Background

Albert Lejune, owner of two newspapers Le Petit Journal based in Paris, and Le Petit Niçois based in Nice, created Les Six Jours de la Route in 1933 to establish a link between the two newspapers. For him it was about showing the charm of La Cote d’Azur to his readers with the help of a cycling race on an innovative route. For six days at the end of the winter season, the event went through the Valley of the Rhone; avoiding carefully the Alps and its difficulties, sparingly using the hilly hinterland of Nice, to be finally used as a favourable training ground for the spring Classics. The jersey of the leader was azure and gold in colour, evoking the blue of the Mediterranee and the golden sun in Nice.

Not organised between 1940 and 1946, the event was reborn again in 1946 with the encouragement of the newspaper Ce Soir, which only managed to try the experience once.

Jean Medecin, the mayor of Nice requested that the race was to be organised by the weekly newspaper Route et Piste in which the editer Jean Leulliot was to be named as race director. The event then went under the name of Paris-Côte d’Azur, with the publication of the newspaper L’Aurore, as the main partner, using the white jersey designating the leader. Under the impetus of Jean Leulliot, Paris-Nice slowly lost its status as a training ground to become a real event.

The history of racing reminds us of the famous duel between Anquetil-Poulidor. In 1972 Jacques Anquetil became director of the race and saw with his own eyes the victory of Raymond Poulidor at the age of 36 with the uncompromising Eddy Merckx coming in second. He also witnessed the seven consecutive victories of Laurent Jalabert, the last French winner.