Spanish bike firm Orbea and French Pro Continental team Vital Concept-B&B Hotels are focusing on the same project for the second year in a row, to participate in UCI World Tour competitions and earn an invite to the Tour de France.
Orbea and Vital Concept-B&B Hotels are cooperating again this season. The French team, under the direction of former cyclist Jérôme Pineau, will take part in World Tour competitions such as Paris-Nice and Paris-Roubaix and will strive for one of the invitations to the Tour de France 2019, the key objective sought by the squad led by Bryan Coquard.
The project, in its second year of existence, has been strengthened by top riders such as Pierre Rolland, expert in grand tours and a stage winner at the Tour de France and Giro de Italia, and Arthur Vichot, a classics expert with eight years of experience on top level teams.
Bryan Coquard, in his second season with the team, will serve as team leader and will spearhead the stages with a final sprint. Along with him are three new faces for Vital Concept B&B Hotels, including Cyril Gautier, Jimmy Turgis and Maxime Cam, who join the 23-cyclist squad alongside names like Kevin Reza, Jonas Van Genechten and Kris Boeckmans.
The main goal for Vital Concept-B&B Hotels in 2019 will be to earn victories in elite races and provide good performances in order to receive an invitation to the Tour de France and other World Tour competitions. This is one of the fundamental goals of the team, and also a key objective of one of its main supporters, Orbea.
“Orbea has been competing since the 1930s, so top-level competition is part of our heritage and soul,” said Orbea’s Sports Marketing Manager, Aitor Otxoa. “The feedback from the teams and riders helps us perfect products like the Orca, Orca Aero and Ordu bicycles ridden by Vital Concept-B&B Hotels. The push towards technical proficiency is a fundamental objective for us.”
Vital Concept-B&B Hotels is Professional Continental team based in Brittany (France). Founded in 2017, its honours include stage victories in the Tour of Oman, the Tour of Belgium and the Four Days of Dunkerque. All of these were earned by Bryan Coquard.
Orbea is part of the Mondragón Cooperative Corporation and is Spain’s largest bicycle operator. Orbea bike frames are manufactured in Asia and finished in Spain – with the brand shipped worldwide.
In 2011, Orbea further cemented its relationship with Orca – the wetsuit and apparel tri brand. Heralding from New Zealand, Orca is part of the Orbea family – with Orbea and Orca reaching an agreement in 2011 for Spanish Orbea to acquire Orca’s ‘operation rights in the triathlon and compression area.’ This deal gave Orbea global rights to the Orca brand, following ‘four years of fruitful relations’ between the two companies.
