Let us commence, aujord hui, with a statement of the bleedin’ obvious: you cannot compete in, let alone win, the Tour de France without a bike.
Unlike the riders who come in all shapes, weights, heights and sizes the bikes have to obey certain rules: they must all have wheels the same size have seatposts etc at certain angles and they must weigh at least 15 pounds and change (can’t recall the exact weight). The theory is that no rider gets an unfair advantage over another by having a special bike. However the arrival of carbon fibre and all the rest of the other crap available to your average 21st century bike builder means that you could shave about 7 pounds off that minimum weight if you really wanted to. As a consequence many of the bikes here are tricked out with super-sexy gizmos that your average velo don’t have – partly because the engineers need to make the bikes heavier in order to match or exceed that weight requirement.
This team is now called Garmin Chipotle because they have a big new sponsor: Garmin – the people who make GPS devices for your car. And guess what – each rider’s bike sports a big bronze Garmin thingy on the handlebars. (See pic below of David Millar’s bronze thingy…and also his very sexy aerodynamic handlebars) The bronze Garmin thingy not only helps the bike hit the right weight but also tells you all kinds of things your average rider never knew he needed to know:
How far away the next climb is…
Where the wind is blowing from…
What to watch out for ahead…
His power output…
His heart-rate…Etc. Etc.
But the funniest thing is that now the members of the Garmin Chipotle have one extra thing that they cannot afford to forget. And it here’s how Jonathan Vaughters (team uber-boss) put it at the final team meeting before the Tour started:
“We now have a major sponsor, Garmin, producer of the world’s leading GPS systems. So here’s one thing you have to remember. From now on, whatever situation you may find yourself in, don’t ever, ever let me or anyone else hear you say that you’re lost!”
