Mavic

Mavic is a bike components manufacturer based in Annecy, France. The company has a long history in cycling dating back to 1934.

History

Founded in 1889 by Léon and Laurent Vielle as a nickel-plating business, Mavic’s first major move into the cycling industry came in the 1930s with the introduction of the Apron Mudguard and, more importantly, the Dura tube rim. Made from aluminium, the new rims tasted early success as Antonin Magne used them on route to his second Tour de France overall victory in 1934.

Incredibly, Italian Mario Longhi registered a patent for the same product just two hours before Mavic. Despite this, the Italian allowed the company to use the design under licence for the next 13 years.

Over the next few decades, Mavic became the manufacturer of choice for countless top professionals and races. By 1973, as the focus turned to aerodynamics, it began developing aero wheels. A year later, the company became the neutral service provider for a number of major races, starting at the 1973 Paris-Nice race before stepping up to the Tour de France in 1977.

During the rest of the 1970s Mavic released the first anodised rims, the first rims with a double-hook bridge, as well as many other components, before heading off-road in 1983 with its first BMX and mountain bike ranges.

A change to the now iconic black and yellow branding came in 1988 before Greg LeMond, with a Tout Mavic unit, won the 1989 Tour de France in nail-biting fashion. Olympic success followed in 1992 as Chris Boardman used Mavic’s tri-spoke 3G wheel and Comete disc wheel on route to individual pursuit success.

In the same year, Mavic released Zap; the first ever electronic shifting system. It went a step further in 1999, building on Zap to create the first wireless groupset, Mektronic. That spelled the end of Mavic’s forays into groupset components and it has since focussed mainly on wheel technology.

Did you know?

Pro Cycling

Current sponsorships:

• Lifeplus Wahoo
• St. Michel-Mavic-Auber93
• Victor Lafay
• Guillaume Martin
• Dorian Godon
• Fabien Grellier
• Jesse Vandenbulcke

Highlights:

• Antonin Magne used Mavic’s Dura tube rim during the 1934 Tour de France when he won his second and final yellow jersey. He did so in secrecy as they were banned at the time, and to disguise them, the rims were painted in a wood colour.
• The now-famous Mavic neutral service made its first appearance at the 1973 edition of Paris-Nice. Bruno Gormand came up with the idea the year before at the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré after he lent a stranded sports director his car. From that the seed of an idea was planted and the company was soon providing support for all riders at some of the sport’s biggest races.
• Having built up four years of experience, Mavic started providing neutral service at cycling’s biggest race in 1977, the Tour de France. The partnership will continue for 44 years before eventually coming to an end in 2021.
• Back in 1989, Greg LeMond produced an incredible comeback to overcome Laurent Fignon in the final stage time trial and win the Tour de France by only eight seconds - still the closest winning margin in the race’s history. His victory was characterised by the use of innovative technology, including the Tout Mavic unit.
• Mavic experienced Olympic success in 1992 when Chris Boardman powered to the individual pursuit title using Mavic’s tri-spoke 3G wheel and Comete disc wheel.