Skoda sponsoring this year's Tour de France

The Czech auto maker, Skoda will be the official sponsor and auto partner of the most famous bicycle race in the world, Tour de France for the tenth time. Around 25 Skoda vehicles will be present at the 10th anniversary of the cycling classic. This year's Tour takes place from the 29th June to 21st July. “Our longstanding partnership with the world's number one cycling event underlines SKODA’s close relationship with cycling,” says SKODA CEO, Prof. Dr. h.c. Winfried Vahland.

“The fact that ŠKODA has been sponsoring the Tour de France for ten years, and that we can also celebrate this 100th anniversary is really something very special. Supporting the Tour de France and other cycling events is also an expression of our company’s tradition spanning the past 118 years. The company’s success story began in December 1895 with the production of bicycles by our founding fathers, Laurin and Klement,” Vahland explains.

This year's Tour de France starts on Corscia on June 29. This has been for the first time, three stages will be hosted on the French island. The cyclist will cover 21 stages and 3,360 kilometres, and will reach the finish line in Champs-Elysées, Paris on 21st July. This time, Skoda will provide the Tour organiser and other partners with a total of 250 vehicles. The new Skoda Octavia estate and the Skoda Superb will be serving primarily as accompanying vehicles. These include two of the new Superb facelift, which will celebrate its debut in the European markets at the end of June.  The new Superbs in red will serve as the vehicles for the Tour director, Christian Prudhomme. Many Skoda cars will be traveling with the publicity caravan, which will be putting on a fantastic display for spectators one or two hours before the entourage. Rapid, Yeti and Citigo will all be a part of this year’s Skoda Tour de France fleet.

Providing transport has always played a major role in any sponsorship arrangement. Year on year, over 200 Skoda models travel around 2.8 million kilometres during the Tour. The total distance travelled in the past nine years is almost 25 million kilometres. The Skoda fleet really comes into its own here in terms of reliability. Not one single vehicle has ever broken down due to technical problems.