Originally Posted by
njkayaker
Somebody is paying for the bicycles. The bicycles cost something to build.
Anyway, the cost of the expensive bicycles is probably a small percentage of the total cost of fielding a TdF team. The value of winning is huge. Therefore, small advantages are worth a lot of money (to somebody even if the riders aren't the buyers).
The economics of events like the TdF are complicated because the bikes are probably offered to the teams for low (or no) cost as advertising for the bike manufacturer.
Exactly!!!!!!!! And this is the basis for the agruments about generic vs. name brand frames. Some say there are qualitative "differences" between frames rather than just admitting they would rather ride a name brand frame because it is "cooler". There is a lot of BSting that goes on with marketing, advertising etc.
I have seen brands go from obscurity to wide recognition and their frame prices take the same trajectory. Canyon and Focus will be the next ones to explode while their frames were cheap on the internet until now. Just watch.