My thought is Tour de France.
A cultural collection dedicated to thinking of Tour de France as a phenomenon beyond sport. Here are essays, memoirs, articles, and analytical texts that examine the race from a perspective that is not directly involved. The Tour de France at this point is the subject of cultural analysis, as a symbol of the spirit of time, ideological change, and the way in which the body, space and movement are perceived.
Tour de France routes (1903-2024) collected in Alternative Atlas, an addition to the book
«But cycling is different from other sports in one key aspect. In other sports disciplines, fans come to the stadium, where there are access fees, cheap souvenirs, overpriced food, a general cordon and a built-up system for exploiting the fan’s emotions. Tour de France himself comes to you, to your village, to your city, or sets a meeting on the slopes of some beautiful mountain pass. The tour is free, you choose where you see it from, you can bring your own picnic, and all the marketing comes down to a van with the official 60-Four T-shirts that passes before the race. Then you see the faces of your heroes, distorted by the effort, just a few feet away from you; every place here is at the edge of the ring itself. These aspects make the Tour unique and still rightly loved in France»
