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  In 1891, Pierre Giffard, the publisher of the French newspaper Le Petit Journal, sensed that something had to be done to boost the sagging French morale. Unlike some more conservative journalists of the day who thought the bicycle was an oddity quickly to be disposed of, Giffard was a dyed-in-the-wool cyclist. This was easy in Giffard’s day since Lycra hadn’t been invented yet. What had been invented in 1885 was the “safety bicycle,” the basic form of the bicycle we know today.Althou …