Lapierre is the biggest cycling company in France. It was founded by Lapierre family in the city of Dijon in year 1946 and was one of the first French bike builders to jump aboard the mountain bike boom of the 1980s and 90s. Lapierre currently produces over 60,000 bikes per year. Production is divided between three production facilities: headquarters in Dijon and two in the north of France. All high-end bikes are produced in Dijon, and strict quality controls are practiced at all three plants in order to ensure the integrity of the brand and minimize errors.

Lapierre is placed on the high-end specialized segment, designs and produces top-end road and mountain bikes.

During the 2003 season, Lapierre decided to extend its field of activities. After signing a 3-year contract with 10-time Downhill World Champion Nicolas Vouilloz, a complete range of free ride and DH bikes was created to complete the existing ATB range. For 2006 year Nicoals Vouilloz together with Lapierre after more then two years of research and development, created complete new range of Freeride and Downhill bikes adapting FPS2 suspension design into long travel X-160 and DH-230 bikes.

Other LP technologies were optimized, for example, the famous FPS2 system initially used for cross country biking was reintroduced in a new X-Control 130 All mountain orientated bike with more travel.

In the road cycling Lapierre is prided itself in innovation this year, introducing its all-new monocoque carbon technology called LP 0.9C. With this break-through development, a road frame was introduced with a weight of only 900 grams (size 52) and this frame is not only lightweight but also strong and reactive.

Lapierre is also working closely with Francaise des Jeux professional road team, whose riders used 0.9C X-Lite frames during the 2004 and 2005 Tour de France. The professional road team FDJEUX.COM was the only team to wear all four jerseys in this year’s Tour de France, and they finished in green thanks to an aggressive sprint by Baden Cooke in the final stage. The Dijon-based amateur team SCOD-Team LP brought home the prestigious title of Champion of France for the second time in its history with cyclist Alexandre Grux.

The cycling world often seems to be dominated by men, but LP chose a long time ago to support a female triathlon team as well. The performances of Audrey Cleau were exceptional this year, including runner-up at the long distance world championships and a victory at the famous Nice Triathlon. Lapierre offers also full range of mountain bikes specially designed for women.

Export activities is an important part of Lapierre’s business strategy as demand for the brand increases abroad. Lapierre distributes directly to neighboring European countries, but chooses to carefully select distributors to represent them overseas. Lapierre is currently distributed in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, Principia d’Andorra, Portugal, Poland, Czech Republic, Denmark, USA, South Africa, Japan & Australia.

Lapierre is a part of ACCELL GROUP witch is a European group specialized in the design, production, marketing, and selling of bicycles and bicycle accessories. The group consists of the brands Batavus, Hercules, Koga, Lapierre, Mercier, Sparta, Staiger, Tunturi, Hunland and Winora. These brands are principally sold through the bicycle retail network throughout Europe.

ACCELL GROUP has subsidiaries in the Netherlands, Germany, Hungary, Finland and France. They are the second largest bike group in Europe, and their shares are traded on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange.

For more information, visit Lapierre website at www.cycles-lapierre.fr