At a little bit less than 3 months before the Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2008 in Brest a few changes have been announced concerning the official sponsors of the Tour ... I announced it a week ago already: Nestlé Aquarel is no longer the Tour's official water supplier and Grand'Mere will no longer distribute its coffee ...

UPDATE 25 April 2008: recently Culture Vélo has joined the Tour de France as an official supplier (read)

On the blog Orange dans le Tour on which I give a look behind the scenes of the Tour de France for Orange I announced it yesterday already, but unfortunately I didn't find the time to publish a blog post here ... that has now been solved :-).

The Tour de France will have a new official water supplier

Nestlé Waters announced yesterday that the company will replace the Nestlé Aquarel brand in the Tour by Vittel. Nestlé Aquarel was the Tour de France official water supplier since 2001 and since 2003 also the sponsor of the stage winner.

For Vittel the Tour de France is not completely new since the brand has already been part of the Tour advertising caravan at the end of the 60s. Vittel will probably have more or less the same presence in the Tour as Nestlé Aquarel had so far with the brand being visible in the 25 last kilometers of each of the stages and on the arrival arch in addition to the sponsoring of the stage winner. Vittel will thus take Nestlé Aquarel's place in the Club du Tour de France (the most important Tour sponsors).

This means we'll loose the clown, the doctor, the newly-weds and the crazy fireman in het Nestlé Aquarel advertising caravan, but Vittel might come with a few nice surprises as well for the people watching the Tour on the side of the road!
Concerning those surprises, Nestlé Waters' general manager Denis Cans said "We will (...) improve our distribution process along the roads in France during the race with some animations which will be even more interactive with the crowd"

There might by the way be a stop of the Tour in the Vosges region in 2009, with especially two important cities for Nestlé Waters: Vittel and Contrexéville.

After the announcement of the brand change during the 50th congress of the Union de Journalistes Sportifs de France (UJSF), Nestlé Waters' vice president Hubert Genieys declared: "In addition to the commercial interests the arrival of Vittel in the Tour de France also shows the trust and the support the Nestlé Waters group has in the organiser of the Grande Boucle, for the courage, the determination and serious approach they have in the tough fight for a clean Tour".

I didn't count the number of Nestlé Aquarel bottles I drank during the Tour de France 2007, but I do know now I will have to get used to the Vittel taste this year (but that probably won't be a real problem, because with the nice weather you can drink almost anything ;-)).

Grand'Mère's Tour-adventure is over as well and the replacement is not coffee only

The change in official water supplier is not the only drink providers change for the Tour de France: the Grand'Mère coffee will no longer be there to wake up the people working in the advertising caravan and those of the other Tour de France sponsors and their invitees ... This heavy task will now be taken up by Ricoré, a hot drink which is made up of coffee for 40% and of chicory for 60%.

The site Prodimarques contains an interesting article on the history of the brand which has always been used for one single product only.
The brand's advertising caravan might mean a revival of the song about l'ami Ricoré on the roads of the Tour de France: "Le soleil vient de se lever, grand-père et grand-mère sont passés pour l'ami Ricoré, l'ami du petit déjeuner, l'ami Ricoré. Que l'on soit grand ou bien petit, à chaque âge il est notre ami, l'ami du petit déjeuner, l'ami Ricoré." (or one of its many variants) ...

Ideactif is probably working hard already on the advertising caravans for Vittel and Ricoré, both part of the Nestlé group.

Vittel's contract probably is a continuation of Nestlé Aquarel's existing contract which lasts 2 years (2008 and 2009).

Other changes in the Tour de France sponsors

Nestlé replaces the Nestlé Aquarel brand by Vittel and adds the Ricoré brand, but it will also remove the Nestlé Extrême brand from the Tour ... Too bad, because it had almost become a ritual for me to eat an ice cream at the stage finish in the VIP room (espace Tourmalet).

