Hanover, in July 2006. Tremendous success for the riders and teams taking part in the 93rd Tour de France on Continental professional racing tyres. Following the trail blazed by fellow American and seven times Tour champion Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis - the captain of the Swiss Phonak Hearing Systems team - added his name to the list of winners of the gruelling Tour de France. For his tyre supplier from Korbach in the German federal state of Hesse, this was a brilliant triumph.

But there was more praise to come - as if this 'Torture de France' had not already produced enough in the way of commendations for the only cycle tyre maker manufacturing in Germany. The captain of the German T-Mobile racing team Andreas Klöden, another 'Conti rouleur', triumphed on the penultimate stage, an arduous individual time-trial covering 57 kilometres, to take third place on the podium behind the Spaniard Oscar Pereiro (Caisse d'Epargne Illes-Balears). 

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A glance at the overall results in the competition between the teams highlights quite clearly the quality of the hand-made Conti tyres, because here once again the German racing tyres top the list. The seven-strong T-Mobile magenta team showed tremendous morale after the devastating news at the outset of the Tour, fought their way through to Paris without anybody dropping out and won the Best Team Classification there. Particularly in the team classification there is no room for error - here continuity and quality are what count and the performance of the racing bike tyres was a major contributor to the result.

There was good news from the mountains too, where the battle between the best climbers saw overall winner Landis take second place in the 'Climber' ratings, with Spanish rider David de la Fuente (Saunier Duval team) coming third. De la Fuente also took fourth position in the ratings for best young professionals under the age of twenty-five. To crown it all, the muscle-bound Viking Thor Hushovd (Norway / Crédit Agricole), riding on Conti tyres, took third place on the podium in the ratings for the coveted green jersey awarded to the best sprinter, behind the winner Robbie McEwen and German cycling legend Erik Zabel. That means that each of the four professional racing teams equipped with Continental tyres has gained at least one of the top three places in the various disciplines.

The Tour was undoubtedly decided on Thursday when Landis, whom everyone had already written off after he 'plummeted' on the Wednesday during the ascent of La Toussuire, managed to close the gap in a phenomenal chase on the stage to Morzine-Avoriaz, laying the foundation for his subsequent overall victory. In the end, he had a lead of just 59 seconds over Pereiro, one of the closest results in the 103-year-old history of the Tour de France. An incredible performance from the new Tour winner Landis, who is to be fitted with a new hip after this season and who gave a dramatic description of the state of his current hip before the start of the Tour: "It's gradually falling apart like rotten wood."

The great display put up by the 2004 Tour runner-up Andreas Klöden was also unexpected. During the run-up, the new captain of the T-Mobile racing team was still suffering from the effects of two major injuries and had only managed to build up speed in the Bavaria Tour and the Tour de Suisse. At the start of the third week, Klöden was still saying: "Please remember where I'm coming from. I've had just ten weeks to prepare for the Tour", adding though: "I am now in such good shape, I want to go for the championship and I know I can do it." This he certainly did in a splendid fashion, taking second place in the final time-trial behind team colleague Sergej Honchar, thereby relegating the Spanish rider Carlos Sastre from the Danish CSC racing team to fourth place.

Of the 20 stages overall in the Tour de France 2006, five were won by riders cycling on Conti tyres. Thor Hushovd came first in the prologue, whilst Honchar won both time-trials; the German T-Mobile rider 'Matze' Kessler triumphed on the stage to Valkenburg and then finally Landis raced at breakneck speed to Morzine-Avoriaz.

On Sunday evening, following the 'tour d'honneur, the lap of honour, to Paris after a total of 3,657 kilometres, all the riders in the four teams - Phonak, T-Mobile, Saunier Duval and Crédit Agricole - had good reason to crack open a bottle of champagne in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. Their Conti tyres had got them to Paris not just safely, but also successfully.

Continental's bicycle tyre business unit is based in Korbach, Hesse, and has an extensive range of touring, trekking, mountain bike and racing tyres. In addition to tyres offering high mileage performance, low rolling resistance and comfort, Continental also manufactures studded winter tyres for bicycles. Continental racing tyres are used by leading teams in many cycling events such as the Tour de France and the Olympic Games. Continental is the only manufacturer of bicycle tyres to produce in Germany.

The Continental Corporation is a leading supplier of tyres, brake systems, chassis components, vehicle electronics and technical elastomers. In 2005 the corporation realised sales of EUR13.8 billion. At present it has a worldwide workforce of approximately 80,600

The tyre business unit is an Official Partner of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany^TM and an Official Sponsor of UEFA EURO 2008^TM. For further information visit the websites www.ContiSoccerWorld.de, www.ContiFanWorld.com and www.conti-online.com.