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History: Skil and the Tour
Skil-Shimano's riders make their debut in the Tour de France on 4 July, but it's not the first time a Skil cycling team has taken part in the world's greatest bike race. In 1984 and 1985 Ireland's Sean Kelly was the lead rider of the Skil-Reydel / Skil-Sem cycling team managed by Jean de Gribaldy. Kelly topped the points classification, claiming the green jersey for the third time in 1985. He won five Tour stages in his career, but none of them came in 1984 or 1985.
Kelly did finish near the top of the general classification on both occasions, however. In 1984 he was fifth overall, 16 minutes behind winner Laurent Fignon. Twelve months later the Irishman improved on that to finish fourth overall, his best ever performance, six and a half minutes behind winner Bernard Hinault.
Frédéric Vichot won two stages for the Skil cycling team in 1984 and 1985. The Frenchman claimed victory in the 15th stage from Domaine du Rouret to Grenoble in 1984 and in the 16th stage from Aurillac to Toulouse a year later.
The majority of riders in the Skil-Reydel and Skil-Sem Tour line-ups were French, alongside two Swiss, an American and a Dutchman.
1984 - Skil-Reydel-Sem: Sean Kelly (Ireland), Jean-Claude Bagot (France), Jonathan Boyer (USA), Eric Caritoux (France), Patrick Clerc (France), Guy Gallopin (France), Jean-Marie Grezet (Switzerland), Gilles Mas (France), Patrick Moerlen (Switzerland) and Frédéric Vichot (France).
1985 - Skil-Sem: Sean Kelly (Ireland), René Bittinger (France), Eric Caritoux (France), Guy Gallopin (France), Dominique Garde (France), Gilles Mas (France), Joël Pelier (France), Pascal Poissonnier (France), Jacques van Meer (Netherlands) and Frédéric Vichot (France).
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Line-up present
The 1984 and 1985 Skil Tour de France line-ups were chiefly made up of French riders. In 2009 the majority are Dutch - Piet Rooijakkers, Kenny van Hummel, Koen de Kort and Albert Timmer - alongside three Frenchmen: Jonathan Hivert, Thierry Hupond and Cyril Lemoine. The team also includes young German Simon Geschke and Fumiyuki Beppu from Japan. Every member of the team is making his debut in the Tour de France. Rudie Kemna and Merijn Zeeman have taken on directeur sportif duties.
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History: frame past and present
Skil-Shimano's riders are participating in their first-ever Tour de France, but it's not the first time a Skil cycling team has taken part in the world's greatest bike race. In 1984 and 1985 Ireland's Sean Kelly was the lead rider of the Skil-Reydel / Skil-Sem cycling team managed by Jean de Gribaldy. Things have changed a lot over the past quarter century in terms of equipment, nutrition and supervision, as shown by a comparison of the frames from then and now.
Vitus
In 1984 and 1985 the Skil-Reydel and Skil-Sem riders rode Vitus bikes bearing the name of team manager Jean de Gribaldy, who ran his own cycle store. One of the Dutchmen in the team, alongside riders like Gerrie Knetemann, Frits Pirard and Jacques van Meer, was Jean Habets, who now runs his own bike store in the southern Dutch province of Limburg. Haberts still remembers those Vitus bikes well. 'We had aluminium frames and that was not so common in the pack back then. Only two makes used that material back then,' explains Habets. 'Most other teams has steel bikes, which were obviously much heavier. I believe our bikes weighed between 9 and 10 kilos, which was light in those days. Jean de Gribaldy was very focused on weight; he was far ahead of his time. But a disadvantage with those bikes was that they went slack very fast. I believe Sean Kelly needed six bikes in one season.'
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Koga
For the Tour, sponsor Koga has equipped Skil-Shimano with the Koga FullPro2Light (for the mountain stages), the Koga FullPro-Team Scandium (for the flat stages and cobblestones) and the Koga FullPro-Team Time Trial (for the time trials). 'It's a bit difficult to make a comparison, because I don't know the specs of the bike Skil used back then,' says Koga's Frank van Rooijen. 'What I do know is that our bikes are much, much lighter. I think an aluminium frame back then weighed twice as much as the 880 grams of the current FullPro2Light team bikes, which are all carbon. And the fork weighs just 360 grams, which is probably half the weight of what the forks weighed in 1984/1985.'
The full carbon monocoque frame of the KogaFullPro2Light is made from Ulthymo® carbon fibres and finished with Picoweave 1 K carbon. The down tube and seat tube are reinforced with a layer of Kevlar to protect them against hardcore, which is new. 'We've used the same space technology for these bikes as for the Kymera that Theo Bos rode in Beijing,' continues Van Rooijen. 'The result is an ultra-light frame with enormous rigidity. And these frames can easily last the whole season, which is a lot more than what Sean Kelly's managed.'
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The Skil-Shimano cycling team's participation in the Tour de France represents Koga's return to the race after 28 years away. In 1981 Peter Winnen was the first rider in the history of the Tour to win a stage on a Koga Miyata bike.
History: groupsets past and present
Skil-Shimano's riders made their debut in the Tour de France on 4 July, but it's not the first time a Skil cycling team has taken part in the world's greatest bike race. In 1984 and 1985 Ireland's Sean Kelly was the lead rider of the Skil-Reydel / Skil-Sem cycling team managed by Jean de Gribaldy. Things have changed a lot over the past quarter century in terms of equipment, nutrition and supervision, as shown by a comparison of the groupsets from then and now.
In 1984 and 1985 the Skil-Reydel and Skil-Sem riders rode Vitus bikes with Mavic groupsets. This French brand does not sell groupsets nowadays. Skil-Shimano's Koga-Miyata bikes are equipped with the state-of-the-art Dura-Ace groupset (7900 and 7970 series). Shimano, one of the two main sponsors of the Skil-Shimano cycling team, manufactured the first Dura-Ace groupsets in 1973. The 7400 groupset with revolutionary SIS gear index system became available in 1984, the year Skil made its debut in the Tour.
