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Created on Wednesday, 02 July 2014 09:08

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• Five Tour de France teams racing on Continental tires.

• Special race tires made in our Korbach factory for top pro cyclists.

Hanover, Germany - July 2, 2014. After British riders won the past two editions of the Tour de France (Bradley Wiggins took the yellow jersey in 2012, and Chris Froome won in 2013), this year's Tour de France will pay homage by starting the world's biggest bike race in England. And five of the 22 team’s competing will sport Continental tires.

Following the Tour's successful start in London in 2007, the world's best professional cyclists are again heading to Great Britain for the start of Le Tour. But this time the riders are heading further north, to Yorkshire, for a "Grand Départ" that sees the race starting from the city of Leeds. This year will be the 101st edition of the Tour de France, the world's biggest sporting event after the Olympic games and the FIFA World Cup. Twenty-two teams will line up for the start in Leeds on Saturday July 5, with 198 riders participating in the race. The three-week Tour features 21 stages, and will cover 3656 kilometres (or 2271 miles, since we are starting in England!). There will be two rest days, and the race finishes on Sunday, July 27, with the traditional final stage on the Champs Elysées in Paris. Eighteen of these teams are ProTour teams, the highest category of professional cycling team. The other four teams were handed wildcard invitations in January by ASO, the race organizers.

For Continental's tire specialists, the Tour de France is a worldwide showcase, an annual opportunity to demonstrate our products' resilience at the very highest level and under the toughest conditions. Which is why five out of the 22 teams are again choosing to use Continental equipment as they tackle the very special challenges that the "grand boucle" presents. The BMC Racing Team, Lotto-Belisol, Lampre Merida, and Orica-GreenEdge teams were already riding on tires made by our tire experts in Korbach, Germany in last year's Tour de France. But in 2014, they are joined by the Spanish, Movistar Team. Like the Tour de France itself, Continental can look back at a proud tradition of over 100 years' experience in making bike tires. That's how long Continental has been producing hand-made racing tires for top cyclists at their factory in Korbach, Germany. Tires that are capable of withstanding a wide range of challenges, that are suitable for every conceivable road surface, and that can cope with even the most extreme weather conditions. Balancing speed and safety on the one hand, and safety and reliability on the other is a challenge that the specialist tire engineers in our RD team skilfully respond to time and time again.

And the results aren't reserved just for top professional riders, the best of the best. Amateur cyclists also benefit from our research, skills and experience in the cycling sector. Our experience with the high-tech, top riders in the sport feeds through to production of race tires for amateurs and sports cyclists, too. These developments include tubular tires made with liquid crystal polymer fibers, tried and tested in the Tour. That makes the tires extremely cut-resistant, which helps prevent sharp objects from piercing the tire and causing punctures.

For big international competitions, Continental's tire experts always supply the teams with tubular tires, or "tubs". These are different than the tires used by everyday cyclists. Whereas conventional clincher tires, used by most amateur cyclists, fit over a separate inner tube, the tubular tires that the professional Tour de France teams use, have a round profile and are enclosed, one-piece tires with a single stitched seam. This makes for a lighter tire, but it also makes the tires more flexible. Tubular tires are able to adapt to a wide range of conditions.

Air pressure is another area where there are differences between the tires used by sports cyclists and those used by top professionals. Tubular tires are designed to withstand very high pressures. Amateur cyclists generally inflate their tires to no more than six bar. For the top-class professionals riding for the ProTeams, tire pressures of 15 bar are not at all unusual.

Tubular tires offer two benefits. The first is that higher pressures reduce the rolling resistance, so a rider needs to expend less energy. And with some stages being more than 200 km (or 125 miles) in length, with steep mountain passes and rough cobbles, every ounce of energy is worth saving. It all adds up. What they call "marginal gains". The second benefit that tubs offer is when compared with conventional tires used by everyday cyclists, tubular tires are glued to the rim of the wheel and they can't come off if a rider has a puncture.

Continental will be supplying three different tires to the five Tour de France teams. The first will be a reliable, high-performance all-round tire, suitable for use on flat stages and in the mountains - provided the weather doesn't turn ugly. But bike racing follows the same basic principles as motor sport: you can't use slicks in the wet. When heavy rain makes the road surface greasy and slippery, the pro cycling teams use special wet-weather tires. And to make sure they know what the weather has in store for them during the three-week race, the teams all have the latest communication equipment in order to get accurate weather forecasts.

Then there are special tires for time trials, for "the race against the clock". Whether it is an individual time trial or a contre la montre par équipes (or team time trial), the tires need to be as light as possible. Time trials are the high-tech area of cycle racing, with ultra-light bikes, aerodynamic helmets and thin, figure-hugging clothing. And of course, with the right tires. For time trials, every gram counts. Every gram that is saved can have an impact on the result. The best illustration of this point came during last year's Tour de France after twenty five minutes of racing when the Australian Orica-GreenEdge team, riding on Continental tires, won the team time trial in Nice, France by just one second.

This approach to our high-tech equipment explains why Continental's cycle racing tire specialists can look back not just at a century of tradition, but also at a long list of successes in the world's biggest bike race. Many Tour de France winners have benefited from Continental's top-level tires, the most recent being Australia's Cadel Evans (BMC) three years ago. This July we’ll see 45 pro cyclists from five teams join Continental in riding into a new era. The start of the 101st Tour de France will be a moving event - in every sense of the word!

Continental AG With sales of around €33.3 billion in 2013, Continental is one of the world’s leading automotive suppliers. As a provider of tires, brake systems, systems and components for powertrains and chassis, instrumentation, infotainment solutions, vehicle electronics and technical elastomers, Continental contributes to enhanced driving safety and global climate protection. Continental is also an expert partner in networked automobile communication. Continental currently employs around 182,000 people in 49 countries. www.continental-corporation.de

Tire Division As one of the world's leading tire manufacturers with more than 44,000 employees, the Tire division achieved sales of €9.6 billion in 2013. The division currently has 24 production and development locations worldwide. The broad product range and continuous investments in RD make a major contribution to cost-effective and ecologically efficient mobility.

Passenger and Light Truck Tires Continental is one of the leading manufacturers of passenger and light truck tires in Europe and the world's fourth largest passenger tire manufacturer in the original equipment and replacement market. The product development focus of the Continental premium brand is to optimize all safety-relevant characteristics, while simultaneously minimizing rolling resistance. www.continental-reifen.de

Sponsorship Continental's Tire division is an official sponsor of the German DFB Cup, Major League Soccer in the US and Canada, the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, the 2015 Asia Cup in Australia and UEFA EURO 2016TM in France. www.ContiSoccerWorld.de

Media Database www.mediacenter.continental-corporation.com

Contact: Alexander Bahlmann Head of PR, Passenger and Light Truck Tires Continental AG Tire division Büttnerstrasse 25, 30165 Hanover, Germany Tel.: +49 (0) 511 938 2615 Fax: +49 (0) 511 938 2455 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. www.continental-reifen.de

Klaus Engelhart Press Spokesman, Passenger and Light Truck/Two-Wheel Tires Germany/Austria/Switzerland Continental AG Tire division Büttnerstrasse 25, 30165 Hanover, Germany Tel.: +49 (0) 511 938 2285 Fax: +49 (0) 511 938 2455 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Sheri Herrmann PLT Communications Coordinator Continental Tires the Americas 1830 MacMillan Park Dr. Ft. Mill, SC 29707 Tel.: (704)583-8151 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. www.continentaltire.com

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