Time (bicycles)

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TIME Sport International is a French manufacturer of cycling equipment, including bicycle frames, cycling shoes, clipless bicycle pedals, cranksets, and gloves.

Time is one of the leading brands of carbon fibre racing bicycle frames and forks, they use some of the most high-tech manufacturing techniques in the cycle industry.

Time ATAC type pedals are a favourite of inner-city bicycle couriers, because of their small cleat size, ease of entry and exit, lightweight, and reliability. And because they are kinder to the knees than Shimano SPD pedals.

Time has also sponsored ProTour teams Quick.Step-Intergetic and Bouygues Telecom.

The 2005 world champion Tom Boonen rode TIME bikes during his successful 2005 season, including the Ronde van Vlaanderen, Paris-Roubaix, the Tour of Belgium and the 2005 World Road Race Championships in Madrid, Spain. It is notable that in the following season, TIME developed a special bike, the Time VXRS, for Boonen to ride in the spring classics in 2006. This bike featured a number of modifications, including wheels with larger numbers of spokes, a flat section rim and unusually wide tyres, as well as a longer wheelbase 1. Despite these modifications, Boonen's attempt to repeat his 2005 Paris-Roubaix victory was thwarted by a decidedly low-tech intervention, when a train barrier came down between the peloton and the course leader, Fabian Cancellara, who was able to cycle solo to victory in the 'Hell of the North'.

Boonen was able to seize victory in the 2006 Ronde van Vlaanderen classic race thus guaranteeing his place in cycling history as a great champion.

Paolo Bettini the Olympic champion was able to repeat Boonen's feat by pedaling his TIME Bicycle to World Championship victory in the 2006 men's road race. Despite suffering the bereavement of losing his brother in an accident, Bettini then followed this up with an emotional victory in the classic Tour of Lombady (Giro D'Lombardia) held along and around the shores of Lake Como in Italy.

Both Boonen and Bettini will be riding Specialized bikes due to a change in team sponsor in 2007. However French based professional cycling team Bouygues Telecom will still be riding TIME bikes in 2007. [1]

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