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Titre Early Alpine mountain bike events
Auteur Jean Saint-Martin, Frédéric Savre, Thierry Terret
Mir@bel Revue Revue de Géographie Alpine
Numéro vol. 100, no 3, 2012 L'émergence des marchés du sport et du loisir dans l'arc alpin
Résumé anglais During the 1980s, the diffusion of mountain biking in France underwent its first phase in mountain territories that discovered its socio-economic value. Over and beyond the structural and organisational aspects, the mountain bike also became a favoured medium for technological and social innovation. The aim here is to reflect upon the various underlying stakes of introducing, into Alpine territory, a new physical activity that required a two-wheeled vehicle and had its roots in the spirit and values of the already existing Californian practices. More than just an activity, mountain biking would become a market over the course of the decade. Its economic stakes would contribute to its imminent institutionalisation. Featuring among the vectors of its development, the first competitions and/or events played an essential role in establishing a special relationship between sport and tourism economy. As a new lease of life for a number of ski resorts undergoing crisis at the time, mountain biking offered the various actors (riders, cycle dealers, political and institutional leaders) an opportunity to valorise a technical and social innovation in mountain areas.
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Article en ligne http://journals.openedition.org/rga/1937