Confirmed: Fortuneo-Samsic to ride BH bikes at the Tour de France

The Fortuneo-Samsic pro continental team have confirmed that they will be riding the bikes of Spanish brand BH at the Tour de France, when the race starts next week. It follows the announcement on Monday that the team and Look Cycles had parted ways.

Rather than a generic colour scheme, the team’s announcement shows a BH bike in the team’s white and green colours, suggesting that this move had been in the works for some time.

The team will ride the BH Ultralight Evo for road stages, with the announcement saying that the frame’s reinforcement at the most critical points will offer its riders extreme rigidity along with an unbeatable weight. Its features are likely to appeal to Warren Barguil, who will be aiming to repeat his two stage wins and polka dot jersey in last year’s Tour, when he rode for Sunweb.

BH will also provide its Aerolight time trial bike to the team.

In the announcement, Emmanuel Hubert, general manager of Fortuneo-Samsic states (in French): “I am very happy that my riders will tackle the Tour de France on BH bikes. It’s a model that has already shown its worth in the past.” Last year, Direct Energie were riding BH bikes, before switching to Wilier for this season.

According to a report yesterday in newspaper Ouest France, some of Fortuneo-Samsic’s riders just weren’t satisfied with Look’s machines, despite Look making modifications to try to address their requirements. The team’s riders also seem to have been frustrated by the lack of wins or high placings in this year’s races.

The team will continue to roll on wheels from Corima – a Look subsidiary – and Vittoria tyres. Look will also supply their pedals. They will use SRAM groupsets and Prologo saddles along with Elite bottles and cages. They’re all existing team suppliers.

In addition, Fortuneo-Samsic have announced that they will use Wahoo Elemnt Bolt computers and Wahoo heart rate monitors. Other components will come from FSA, which will supply its Powerbox power meter chainset.