BikeAnon wrote:Lance's tire guy used to age them for seven years before mounting them the first time.
Seriously! Everyone saw that show where De Vriese talks about aging the 'tübülars' but wasn't he really just having a bit of fun with the video crew (and apparently most of the audience)? Sure he had a bunch of tires in that basement but given the rate at which pro tour teams consume tubulars in the classics and grand tours, that was nowhere near enough tires to support the teams racing efforts for 4-6 months, much less the last 10-years! More importantly, when the team changed sponsorship from USPS to Discovery, there were a slew of different sponsors including tires. Now at that level, 'hot stamping' logos on tubulars was/is common practice, but given that at the time, the former USPS tire sponsor did not even make tubulars, I find it highly unlikely the new tire sponsor would pony up $$$/tires only to see the teams head mechanic set them aside, so he could use tires with competing sponsors logos out of his basement!