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Sam Abt, the pioneering American journalist whose lyrical prose introduced the Tour de France to a generation of English-speaking readers, has died. He was 90.
Abt spent more than three decades covering professional cycling, working for The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune. He was widely regarded as the dean of English-language cycling journalism.
A gifted storyteller, Abt weaved the history, color, complexities, and characters of the Tour entourage into his reporting. He chronicled the rise of a new wave of Anglo riders, including Greg LeMond and later Lance Armstrong.
Abt worked for decades as an editor and took his summers off to chase the Tour de France. His elegant prose helped introduce English-language readers to the nuances and allure of the Tour.
In the 1970s, he was part of the editing team at The New York Times that worked on the Pentagon Papers, a defining moment in 20th-century journalism. In addition to his reporting, he wrote 10 books on cycling.
Abt was a mentor and inspiration for a generation of English-language journalists who later came to cover a once-exotic sport that’s since gone global.
Born in 1934 and a graduate of Brown University, Abt retired in France and lived in Paris. More details to come.