[CR]New GitaneUSA.com website

(Example: Framebuilding:Technology)

From: "Norris Lockley" <norris@norrislockley.wanadoo.co.uk>
To: <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 01:08:20 -0000
Subject: [CR]New GitaneUSA.com website

Nice try Stephan, but as Chuck pointed out there are plenty of manufacturers with a far better record of wiining the Tour than Gitane. although Gitane were mightily impressive in the lats 35 years or so.

The all=time record is still held by a French company, Alcyon. Earlier this year by luck rather than skilful browsing I discovered a site that had about four pages of results of all pro cycle races, dating back to the turn of the century..or whenever they started. The authors had analysed all the results by manufacturer and formed some sort of league table stretching into well over a hundred brands.

Like everything else I do these days, I made a note of the site and then immediately lost it ! It must have represented the PhD research paper of some cycling enthusiast at some obscure university, I reckon, because the detail was mind-blowing. As far as I can recall, I was browsing on a Wanadoo (french) web-search engine trying to find any info I could on Alcyon bikes, and this work of genius just popped up..But try as I might I haven't managed to press that same button again.

In the mid-80 my younger son went to a business university in the Val d'Oise to the north of Paris to carry on his studies in Business Management, marketing etc. His tutors suggested that his research projects should be focussed and purposeful and, possibly, of value to business concerns. In the end after researching the prospects of importing and marketing o the New Zealand kiwi fruit into France, I convinced him that there was a far more useful piece of work to be undertaken, and that I might be able make some valuable contacts for him. and so a piece of research attempting to analyse the effectiveness of sponsoring a Pro cycle team in Europe came about. This was triggered off by the bankruptcies in the peloton of the Boston-Mavic team, and the Coop-Mercier one, as well as several less well-known ones. The team that really bucked that trend was the Team Z-Lemond one . Zannier, the sponsor became France's largest supplier of children's clothes as a result of the renown of that team.

So don't be surprised if you stumble across my son's masterpiece somewhere on the internet.

Norris Lockley..Settle, UK