Watching coverage of this year\u2019s Tour de France, I\u2019m struck by how many of the team bikes are of brands that had little or no association with pro fessional racing in the on-topic era. The twenty teams in this year\u2019s Tour use bikes provided by 17 different makers. Three of these, Bianchi, Pinarello, and Colnago are brands that I strongly associate with professio nal racing during the on-topic era. Three others, BH, Orbea, and Wilier, are also brands that I associate with professional racing during the on-to pic era, though they were not especially prominent during my lifetime. T he remaining brands include some that weren\u2019t yet widely thought of as ma kers of professional racing bikes (Cannondale, Lapierre [afaik], Giant, Spe cialized), or simply didn\u2019t exist prior to 1983, at least as bike makers (Time, Look, Cervelo, Felt, Kuota, Ridley, and Scott).
Another thing that is striking is where these bikes come from, that is, whe re the companies are based. It\u2019s not a big surprise that 6 teams are o n Italian bikes, and 4 are on French bikes, and there are also 2 teams on S panish bikes, and one on Belgian bikes. That said, there are 5 teams on US bikes, one on Canadian bikes and one on a brand that I still think of as a contract factory in Taiwan (in which all 20 team\u2019s bikes might now be made, for all I know). Anyway, I recall just a few years ago being im pressed that lowly Cannondales and Treks were suddenly being raced in the European peloton and now a quarter of the riders are on US bikes (and anot her 5% on Canadian bikes). Had Astana been allowed into the Tour, it is likely that the proportion of US bikes would be higher still, as might the proportion of brands not associated with Euro pro racing during the on-topi c era.
These are just observations, of course, and I suspect I\u2019m not the only on e who has noticed these trends. I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s a good thing or a bad thing, but since I took the trouble to assess the actual numbers, I t hought the list might be interested to hear about it. I also wonder what the presence so many new brands and so many US brands says about the marke t. I think US brands like Trek and Cannondale are well regarded in Europ e, perhaps more so than here. Maybe all these US makers are sponsoring E uro teams to expand Euro market share. At the same time, US buyers seem very happy these days to buy high-end racing gear for recreational riding, so perhaps the presence of so many US and newcomer go-fast brands is an eff ort to address the US consumer by strengthening brand association with the \u201cextreme performance\u201d that all bike path demons demand.
Tom Dalton
Bethlehem, PA USA