As any custom bike maker will tell you, the fit is the most important part of a frame. And reportedly, Lance is/was fanatical about fitting stuff correctly. Once something fits, even if it isn't the best money can buy, you tend to like it.

I have only recently started watching competitive cycling on OLN, but I did find it strange that I didn't see anyone out there on a vanilla, or a merlin or a litespeed. Half of them were on giants or other taiwan bikes; I might have seen a single LeMond but I wasn't sure. I know lance trains on handmade treks from their R&D department, but it would seem 50 year old roadies up the street have way better bikes than the average pro cyclist.

Lance may have had confidence in the bike, but I am also sure it wasn't his absolute favorite bike in the world. He has to have a litespeed or a campy or a handmade Sky Yaeger somewhere in his stable that he would've rather been riding, right?

Outside of aesthetics, in what ways, specifically and measurably, would a Vanilla Frame be a better ride for the Tour than the highest end Trek? What are the assumptions? I'll offer an assumption of my own: The Trek/Nike R&D budget is a thousand to one higher than Vanilla's. Not to call that company out, they make nice beautiful frames, but their business/building model is dissimilar to the extreme.

A big bike company uses the same loving care and devotion to detail that a artisian builder does when designing a perfect fitting bike for Lance + the R&D budget, wind tunnel testing and engineering department to build him a different frame that's been optimized for climbing stages, time trials, etc, plus back up bikes. And bikes for the rest of his team. And back up bikes for them. Does this make the Trek that you or I can buy in the shop and better? I dunno, trickle down technology?
I don't think there are a lot of small builders that could support a pro team if they wanted to. I'd guess that a lot of the well known established builders, with year+ waiting lists already, probably wouldn't get the same return on advertising that Trek does. Trek's got a couple warehouses full of hybrids and 5000 series carbon road bikes to sell to the world who just discovered TdF. The guys building custom handmade frames a la Vanilla are probably already selling close to the number of bikes they can/want to make in a year.

In response to your comment about Trek's warehouse full of hybrids and 5000 series carbon frames, it's amusing to note how much Trek throws away.
Some friend's of mine went dumpster diving at the trek factory here in Wisconsin and came away with some carbon frames and many many carbon wheelsets.
Trek's trash could outfit a team.

Look how far Cervélo has come, we Canadian riders are super proud of those guys. It's because of having pro riders on your gear that you can afford to R&D stuff to death.

'Win on Sunday = Sales on Monday"
Henry Ford

Wow, I'm surprised that they don't 'destroy' their frames/wheels before they throw them away. Even if it's just an aesthetic blemish, they'd want to prevent it from being used with their name on it. Not to mention those carbon wheels they made with that lot of epoxy that never really cured. ;)

There were some destroyed frames and wheelsets, from crash testing and what not I assume.
But just as many cosmetic blemishes in perfect working order.
Aparently Trek will prosecute if they catch you, but I've really been itching to check it out.

Dumpster diving nirvana

I think taiwan is dumpster diving nirvana. Just think there are probably days when they have to throw out entire production runs of carbon frames/wheels.

I'm not entirely sure I'd like to get caught doing that there though.

They might just weld the top of the dumpster shut :lol:

touche.

It costs a ton of money to supply bikes for a team. Vanilla and Litespeed don't have that kind of cash.

I know a local rider who is one of the top masters in the country. He can afford whatever bike he wants; he rides a Giant.