The Czech car maker is returning to its roots: the company was founded in 1895 as a bicycle maker. Skoda has taken Fiat's role as official car supplier to the Tour de France, yet not one of new Skoda bicycles - available only though Skoda auto dealerships, and reassuringly expensive - is a skinny-tyred road bike...

Skoda celebrates its Tour de France link-up with a bike range

Skoda is supplying 175 cars to the Tour de France, a selection of Fabia, Octavia and Superb models.

Tour organiser Jean-Marie Leblanc will lead out the Tour on Saturday from Liège in a custom-built Superb 2.8l V6.

Skoda was founded in 1895 by Vaclav Klement and Vaclav Laurin who started bicycle production at the site of today’s car factory in Mladá Boleslav. Car production replaced the manufacture of bicycles ten years later.

The new Skoda bicycle range is made up of five MTBs, starting at £198 for the JuniorRide and topping out at £1797 for the XT-equipped CrossCountry.

Skoda has been selling bicycles in car dealerships in Germany since 2001.

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