Félix Lévitan

Félix Lévitan (12 October 1911 in Paris – 18 February 2007 in Cannes) was the third organiser of the Tour de France, a role he shared for much of the time with Jacques Goddet. Lévitan is credited with looking after the financial side of the Tour while Goddet concentrated on the sporting aspect, but in the end Lévitan was fired while Goddet simply retired.

Félix Lévitan was born in the 13th arrondissement of Paris eight years after Maurice Garin won the first edition of the race he would eventually organise. Lévitan's parents were shopkeepers. He played soccer as a child and tried cycle-racing after working at the Vélodrome d'Hiver and the Parc des Princes cycle tracks (velodromes) in the city. The Vél' d'Hiv' was the city's indoor track and the Parc the outside stadium where the Tour de France finished.

The racing inspired Lévitan to become a journalist. It was 1928 and he was 17. He started at the cycling magazine, La Pédale, and from there moved to the Parisien Libéré at the start of World War II. By 1962 he was director-general, chief editor and head of sport at Le Parisien Libéré. Among events he covered was the Tour de France, which since 1947 had been organised by Jacques Goddet as editor of the daily sports paper, L'Équipe. L'Équipe found the organisation demanding and expensive and came to a deal in 1962 with the owner of Parisien Libéré, Émilion Amaury, to sponsor the Tour. In exchange, Lévitan, would become deputy organiser.

Before long Lévitan became co-organiser. He began a drive to recruit as many sponsors as he could, sometimes accepting prizes in kind if he could not get cash. 1976 first prize included a seaside apartment given by the businessman Guy Merlin, sometimes with extra money but not always.

In 1988 Pedro Delgado of Spain won not only an apartment but a car, an "objet d'art" and only then cash: €82,000. Lévitan had already had to defend himself against charges that the Tour was drowning in bad taste and that it ought to be taken over by the state to save it. In 1981 Lévitan called journalists to open the books. He said not only would the multitude of small sponsors continue but that they would increase. In a speech lasting half an hour, he ran through them one by one, saying that the Tour cost "not a centime" in taxes. The implication was that taxpayers would foot the bill if the state took over.

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