflix documentary series that followed the teams (from 2023, check) have widened the audience to younger viewers.
The British Turn
| Step (check each) | Note |
|---|---|
| 2007 | The Grand Départ in London, with huge crowds, started the change in British interest in the Tour. |
| Team Sky (2010) | A British-based team funded by a media company, with the declared aim of producing a British Tour winner within five years. It later became Ineos Grenadiers, after a change of sponsor (check). |
| 2012 | Bradley Wiggins won, the first British winner. The same year saw the London Olympics, which boosted cycling's profile. |
| Froome, Thomas | Chris Froome won four Tours between 2013 and 2017, and Geraint Thomas, from Wales, won in 2018. |
| Mark Cavendish | A sprinter from the Isle of Man who won a record number of Tour stages, equalling and then passing the long-standing mark of Eddy Merckx (check). |
| 2014 | The Yorkshire Grand Départ (Chapter 7). |
This success turned British cycling from a minority sport into a mass interest, with record sales of road bikes and clothing and a "Wiggins effect" on participation (check). It also brought scrutiny: the 2018 parliamentary report discussed in Chapter 6 concerned the team that was at the centre of it.
Exercises
Explain the economics of the publicity caravan from the point of view of the organiser, a sponsor and a spectator, and say what each gains and risks.
Describe three ways in which live television has changed how the Tour is raced and what evidence you would use to show it.
The organisers claim billions of viewers. Explain how you would test that claim and what difficulties you would meet.
Quick Reference
- Caravan: since 1930; free samples; income for the organiser; litter criticism
- Income: television rights, host towns, partners; teams funded by their own sponsors
- Television: radio, live pictures from 1952, motorbike and helicopter cameras
- British turn: London 2007, Team Sky 2010, Wiggins 2012, Froome, Thomas, Cavendish