Is the Amaury Family, Owners of the Tour de France, Hurting Cycling?

During a heat wave in mid-July, a throng of spectators lined the streets of Périgueux, a historic town in southwestern France, whooping and sweating a full two hours before the start of the eighth stage of the Tour de France. They had not come to catch a glimpse of the lead riders.

They had come to catch tiny packets of sausage.

Also, bags of chips. And samples of pasta, gummy bears, coffee and pairs of socks, as well as polka-dotted hats, oven mitts, tote bags, key chains, bandannas and cheese.

All of these and more are tossed, every day, by hype teams aboard a riotous convoy of vehicles known as La Caravane Publicitaire, the Publicity Caravan. The parade of 170 customized cars and floats precedes every stage of the Tour and stretches for about six miles. It’s a honking, jingle-playing, siren-blasting pileup of novelty rigs, most of them decked out with oversized fiberglass renderings of the product they are promoting — soda, candy, a slab of raw hamburger.

During the three weeks of the Tour, 18 million freebies will be hurled into crowds. People show up with wide fishing nets, hoping to improve their haul and throw the occasional elbow under this hail of swag.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/business/tour-de-france-amaury-aso.html