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The Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) is part of the French media group, EPA (Éditions Philippe Amaury). It organises sporting events including the Tour de France and Paris-Nice professional cycle road races, and the Dakar Rally. In 2008 it began the Central Europe Rally, a rally-raid endurance race in Romania and Hungary.^[1]

The Tour de France was instituted by the newspaper L'Auto in 1903^[2]. The paper was closed after the war because of links with the occupying Germans and a new paper, L'Équipe, took over. L'Équipe (now part of EPA) organised the Tour until the race was taken over by its parent company, ASO. ASO also organises Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La Flèche Wallonne and Paris-Tours one-day races, and the L'Étape du Tour cyclosportive events^[3].

ASO organises the Paris Marathon, cycling events in Africa (Tour du Faso) and the Middle East (Tour of Qatar), golf (the French Open) and equestrian events.

The president of ASO is Jean-Etienne Amaury, son of EPA founder Philippe Amaury.

[edit] External links

• English version of ASO website

[edit] References