One of sport’s greatest spectacles continues and with
millions of fans lining the course each day in France it’s easy to see the multitude
of nations represented. Flags from every
corner of the globe wave in support of riders and homelands. The Tour de France brings the world
together. And not just fans. Take a look at the teams…
At the top of the Team Classification as of this writing is
Movistar. Movistar is based in Spain and
they ride Italian-made Pinarello frames with Compagnolo components and wheels. The team that took the tour by storm while
the peloton spent the first three stages in Cortina was the Australia-based
Orica GreenEdge. The Aussies ride
Swiss-inspired Scott frames with Shimano components and wheels from Japan. Team Cannondale is a unique entity. Based in Italy the team rides Cannondale (Bethel,
Connecticut) of course with SRAM components from Chicago and Vision wheels from
Washington state. Cofidis-Solutions
Credit is French with French-made Look frames, Compagnolo components and
American classic wheels.
The riders themselves come from all points of the world
map. Team BMC, based in Northern
California is made up of one Aussie (Cadel Evans), two Americans (Brent
Bookwalter and Teejay Van Garderen), two Swiss (Steve Morabito and Michael
Schar) an Italian with a Spanish name (Manuel Quinziato), a Frenchmen (Amael
Moinard), a German (Marcus Burghardt) and finally a Belgian (Philippe
Gilbert). Even the staunch Spanish team
of Euskatel-Euskadi has embraced the openness of the world. For years the team was only to be made up of
riders from Spain’s Basque region. This
year the team shook off that over 20 year rule and added French rider Romain
Sicard. The Russian Team Katusha only
has three Russians and the French Team Europcar has the tour’s only Japanese
rider and one of two Canadians.
Bike frames run the gamut as well.
Only a few teams share the same frame manufacturer. Team Cannondale and Omega Pharma-Quick Step ride
Cannondale while Saxo-Tinkoff and Astana ride Specialized. Team Sky and Movistart ride Pinarello. One of the world’s top selling manufacturers,
Trek is ridden by one team only: RadioShack Leopard. In total 22 teams are riding the tour with 16
frame manufacturers providing bikes.
When it comes to components and group sets the big three of Shimano,
SRAM and Compagnolo have a stranglehold on the tour. And finally with wheels the competition is a
bit more open with names like Corima, Zipp, FFWD, Reynolds, and the venerable
Bontrager supplying wheels alongside the powerhouses of Shimano and
Compagnolo.
Continue to enjoy the Tour.
The SBT will. Please stop by our website www.stickybottleteam.net, our friends at Performance Bike are having their annual summer sale. Click their link.
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