SRAM-equipped riders in this year's Tour de France will include three past winners – Alberto Contador (Astana), Carlos Sastre (Cervélo TestTeam) and Lance Armstrong (Team Radioshack) – and the Chicago-based company will again celebrate the occasion with a specially finished Red component group for each of them.
Last year's white graphics treatment will be replaced with yellow this time around, and all of the group's usual silver bits are now anodised black. Special etching is featured on the rear derailleur mounting bolt, and the press-on cassette backing plate is black as well.
One critical difference from past special editions, however, is consumer availability – as SRAM will offer this Limited Tour Edition set to the public from September. Though functionally equivalent to standard Red packages, the special graphics package will nonetheless command around a 10 percent price premium – putting it right around US$2,500 for a complete group.
According to SRAM road PR and media manager Michael Zellman, production won't be limited in terms of numbers but rather time, with production of the Limited Tour Edition Red groups slated to cease in June.