Lindava, North Bohemia, July 13 (CTK) – The trophy for the winner of Tour de France, the world’s most famous cycling race, has been made by glassmakers in the small village of Lindava after a design of Peter Olah, Slovak-born designer of the Skoda Auto company, Ales Styblo, from the Lasvit firm, has told CTK.
Lasvit, a producer of unique glass sculptures and illuminants, is a partner of Tour de France.
When the Czech-made trophy, a rare glass cut artifact, will be handed over to this year’s Tour de France winner in Paris on July 24, it will be for the sixth consecutive time.
Olah told CTK that the trophy’s vertical shape reminds of a cycling race, in which a number of contestants take part but favourites gradually emerge from the crowd and only one becomes the winner.
The trophy’s shape has remained the same in the past years but its final processing and decoration has been different every year, Olah said.
“This year’s shape of the trophy means a return to the roots. I was inspired by the Slavia bicycle from 1899 that was produced by the Czech Laurin&Klement manufacturer, and by the development that racing bicycles have undergone since. The trophy evidently reflects my fascination with turning wheels,” Olah, a car designer, said.
“That is why the trophy bears a distinct hand-made technical cutting that dynamically decorates its whole shape. It is an extraordinarily demanding glass-cutting technology,” Olah said.
The order to produce the trophy was placed with the Lasvit company which entrusted the task to the Ajeto glass manufacturer in Lindava, in which it holds a minority stake.
Lasvit has also produced the trophies in the past years.
“We have always applied the same glass-blowing and cutting techniques…but the trophy is still special in being different every year,” the firm’s co-owner Petr Styblo told the media.
Skoda Auto is Tour de France’s partner for the 13th time this year, and for the second time it is a partner of the Green Jersey for the best sprinter. That is why also a green version of the trophy has been produced in Lindava.
Each trophy is made of a single piece of glass, is 60cm high and weighs four kilograms. Lasvit will bring two more of them to Paris than needed in case some of them got damaged.
