Workers from the Raleigh Bike factory in Nottingham are celebrating tonight after one of their bikes took the lead in the Tour de France. The bike, from newly relaunched Chopper range, had been a much derided entry in the classic race, but as the Tour now enters the final stages in the Alps, its rider, Philippe Butacher, leads the field and wears the famous Yellow Jersey.

Race purists had dismissed the Raleigh as a novelty but have now turned their criticism towards the unique design of handlebars which, they say, prevents other riders from overtaking. ‘This is not how the race was meant to be run,’ argued an irate member of a French team; a criticism backed by many on the tour. A defiant Butacher remains unrepentant. ‘It’s really a cheap excuse when they start to blame their failure on the shape of my handlebars. Whatever next? Are they going to complain about my race tassels?’

This entry was posted on Monday, July 17th, 2006 at 5:03 pm and is filed under News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.