Continental : Tour de France 2014: Testing times — Why pro cyclists in the Tour de France swear by Continental tires

• Tires used in the Tour de France are high-tech products for extreme challenges

• Five teams in the 101st Tour de France have opted for Conti tires

Hanover, July 3, 2014.
Most of the time, tires are not at the forefront of our minds when we drive our cars. But those four little postcard-sized contact areas of "black gold" are the only constant connection between our car and the road. Whatever the road conditions. Only the most conscientious drivers tend to swap their tires round, regularly check the tread depth, or even check the tire pressures. Often, the first time we really think about our tires is when we have a puncture, at which stage we normally wonder what on earth is going on.

A bike rider's relationship with their rubber is a bit more intimate, a bit more important. All the more so when it comes to professional cyclists. After all, they rely on their bike and on their tires not just to earn a living, but to enable them to stay in control under the most extreme loads and conditions. Good bike tires generally have to meet three conditions: They should be long-lasting, offer protection against punctures, and they should offer good value for money. And it is precisely to ensure that we can deliver on these requirements for our series production tires that Conti puts so much commitment into research and development work with several top professional cycling teams. The professional riders on those teams are always the first to benefit from our new developments. Just like they will from the 5th July, when 45 pro cyclists on 5 different teams will start the 101st Tour de France on very special Continental tires.

A good racing tire should make life as easy as possible for the rider in the saddle. All the braking forces and all the energy from the pedals pass through the tires, so tires have a significant effect on the rider's energy usage. A good tire should roll well, with little resistance. So it helps the rider conserve energy, needs less effort. But it should also be robust and durable. And of course, capable of doing all that under a wide range of extreme conditions. There will never be a perfect tire for every road surface and to suit all weather conditions. It will always be a compromise between different components. That said, the world's top bike riders will still demand a perfect all-rounder, a "jack-of-all-trades" on their rims for this Tour.

In order to be long-lasting, to be endlessly durable, a tire would need to be made of a very hard material. But that would mean the tire would have little grip. In order to create grip, to adhere to the road surface, a tire must have the largest possible contact area. And that needs elasticity. So the challenge is to find a balanced combination from at least two different worlds. Deciding which requirements are most important impacts on the choice of materials and on the tire's structure and performance. To put it simply, the thicker the fabric under the tire's tread, the more puncture-resistant the tire will be. At first glance, that seems to be a desirable characteristic. But it would have a negative effect on rolling resistance, and the rider would have to expend more energy.

The tires that Conti's Tour riders use are handmade by our tire specialists in Korbach, Germany. And they are constantly working on improvements and on the small details that make all the difference when it comes to this balance between load characteristics, weight, rolling resistance, durability and safety. Details that improve the carcass, or the tread, for example. That is the only way to turn a very good tire into an even better product. A product with excellent characteristics, but a product that our experts immediately look to improve again, to move on to the next stage in the development process.

The more extreme the various characteristics of a tire are, the greater the risk of it wearing too quickly, or of a material defect. The bike tires used by professional racing cyclists look very narrow, with a low profile and very high tire pressures. But "narrow" is a relative term. There has been a general trend, even amongst professional teams, towards slightly wider tires in recent years. Last year, for example, the Australian Orica GreenEdge team won the team time trial in the Tour de France, riding on 25 mm Continental tires. Which again goes to show, even top-end Continental tires have the same DNA as our excellent all-round series-production tires.

But the Tour's stars, be they mountain goats such as Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), General Classification riders such as Rui Costa (Lampre Merida) or sprint specialists such as André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) don't need to worry about series-production tires. Continental has supplied the teams' mechanics with specialist equipment for these team captains and star riders, equipment that has been specially designed for the athlete or for the challenges of that day's stage. These high-performance race tires have to be able to withstand internal pressures of up to 15 bar, for example. The current German national champion André Greipel, a stage winner in last year's Tour de France, is full of praise for his handmade Continental tires: "For me, Continental have the best tires, on both wet and dry roads."

That's why, during the Tour, the team cars are veritable Aladdin's caves, packed with the very latest equipment. The riders usually have a very close relationship with their team mechanics. Riders and their mechanics will have long discussions about which tires should be used on the day's stage, depending on the stage profile, the weather conditions and the road surfaces. Choosing the wrong tire can have serious consequences.

But whatever the merits of a particular tire for a given stage and conditions, one thing is already clear before the Tour starts on Saturday: With the latest specialist Continental products, the riders on the five Conti teams (Lotto-Belisol, Orica GreenEdge, BMC Racing, Lampre Merida and Movistar) in the 2014 Tour de France won't be hanging around.