Blog - Tour de France 2008

L'Equipe's Bernard Chevalier wins the prize for the best article on this year's Tour de France (Prix Jacques Goddet)

On November 5th I announced here the result of the decoration contest of the Tour de France 2008. On that day the winner of another contest on the Tour de France 2008 has also been announced: the winner of the Prix Jacques Goddet - Trophée Carrefour for the best article of the French press during the Tour de France.

The sponsor and the jury

The final result of the decoration contest of the Tour de France 2008 has been announced

Every year during the Tour de France a decoration contest is organised for the cities and towns where the Tour passes. This year this contest was organised by Doublet who created the contest 7 years ago, in collaboration with A.S.O..
During the Tour de France and for each of the stage one city or town was chosen as the stage winner. On Wednesday 26 November the final winners will get their prize during the Salon des Maires et des Collectivités Locales in Paris.

The contest's jury, presided (like for all previous editions) by Bernard Hinault, was composed of Agnès Gougeat for A.S.O., Gaëlle Colaert for Doublet, Benoît Petit for the French press agency AFP, Jean-Louis Filc for the RMC radio station, Jérôme Le Gall who represente ...

Thomas Dekker and Michael Boogerd say goodbye to Rabobank cycling team

Friends for once, friends forever ... that's what one could think after reading that Michael Boogerd announces on August 13th that he will stop working for Rabobank and that Thomas Dekker announces today (August 14th) that his contract with the Rabobank cycling team has been terminated with immediate effect.

The two riders, Michael Boogerd as former captain of the Dutch cycling team and Thomas Dekker as promising future leader, have always been good friends and in 2007 they were never far from each other at the hotel, before the start and after the race and on the road during the race ... They also always shared the same hotel room and were OK to pose together for my picture of Thomas Dekker and Michael Boogerd before the Tour de France 2007 prologue in London.

Thomas Dekker: divergence of views

Slipstream found in Garmin its new title sponsor!

After CSC which will from the start of the Tour continue as Team CSC Saxo Bank and High Road which will than be Team Columbia, a third team yesterday announced a change in its name after having found a new title sponsor!

This team, invited to the Tour de France for the first time this year, is the American Team Slipstream Chipotle. On July 3rd the team will show its new kit and colours for the first time at a press conference in Brest as Team Garmin-Chipotle.

So far the team didn't really have a title sponsor: the name Slipstream was based on the name of the company which owns the team, Slipstream Sports. Starting at the Tour de France the GPS navigation solutions supplier -so far one of the small sponsors of the team- will take up this role, at least until the end of 2010. T ...

Team High Road becomes Team Columbia

After the announcement by Team CSC which becomes Team CSC Saxo Bank, today it's up to Team High Road to announce that it has found a new sponsor!

Team High Road, without a sponsor since the end of November 2007 when annonce T-Mobile announced it stopped sponsoring the team, today announced on its website to have found a new partner in Columbia Sportswear Company.

Starting at the team Tour de France 2008 team presentation on 3 July in Brest the team will show its new shirt with the team name Team Columbia.

Tim Boyle, president and chief executive officer of Columbia Sportswear Company clearly i ...

Developments in the UCI ProTour, licences and suspension of the FFC

The English translation will follow soon ...

La rumeur courrait déjà depuis quelque temps, l'Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) l'a maintenant confirmée : l'UCI ProTour poursuit son développement hors l'Europe en Russie ...
Les autres nouvelles concernent les licenses des équipes pour l'UCI ProTour et la suspension de la FFC.

L'UCI ProTour part en Russie ... et d'autres modifications du calendrier

Team CSC continues with Saxo Bank, QuickStep extends its contract

Riis Cycling, looking for a new sponsor to take up the place left by CSC at the end of this year, has found a new partner in Saxo Bank, an online investment bank.

In the mean time, Saxo Bank has immediately become the Danish team's co-sponsor. Therefore, in the Tour de France the team's riders will already defend the colours of the two brands with Team CSC/Saxo Bank as their team name.
This co-sponsoring contract ends at the end of this year when CSC will stop its sponsoring and Saxo Bank become's the team's main sponsor; the team will than become Team Saxo Bank.

The contract will run for 3 years, so the team now has a new sponsor until the end of 2011.

Bjarne Riis, the team's owner, indicated to have found the perfect partner for the future: We are extremely proud to become associated wit ...

Tour de France 2008: stage details and cities it passes through and the Tour in Google Earth!

Changes in the sponsors of the Tour de France

At a little bit less than 3 months before the Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2008 in Brest a few changes have been announced concerning the official sponsors of the Tour ... I announced it a week ago already: Nestlé Aquarel is no longer the Tour's official water supplier and Grand'Mere will no longer distribute its coffee ...

UPDATE 25 April 2008: recently Culture Vélo has joined the Tour de France as an official supplier (read)

On the blog Orange dans le Tour on which I give a look behind the scenes of the Tour de France for Orange I announced it yesterday already, but unfortunately I didn't find the time to publish a blog post here ... that has now been solved :-).

The Tour de France will have a new official water s ...

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this article appears in the following categories: Tour de France| Tour de France 2008| Marketing

Change in the Tour de France 2008 track: two stages will start from Embrun

The 15th stage of the Tour de France 2008 from Digne-les-Bains to Prato Nevoso would normally have taken the Col de Larche on Sunday July 20th to arrive in Italy. This mountain has now however become the reason behind a change in the track and in the start city of this French/Italian stage.

After the change of the Tour de France map it's now up to the track of the 95th Tour de France to be changed while there are ... less than three months left before the Grand Départ from Brest!
In March 2001 a part of this mountain collapsed and that has been the reason behind a local regulation which says this mountain is forbidden for cyclists and pedestrians. Furthermore, an automatic surveillance system has been installed which can automatically close the road when there's a new collapse. Of course this problem was well known since a long time now: the Tour organiser, the department's services (Conseil général< ...