Taiwanese factories are known for cranking out affordable bikes that are great for tooling around the neighborhood or campus -- not the two-wheeled steeds that the world's best cyclists pedal through the Pyrenees mountains in the sport's main event, the Tour de France.
But Taiwan's Giant Bicycles (捷安特) is proving its bikes can sprint and climb with the best in the grueling three-week Tour, which ends Sunday in Paris. They are used by the Spanish team Once, which led this Tour for six days before race favorite American Lance Armstrong took over.
Giant -- the No. 3 brand in America and Europe -- is the first Asian company to have a bike in the race that for decades has been dominated by small European companies like Colnago, Pinarrello and De Rosa.
PHOTO: AP
Antony Lo, president of Giant Manufacturing Co (
"Five years ago, consumers looked at the Giant brand and said, `Yeh, it's a good product, very reliable, very nice,'" Lo said. "But now they look upon Giant and know that we're in the top racing scene. We have a lot of innovation and, of course, if you're in the Tour de France, you are very, very reliable."
Speaking in the company's yellow brick headquarters in this grungy, gray industrial town in central Taiwan, Lo said Giant got the prestigious sponsorship by doing two things most Taiwanese companies fail to do: create a global brand name and establish a reputation for innovation.
Founded in 1972, Giant started in the same way most Taiwanese manufacturers have and focused on OEM, or original equipment manufacturing. It cranked out cheap steel-framed 10-speed bikes for other companies that provided the design and slapped on their own brand name on the final product.
The company -- with sales revenue of US$433 million last year -- still makes bikes for American brands such as Trek and Specialized. But years ago, Giant began selling its own line of bikes, and now 70 percent of them are made under its own label, Lo said.
The company cashed in on the mountain bike craze in the 1990s and later earned a reputation for innovation by tweaking the frame of road bike so that the top tube sloped down, making the frame smaller, stiffer and lighter.
Bike expert Pascal Petrau said the new Giant frame, called "compact road," had many detractors who complained the bike didn't meet the norms of racing.
"They tried to get the Giant bike banned. But now almost all the bikes have the sloping form," said Petrau of the National Professional Center for Sports Commerce, which trains technicians working in sports.
Lo says that Giant linked up with Once five years ago because the company thought the sponsorship would prove Giant's passion for the sport and challenge the company to make better bikes. So far, the push is paying off, he says.
"Five years ago, we were already one of the biggest bike companies in the world," said Lo, 59. "But in the past five years, we've become one of the best -- in innovation, quality and, of course, manufacturing."
Lo said that Once was interested in Giant because of the company's expertise in making super light bikes from carbon fiber -- similar to the high-tech materials used in airplane wings and missiles. Giant has been building carbon fiber bikes since 1985.
Hitting a bump on a carbon fiber bike feels like a dull thud, not a rump-numbing twang felt on a metal bike. This is a key selling point for Tour de France racers who spend most of the day in the saddle covering a total 3,282km.
Lo calls the bike Once is using in the race the ``new weapon.'' The entire bicycle weighs 6.5kg.
Giant provides Once with about 100 bikes each racing season, and the sponsorship deal costs the company a total US$1.2 million a year, including equipment and service. Last year, the team signed a new four-year contract.
Once's coach, or team director, gives one of the best testimonies for Giant.
"It's a company that invests a lot and brings good material in," said Manolo Saiz as he followed his team through the Pyrenees. "For me, without a doubt, they're the best bikes in the Tour de France."
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