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'Before then cyclists would shift gears when they felt they should, but the shifting index system allowed you to shift up a gear instantly, without thinking. You hear a distinctive click when you shift gear. It has a lot of advantages. You can shift up and down faster, especially in sprints and on climbs,' explains Shimano's Harald Troost.
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One major difference between the current and previous groupsets is that bikes in 1984 and 1985 still had down tube gear levers. Since 1990, thanks to the integrated brake/gear control (a Shimano invention) you no longer have to take your hand off the handlebars to shift gear. Since 2003 the riders also have a 10-speed gearbox rather than the 6-speed one that was standard in the mid eighties. The use of carbon, titanium and aluminium means the current Dura-Ace 7900 groupset weighs around a kilo less than the 7400, which is made almost entirely of aluminium.
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This Tour de France, a number of Skil-Shimano riders - and those of other teams - are actually using an electronic gear system made by Shimano, the Dura-Ace Di2 (Digital Integrated Intelligence). 'As a result, you can shift gear faster without manual power,' explains Troost. 'The front derailleur moves automatically when you shift the rear derailleur, so the chain will never jam. You can put controls in several different places on the handlebar, so you can shift gear during a race without having to move your hand, which is an advantage. That can be decisive in races where every second counts.'
History: nutrition past and present
Skil-Shimano's riders are participating in their first-ever Tour de France, but it's not the first time a Skil cycling team has taken part in the world's greatest bike race. In 1984 and 1985 Ireland's Sean Kelly was the lead rider of the Skil-Reydel / Skil-Sem cycling team managed by Jean de Gribaldy. Things have changed a lot over the past quarter century in terms of equipment, nutrition and supervision, as shown by a comparison of diet from then and now.
Then
Riding a stage of the Tour de France demands a lot of energy. Back in the day, there was no easy way to replenish energy. There was no liquid nutrition as we know it today. 'We experimented with a pap in the bottle and some riders mashed up cereal biscuits into fruit juice,' says Jean Habets, who rode for Skil in 1984 and 1985. 'On the Tour the riders would mostly drink water, tea and isotonic thirst-quencher, which you already had back then.'
Jean de Gribaldy was ahead of his time when it comes to nutrition. 'He had a patisserie make a sort of marzipan of candied fruits. It was the predecessor of today's energy bar,' continues Habets. The riders typically ate solids in the eighties. 'Jam and banana sandwiches and fruitcakes, for example. But if you're riding uphill it's difficult to ingest that sort of thing. If you ate too late you could drop off badly. A lot more people were laid low by hunger pangs in those days too. Today's liquid nutrition is absorbed much faster.'
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Now
In the Tour de France, the Skil-Shimano cycling team consumes Multipower Active sports nutrition, which is distributed in the Benelux by Shimano. The Multipower Active line, which is specially formulated for endurance sportspeople, comprises shakes, drinks, bars and supplements. There is a choice of products for before, during or after either training sessions or races. 'One advantage of today's sports nutrition is that it is much more concentrated,' says Martin Sneeuw of Shimano Benelux. 'It's just hard to eat when you are working as hard as you can. It's easier to digest a shake than, say, three bananas when you're climbing. And the team has a dietician, so nowadays all the riders know exactly how much they have to eat during a stage.'
The riders also eat solids. 'Early in the race, when the tempo is relatively low, there's often time to eat a sandwich,' explains Skil-Shimano carer Gunther van den Abbeele. 'Cheese spread, jam or banana sandwiches. In that sense, not a lot has changed.'
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History: apparel past and present
Skil-Shimano's riders are participating in their first-ever Tour de France, but it's not the first time a Skil cycling team has taken part in the world's greatest bike race. In 1984 and 1985 Ireland's Sean Kelly was the lead rider of the Skil-Reydel / Skil-Sem cycling team managed by Jean de Gribaldy. Things have changed a lot over the past quarter century in terms of equipment, nutrition and supervision, as shown by a comparison of apparel from then and now.
Past
At first glance, the Skil-Shimano cycling team jersey looks a lot like the ones in 1984 and 1985. The red, white and blue colours are the same and the oblique red stripes still catch the eye. The Skil name is now written in red on the chest, the Shimano name is white in a blue bar. While little has changed appearance-wise, the present jersey actually has little in common with the mid-eighties version. 'The era of woollen jerseys had thankfully come to an end,' says Jean Habets, who rode for Skil in 1984 and 1985. 'The jerseys and shorts we rode in were made from reasonably thick Lycra. The sponsor's names were flocked and sweat became trapped in those places. Today's jerseys are a lot more comfortable, but those thick Lycra jerseys were a lot better than wool, which almost drooped down to your rear wheel when it rained.'
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Present
Today's Skil-Shimano jerseys (Shimano Cyclingwear) are still made from Lycra. 'Our apparel is made from a Lycra mix (80% polyamide / 20% spandex), which is very elastic and can breathe,' says Martin Sneeuw of Shimano Benelux. 'Fluid regulation is given a lot of attention. A body that becomes cold will require energy to warm up again. Elasticity and compression are also important aspects of cycling apparel these days. This helps better regulate blood circulation and protect muscles from fatigue. These things scarcely got any attention twenty years ago. Training on the bike was the most important thing for them.'
The fit of the jerseys has also changed immensely over the past twenty years. 'Nowadays the clothing perfectly fits the contours of the body,' says Sneeuw. 'This improves comfort; you don't feel a wet jersey clinging to your body. It's a lot more aerodynamic, too. A jersey flapping around your body generates a considerable amount of resistance.'
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