For Continental, the countdown to the world’s biggest and best-known cycling race begins today: In exactly 100 days, on July 1, 2022, the Tour de France will be starting with a 13-kilometre time trial through the Danish capital of Copenhagen. The cycling elite will be accompanied by the official vehicles of the A.S.O. (Amaury Sport Organisation), which will this year once again be relying on tyre technology from Hanover: the ŠKODA models will be driving in front of and behind the peloton to Paris on PremiumContact 6 and EcoContact 6 Q tyres. When it came to the choice of tyres, the tyre engineers and material experts at Continental paid particular attention to using a high proportion of sustainable materials. “We support the Tour de France’s goals for greater sustainability,” says Enno Straten, Head of Strategy, Analytics and Marketing at Continental Tyres EMEA. “That’s why it’s only right for us to have the Tour vehicles driving on the latest and most sustainable tyres that Continental can currently offer.”
ContiRe.Tex technology brings sustainability to the Tour circuit
The tyres for the support vehicles contain ContiRe.Tex technology, which Continental presented for the first time in August 2021. The polyester yarn in the casing – the load-bearing frame of a tyre – is produced without any intermediate chemical steps from used PET bottles, which are not recycled in any other way. Each set of tyres that Continental supplies for this year’s Tour contains polyester made from around 40 reprocessed PET bottles.
Continental is pursuing an ambitious goal of becoming the most advanced tyre company in terms of ecological and social responsibility by 2030. By 2050 at the latest, Continental wants 100 percent of the materials it uses in its tyre products to be sustainably produced, and to achieve complete climate neutrality along its entire value chain.
“We are very proud that with ContiRe.Tex technology, we can introduce another sustainable solution into the world of premium tyres. This solution is also successfully used in the Extreme E series and will soon be included in our volume production,” says Straten. “Riders in the Tour de France also have to expect a wide range of terrains and driving situations and be able to count on safe tyre performance. We are convinced that our premium products are the perfect partners on rain-soaked, winding, downhill routes and long flat stages.”
The first Tour to start in bicycle-crazy Denmark
The 109th edition of the Tour de France starts on July 1 in the bicycle capital of Europe, Copenhagen and, after around 3,300 kilometres and 21 stages, will end on the magnificent boulevard of the Avenue des Champs Élysées, Paris. 176 professional cyclists from 22 teams will face a 19-kilometre stretch with a cobblestone pavement, as well as two timed sections and six mountain stages including the legendary hill start in L’Alpe d’Huez on the fifth stage. Enno Straten is sure that the tyres will prove themselves here as well: “The Tour de France is not only very exciting for us on a sporting level, it’s also exciting for our tyres. We are delighted that it will begin in just 100 days.”
