BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news

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...

The UK is the second biggest market for Crank Brothers pedals and the Californian company wants to capitalise on the position by appointing Raw Experience of Edinburgh as its second UK distributor.

The former sales director of Dawes has created his own business - Saddleback - and has already secured the UK and Ireland distribution for Thule, Serfas, Ronhill and Battaglin.

The US bike trade org has a new executive director, Tim Blumenthal. currently the boss at IMBA. He starts work at Bikes Belong in September and was picked from 500 candidates.

Who could ever forget the ultra-French '1664' beer adverts on Channel 4's Tour coverage in the 1990s? Now another tipple gets in on the act. Michelob - the low-carb lager - will have slots on both ITV1 and ITV2. Michelob is the sponsor of The London Triathlon.