saying that the Tour cost "not a centime" in taxes. The implication was that taxpayers would foot the bill if the state took over. Lévitan introduced the finish of the Tour at the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in 1975. It had previously been at the Parc des Princes and the Piste Municipale. The Tour of America Lévitan continued to look for sponsors and saw a chance to attract money from the United States when in 1981 Jonathan Boyer, sometimes known as Jacques Boyer, became the first American to ride the Tour. Lévitan capitalised on the transatlantic interest he expected by encouraging Boyer to ride not in his sponsor's jersey but in the stars and stripes, normally reserved for the American national champion. Lévitan dreamed of a Tour of America, which was born in 1983 and died of enormous losses. The organisation had been delegated to Philippe Riquois, a business associate of Bernard Hinault whose agency handled the TV rights to the Tour de France outside Europe. Lévitan had been a favourite with Émilien Amaury, who now owned not just Parisien Libéré but L'Équipe as well. But when he died, his son Philippe, bitter over illegal inheritance arrangements that his father had tried to make, took a less charitable view of those his father had appointed. On 17 March 1987 Lévitan was called to a meeting in the board room in which the Tour's first organiser, Henri Desgrange had first had the suggested to him the words "Tour de France." A complicated financial discussion ensued. At stake was the losses entailed by the Tour of America. The claim was that it had been cross-financed by the Tour de France. Lévitan insisted he was innocent but the lock to his office was changed and he arrived at work 17 March 1987, to find his job was over. He went to live in his vacation house by the Mediterranean and appointed a lawyer to watch for defamatory mentions in newspapers. He stayed away from the Tour and never spoke of it to journalists. Only in 1998 did he return to the race, saying that he and the administration had "come to an understanding", but he refused to talk of his years as organiser or afterwards. Change of administration Lévitan was himself 76 and Jacques Goddet 80. With age and with the changing of the guard at L'Équipe and the Tour de France, Goddet retired