After disappearing from public view thirty years ago, a local bike in Glasgow, Scotland has acquired the famous "King of the Mountains" road bike ridden by fellow Scotsman, Robert Millar, in the 1984 Tour de France.
The bike was manufactured by Peugeot, but the development was first headed up by the renown French firm Vitus, who worked with an aerospace company to develop the unique frame. It combined aluminium lugs with carbon fiber main tubes and a Duralinox (a magnesium alloy) Vitus 979 rear triangle, head tube and fork. It was a groundbreaking frame set indeed, that virtually put an an end to the dominance of steel frames. Increased stiffness and decreased weight were the main advantages, it was in the region of 2lbs lighter than the very best steel bike of the day.
“It’s fantastic to have the actual bike that Millar rode to victory here in the shop beside the famous and unique jersey of 84. This is a significant piece of cycling history that we are delighted to share, not just in terms of its importance to cycling but also the friendship my father and Robert established in their early cycling careers.”
Glasgow-raised Millar won ‘King of the Mountains’ in the 1984 Tour de France and finished fourth overall. Millar remains the only rider from a native English speaking country to have won the Mountains classification in the Tour de France. This success was the first time a British rider won a major Tour classification, and was unsurpassed until Bradley Wiggins won the 2009 Tour de France. He is one of only four Britons to have won a Tour de France jersey competition along with Wiggins, Chris Froome and Mark Cavendish. He rode the Tour de France eleven times completing the race eight times.
www.billybilslandcycles.co.uk
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