I also had read during last years tour from a forum the Postal was using Vittoria tubulars remarked as Hutchinson. I am always a bit curious on his and Discoverys gear selection. Any thoughts?
Try to read this article from 2003, when CSC was sponsored by Hutchinson: http://www.velonews.com/tour2003/tech/articles/4588.0.html
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*Happily, when it came to tire choice, the experts were a little more forthcoming. Michael Cook of Shreveport, Louisiana, wrote us to ask whether any teams were riding clinchers, and whether extra steps were being taken to ensure that tubulars were thoroughly glued onto the rims. *
*Michael, in my estimation, about 90 percent of the peloton uses tubular tires in competition. CSC mechanic Craig Geater told me that his team mostly trains on clinchers, but races on tubulars. *
*With 34 Zipp wheels for regular stages, 21 for time trials, seven more specifically for hill climbing, five extras and six sets as back-up back-ups, gluing up these tires can be quite time-consuming. *
*“Bjarne (Riis) won’t allow us to pre-stretch the tires, so after a day of gluing up we get pretty tired wrestling with super-tight tires,” said Geater. *
Even more interesting was the number of teams using tubular tires bearing brands of companies that don’t make tubular tires. Although it’s never done in public, some tire manufacturers (and saddle makers as well) have portable hot-patch machines that roll their logos onto a competitor’s blacked-out tires. For example, Hutchinson doesn’t make a tubular, but Hutchinson-supported teams all sported “Hutchinson” tires - even though most of the tires I saw were Vittoria Pro CXs.
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Btw. CSC switched tire sponsor from Hutchinson to Vittoria for this season.
I just read that Lance Armstrong uses the very expensive Dugast tires, handmade by an old Belgian named Andre Dugast and rebadged with Hutchinson logos: http://www.a-dugast.com
Apparently long term stored Dugast tires are very popular in the pro peloton, especially in Paris-Roubaix. And elite cross riders wont ride anything but Dugast.
Discovery’s mechanic told on Danish television today that their tires have all been stored for six years in a dark room in Belgium before use to make the rubber softer which means they become more puncture resistant and gets better grip and nothing has lower rolling resistance.
In the old days all tires were made of rubber and stored like this, but the modern compound tires with silica etc. from the big tire companies are not stored because on the contrary to old fashioned rubber tires they wont get more flexible with age.