Geelong cycling start-up Partington.cc aiming for Tour de France
Tour de France winner Cadel Evans is backing a Geelong carbon bike wheel start-up and thinks the wheels could be used in the famous race.
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A Geelong-based start-up wants to bring its carbon bike wheels to the Tour de France.
Partington.cc, based at Deakin University’s ManuFutures estate in Waurn Ponds, launched its latest wheelset with champion racing cyclist Cadel Evans on board as product performance advisor.
Former Ford employee John Partington founded the company during his postgraduate studies at Deakin University, debuting the wheels in mid-2020.
“In contrast to pretty much everyone else in the industry, we do everything in-house from concept ideas and product design,” he said.
“We’re not constrained by any kind of common industry practices or whatever a contract manufacturer is able to produce.”
Evans, who won the Tour de France in 2011, has been on board testing the wheels since the early days of the company and said he could vouch for their development.
“The newly developed hub brings the performance of the MKII to another level again,” he said.
“I am amazed at how fast these wheels are.”
Evans was first introduced to the company in its infancy, when wheels were still being tested out in a back shed.
“He got more formally involved a couple of years back, helping us test wheels and see whether they translate into a product that works well,” partington.cc chief executive Steve Drake told the Geelong Advertiser.
Mr Drake said the company had since grown from a backyard business to employ 19 people over the last three years.
“I don’t think we’ll be sponsoring a team in the Tour next year, but there are lots of examples from the past of riders using non-sponsored products when they think there is a competitive advantage to be gained, and that’s where I think partington wheels might first find their way to the Tour de France,” he said.
“It’s fantastic to see the product being manufactured here, creating local jobs and being sold around the world.”
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Originally published as Geelong cycling start-up Partington.cc aiming for Tour de France
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