The other brands which will no longer be part of the Tour:
- Eurotyre
- Grand'Mère (see above)
- Isover
- SeaFrance: which is logical because this was more of less an opportunity sponsor because of the transfer between France and UK for last year's Tour de France
- ADEME (Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l'Energie)

La Vache Qui Rit has been added to the list of official suppliers. The cheese brand has been part of the Tour's advertising caravan (see also my blog post on my day in the La Vache Qui Rit's advertising caravan at the Tour de France 2006), but it will now thus also become an official supplier.

Finally, two of the Tour sponsors have changed their name: AG2R Prévoyance has become AG2R La Mondiale (see also my blog post about the AG2R La Mondiale 2008 cycling team presentation) and Sodexho has lost its h to become Sodexo.

The full list of Tour de France sponsors

• The official broadcasters
• The members of the Club du Tour de France
  
  - VittelVittel will become the Tour de France's official water supplier and sponsors the stage winner.
  
  On Vittel's web site there's no specific Tour de France content yet.
  
  - ChampionOfficial Tour de France super market and sponsor of the polka dot jersey.
  
  Champion didn't update its special page about the Tour de France on its website since the Tour de France 2007.
  
  The Dutch site Distrifood has published an article about the disappearance of the Champion brand to be taken over by the Carrefour brand (with a link to my site!)
  
  - LCLThe Tour de France bank will not take its mobile ATM this year ... therefore we'll have to get our money before going to the Tour.
  
  LCL is the sponsor of the yellow jersey and its web site so far only contains a page with some generic information about the Tour de France 2008 ... they'll just have to update the map and the track ;-)
  
  - SkodaThe supplier of most of the cars in the Tour de France (for the organisation and for a big number of cycling teams) has extended its contract with the Tour until 2011 and its website currently doesn't really contain any other information than this announcement.
• The official sponsors
  
  - OrangeOrange will again supply all communication services for the Tour and the blog Orange dans le Tour will again give a look behind the scenes of the Tour de France.
  
  - PMUPMU is the sponsor of the green jersey
  
  - Nike
  
  - FestinaPascal will again write some stories on the Festina blog (the design could be better, but anyway ...)
  
  - CSCThis Tour might well be CSC's last year, since CSC announced it will stop sponsoring cycling
  
  - SagemSagem's logo will again be on all riders' number and Sagem also sponsors the team ranking.
  
  - Brandt
  
  - AG2R La Mondiale
  
  - AntargazAntargaz has a specific page on the Tour de France, but this page hasn't been updated since the Tour de France 2007 either
• The environment partners
  
  - Eco Emballages
  
  - ARPE MIP (Agence Régionale Pour l'Environnement Midi-Pyrénées)
• The official suppliers
  
  - CochonouAdeline will probably again write some stories about Cochonou's 2CVs on the Cochonou et Vous blog
  
  - Doublet
  
  - Dr. Oetker
  
  - Etap HotelYet another sponsor which didn't update its page on the Tour de France since last year
  
  - Haribo
  
  - Kawasaki
  
  - Mavic
  
  - Nesquik
  
  - Norbert Dentressangle
  
  - Powerbar
  
  - Ricoré
  
  - sodexo
  
  - La Vache Qui Rit
  
  - Vision Plus
  
  - Culture Vélo
  
  UPDATE 25 April 2008: since a few days Culture Vélo has joined the Tour de France as an official supplier.
  More precisely, Culture Vélo is part of the Cycloparc, an activity zone around cycling within the A chacun son Tour programme. Culture Vélo, a bike shop, participates in the Cycloparc with a stand Security and a stand ECOcyclist.
  
  A dedicated page explains Culture Vélo's role in the Cycloparc.
• Les partenaires techniques
  
  - Kleber
  
  - Motorhome Rent
  
  - Doublet
  
  - Petit Ambulances
• The government partners
  
  - Assemblée des Départements de France
  
  - Ministère de l'Intérieur

door Thomas Vergouwen
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