TEAM COLUMBIA RIDES GIANT TO FIVE TOUR DE FRANCE STAGE WINS

Kirchen Wears Yellow, Cavendish Makes History with Four Wins

Led by British sprint sensation Mark Cavendish, Team Columbia concluded the 2008 Tour de France on Sunday with an impressive five stage victories aboard all-new Giant TCR Advanced SL road bikes. The team also held the yellow jersey and the green points jersey at various points during the three-week race and posted impressive time trial results aboard a prototype Giant TT bike that debuted at the Tour.

Cavendish’s historic haul of four stage wins, the most in one Tour by any British racer, cemented his status as the world’s premier sprinter. The 23-year-old from the Isle of Man blasted past the sport’s traditional sprinting powers, including Robbie McEwen, Oscar Freire and Erik Zabel, to win Stages 5, 8, 12 and 13.

Cavendish did it all while riding the Giant TCR Advanced SL, an all-new design that will be available to consumers later this summer.

Cavendish and his Columbia teammates were instrumental in developing the Giant TCR Advanced SL. When the young Brit got his hands on the bike before the racing season began, he called it “the ultimate sprint weapon.”

And the team’s Tour results proved that the Giant TCR Advanced SL is more than just a sprinter’s weapon of choice. Columbia team leader Kim Kirchen came out of the gates strong in the first week of the Tour, riding the TCR Advanced SL to the points leader’s green jersey and then taking the overall lead in a dramatic Stage 6 finish in Super-Besse. Kirchen and Team Columbia defended the yellow jersey for four days, and the Luxembourger went on to finish an impressive eighth overall.

Kirchen’s Tour was highlighted by impressive time trial performances on a prototype Giant TT machine, which he piloted to second- and third-place finishes, respectively, in Stages 4 and 20. The radically shaped, aerodynamic TT bike, which has yet to be named, is a prototype project that’s been developed with extensive wind-tunnel tests.

Capping Team Columbia’s successful Tour de France campaign was a gritty Stage 18 win by Marcus Burghardt. The 25-year-old German joined an early breakaway and won a two-man sprint against Spaniard Carlos Barredo to take the victory in St. Etienne.

Having established its winning ways early in the 2008 season, Team Columbia came into the Tour with high expectations. The team, and its Giant TCR Advanced SL bikes, surpassed those expectations.