Le Vélo
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Editor | Paul Rousseau (1892-?) Louis Minart (?-1896 Pierre Giffard (1896-1904) |
| Founded | 1892 |
| Political alignment | Liberalism |
| Ceased publication | 1904 |
Le Vélo was the leading French sports newspaper from its inception on 1 December 1892 until it ceased publication in 1904. Mixing sports reporting with news and political comment, it achieved a circulation of 80,000 copies a day. Its use of sporting events as promotional tools led to the creation of the Paris–Roubaix cycle race in 1896, and the popularisation of the Bordeaux–Paris cycle race during the 1890s.
Its demise was a consequence of the creation of the Tour de France by L'Auto, a rival newspaper that had been founded in 1900 from the intense animosity generated by the Dreyfus affair.Le Vélo was easily recognised by the green-tinted newsprint on which it was published, so L'Auto (née L'Auto-Vélo) was distinguished by a yellow tint, and thus the 'Yellow Jersey' worn by the leader of the 'Tour de France'.
Pierre Giffard was a French journalist, a pioneer of modern political reporting, a newspaper publisher and a prolific sports organizer. In 1896, he joined his colleague Paul Rousseau at the head of Le Vélo, where he wrote under the name Arator. Le Vélo was widely considered to be the premier sports newspaper produced in France. He had been a journalist with Le Figaro before becoming editor of Le Petit Journal, on whose behalf he had created Paris–Brest–Paris in 1891. On 19 July 1896 he organised the first Paris marathon and helped found the Automobile Club de France. As editor of Le Vélo, his opposition to the car-maker Albert de Dion over the Dreyfus affair led de Dion to create a rival daily, L'Auto.
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