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sandranian · Site Admin

Saur-Sojasun presented in Paris

Second Edition Cycling News, Tuesday, January 12, 2010

New Pro Conti team hoping for Tour invite

The French Saur-Sojasun team presented its 2010 line-up in Paris on Tuesday, choosing the Eiffel Tower as the site for its first step into the sport's second tier.

Manager Stephane Heulot voiced the all-French team's goal: to become players in the big races, and the man to lead that charge is Jimmy Casper.

For stage races, he will look to Jonathan Hivert, Jerome Coppel and Sebastien Joly (three new recruits), while sprinter Jimmy Casper will lead the team for stage wins and in one-day races. Casper was the winner of the Coupe de France series and was the third-ranked rider in the UCI's European Tour last year, having won 10 races over the course of the season.

With a sprint train bolstered by Cyril Lemoine, Stéphane Poulhiès and Rony Martias who will add reinforcements for Casper's main lead-out man, Jimmy Engoulvent, Heulot thinks that Casper, who at 31 has had 11 seasons in the sport's top tier, can take on the biggest sprinters in the ProTour.

Heulot aspires to gain selection in the Tour de France now that the team has been granted a Professional Continental license, up from the third tier last year. In order to competed against former ProTour teams Bbox Bouygues Telecom and Cofidis, Heulot knows the team must make its mark in the early season to gain the attention of the Tour organisers.

The team will take on the Tour of Qatar and the Tour of Oman in February to dial in the train.

2010 Saur-Sojasun team

Cyril Bessy
Jimmy Casper
Jérôme Coppel
Cédric Coutouly
Anthony Delaplace
Jimmy Engoulvent
Jérémie Galland
Jonathan Hivert
Fabrice Jeandesboz
Sébastien Joly
Cyril Lemoine
Guillaume Levarlet
Laurent Mangel
Jean-Marc Marino
Rony Martias
Romain Mathéou
Stéphane Poulhiès
Julien Simon
Yannick Talabardon

General Manager: Stéphane Heulot

Directeurs sportifs: Nicolas Guillé, Lylian Lebreton.

Here is a link to the stories about the presentation:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/saur-sojasun-presented-in-paris
http://www.sportbreizh.com/Actualites-330-2558-0-1.html?

And here is the new 2010 Gitane "The One" ISP in Team colors!

sandranian · Site Admin

A photographer who was at the presentation sent me these shots, which are much larger than the previous. You can get some real detail in them of the bicycles, which is nice! He said he will be attending various pro races and try to get some better shots of the Gitane and team for us.

Here is a link to the photographer's website (his name is Vincent):
http://www.photoscycling.com/blogvinch

Wisey

Hey, I love the nice 'retro' link with the Stronglight cranks on the TT bike.

sandranian · Site Admin

I thought that was bizarre. Why the Stronglight cranks only on the TT bike???

Gtane

Stephan, I like the touch of the unofficial fan club. Great idea. Thanks for the shots of the bikes.

Wisey, I agree about Stronglight, that's a super touch by the team. Perhaps we'll see them on the road bike too.

I'm interested to see the use of the classic strada bars on Jérôme Coppel's machine and the shallower version on Jimmy Casper's. Continuing with the bars, Lance Armstrong, I think, has always used the strada shape for the whole of his career. So taking these observations further, one of the particular design features of the ergo bars was to allow for the smooth movement of the hands across the top of the bars to the brake hoods of shifter brake levers. Both of which became available during the early 1990s. Looking back, that was quite a change. On pre ergo bars (e.g. strada) there was always a drop off the top of the bars to the brake lever hoods. Ergo bars overcame this issue and the previous need to increase the height of the brake levers on the bar, plus the tilting of the drops to allow easier access to the hoods. Additionally, shifter brake levers have an angled mounting, or clip, that allows for the lever's hood alignment to the top of the bars where previously the clips were at 90 degrees to the lever which mean't they would face ever more skywards the higher they were mounted towards the top of the drop, therefore requiring a balance of position when needing to ride out of the saddle, generally uphill. As a result of all this, shifter brake levers today are generally higher on the bike than they used to be as well as having had a huge amount of design time to improve rider comfort, position and braking leverage.

Tim

Peter S. Horn

I'm with "the boy from Brisbane" (Wisey) on this one. I think that the Stronglight crankset on the TT bike is fabulous! Make mine SR, except for said Stronglight crankset.
Peter H.

Wisey

I'd like to think that the Stronglight crank was done for historical link. However, I would be asking who owns Stronglight these days. My bet is that it is either Cycleurope or 3ttt (or their parent company).

sandranian · Site Admin

I don't think Gitane is doing anything for "historical links" (the citylink bike excepted). I don't think they have much of an appreciation or institutional knowledge about the history of their bikes.

I am being cynical.

edorwart

sandranian · Site Admin

Stronglight is only "retro" in that it (used to be?) a French parts manufacturer...and isn't Shimano. The name is the "retro" part, not the modern parts. I would imagine that all of their stuff is made in Taiwan/China nowadays, but I don't really know. Perhaps someone can enlighten me?

vanhelmont

Impressive bikes. I had no idea stronglight cranks were still in production. They have a website with a variety of products and some sponsorships, including these guys who won a tandem mountainbike competition who are 15 km from them, which means Stronglight has some physical presence in France. Nothing I can find about history, ownership, or where things are made.

Great to see a team riding Gitanes again, and also from the other thread that the factory is doing well.

edorwart