Le Fric: Family, Power and Money: The Business of the Tour de France

Le Fric uncovers the gripping, little‑known story of the Tour de France’s tangled relationship with money, power and the secretive family that still controls the world’s greatest bike race.

It begins with an unlikely moment: a cash drop by an English spy in occupied Paris in 1944. Intended for Resistance groups, the money found its way to Émilien Amaury, an advertising executive tasked with helping rebuild France’s free press after liberation. From that seed grew a newspaper empire that — almost by accident — inherited the rights to run what would become cycling’s most iconic event.

In the bleak, hungry years after the Second World War, the Tour transformed from a struggling commercial venture into a cultural lifeline, lifting spirits across France and beyond. But as its popularity exploded — supercharged by television, then the internet — so did the stakes. The Amaury family’s grip on the race tightened, even as rivals, corporations and political forces tried repeatedly to wrest control and profits away from them.

Today, the family still owns the Tour, taking home tens of millions of euros in dividends, and the battles behind the scenes are every bit as dramatic as the fight for the yellow jersey.

Fast‑paced and meticulously researched, Le Fric reveals the power struggles, backroom deals and high‑stakes manoeuvring that have shaped the Tour de France for decades. It proves that the moments off the bike can be just as compelling as the racing itself.