Cycle tyre test carried out by the leading European specialist magazine emphasises Continental's tyre expertise

13 top rankings for the first ten stages confirm technological leadership in the field of professional cycle tyres.

Hanover, July 2004. Four top teams participating in the Tour de France 2004 are relying on Continental tyres: T-Mobile, Crédit Agricole, Lotto-Domo and Phonak Hearing Systems. The technological superiority of the tyres produced in Korbach, in the German federal state of Hesse, was recently confirmed from several different quarters - through the outstanding evaluations in the tyre test run by the leading European cycle magazine 'tour', as well as through the numerous top rankings achieved by the riders in the teams supplied by Continental.

Just as pleasing as successful test results in Europe's most important cycling magazine are the rankings achieved so far by the professional teams supplied by Continental; these are given coverage by the company on the biking website www.Conti-Fahrradreifen.de. On the first ten stages of the world's toughest cycle race, riders from the T-Mobile, Crédit Agricole, Lotto-Domo and Phonak Hearing Systems teams achieved 13 top 3 places. If one includes the Saunier Duval team which is also supplied by Continental, then the 108 riders in the teams fitted with Continental tyres have already achieved 24 victories in 2004 alone.

As Germany's leading tyre manufacturer, Continental is traditionally one of the main suppliers of racing tyres to the Tour de France. Top riders rely on the racing tyres hand-made in Korbach, Hesse, the only bicycle tyre factory still operating in Germany today.

"We will be eagerly watching the next stages through the mountains and of course keeping our fingers crossed for Jan Ullrich in particular. Maybe we can give success a helping hand, not just with our tyres, but also with our tuning liquid" added Wolf vorm Walde. Continental's tuning liquid is applied to the the tyres for the tough mountain stretches, as it reduces the rolling resistance on the extremely light tubulars by 15%, providing a time benefit of up to 30 seconds, which has often been decisive for the final victory on the Tour de France.

Continental's bicycle tyre business unit is based in Korbach, Hesse, and has an extensive range of touring, trekking, mountain bike and racing tyres. In addition to tyres offering high mileage performance, low rolling resistance and comfort, Continental also manufactures studded winter tyres for bicycles. Continental racing tyres are used by leading teams in many cycling events such as the Tour de France and the Olympic Games. Continental is the only manufacturer of bicycle tyres to produce in Germany.

Continental AG is a leading supplier of tyres, braking systems, suspension components and technical elastomers. In 2003 the company achieved a turnover of 11.5 billion euros and employed some 69,000 staff worldwide.