one-eyed_jim
Old School Grand Master
Following an argument in another forum, I've been trying to find out the last year a steel frame was ridden in the Tour de France - even by a single rider on a single stage.
From what I've been able to establish most teams were on aluminium, carbon, or titanium by the mid nineties. Team GAN (which became Crédit Agricole after the end of the Tour in 199
were issued with lugged steel Merckx frames for the 1998 season, but although the team portraits show these bikes, I haven't been able to confirm that they were ridden in the TdF, and I've found a suggestion that Boardman at least was riding a titanium Merckx built by Litespeed, like the majority of the Motorola/Caloi squad in 1995-1996.
http://au-veloclubdeparis.fr/index.php? ... son%201998
http://www.cyclingwebsite.net/beeldfich ... ldid=11987
It's said to be not that unusual for pro riders to have a favourite custom frame painted in team colours, so there's always the possiblity that some riders were on steel even when the official team bikes were not. So what I'm looking for is evidence of a steel frame in the Tour in 1998 or later. A photograph would be great, but failing that, a newspaper or magazine article, eye-witness testimony, or even a plausible rumour would do.
From what I've been able to establish most teams were on aluminium, carbon, or titanium by the mid nineties. Team GAN (which became Crédit Agricole after the end of the Tour in 199
were issued with lugged steel Merckx frames for the 1998 season, but although the team portraits show these bikes, I haven't been able to confirm that they were ridden in the TdF, and I've found a suggestion that Boardman at least was riding a titanium Merckx built by Litespeed, like the majority of the Motorola/Caloi squad in 1995-1996.http://au-veloclubdeparis.fr/index.php? ... son%201998
http://www.cyclingwebsite.net/beeldfich ... ldid=11987
It's said to be not that unusual for pro riders to have a favourite custom frame painted in team colours, so there's always the possiblity that some riders were on steel even when the official team bikes were not. So what I'm looking for is evidence of a steel frame in the Tour in 1998 or later. A photograph would be great, but failing that, a newspaper or magazine article, eye-witness testimony, or even a plausible rumour would do.
