Critics Say One Family Is Holding Back Cycling

Crowds may pack the Tour de France route for free sausage and swag, but the real prize is controlled by one tight-lipped Parisian family. In the New York Times, David Segal examines how the Amaury family, owners of the 123-year-old Tour through Amaury Sport Organization since 1956, are resisting the kind of money-soaked transformation that has reshaped almost every other major sport—and what that means for cycling's future.

Segal describes a wildly profitable setup: cities pay hefty fees to host stages, TV rights reportedly top $170 million a year, and sponsors shell out for everything from barricade branding to a six-mile advertising caravan that hurls 18 million freebies. Yet the teams that power the race see almost none of that revenue and rely on fickle sponsors to cover budgets that can hit $60 million annually. Critics say the family's refusal to share income or expand into a longer, league-style season risks leaving cycling stagnant, with viewership down sharply this year.

• Jonathan Vaughters, chief of EF Pro Cycling, one of 23 teams on this year's Tour, tells the Times he got short shrift when he tried to discuss expanding the Tour with ASO execs at a party a decade ago. "I didn't even say, 'You know, we would like a cut of what you are making right now.' It was more like, 'Hey, let's figure out a way to make the pie bigger for everybody,'" he says. "And even then what I heard was: 'No, we like the size of the pie, and we like our share. Listen, little boy, go in the corner and enjoy the snacks.'"

The Amaurys, meanwhile, including matriarch Marie-Odile, described by Segal as "formidable and unyielding," see themselves as guardians of a "national monument" that must not be sold off or modernized too much. Alex Duff, author of Le Fric: Family, Power and Money: The Business of the Tour de France, says Jean-Etienne Amaury, current president of ASO, told him that he had rejected a bid from Silicon Valley billionaire, complaining, "The Americans think everything is for sale." For a deeper look at how heritage, money, and power collide in the world's most famous bike race, read Segal's full piece in the New York Times.