Bikes of the Tour (Part 1)

I never understood in horse racing why people praised the jockeys. All those little guys do is whip an animal half to death for a mile and the one who does it best wins the race.

Luckily for us cycling is not horse racing and the men we praise do a hell of a lot of work. However in the spirit of praising the horse as well as the jockey, here are the best bikes from this year's Tour de France.

10: Caisse D'Epargne Pinarello Prince. The bike road very impressively by Luis Leon Sanchez and outfitted in Campy Super Record.

9: Euskaltel-Euskadi's Orbea Orca. The Belgians really know there bikes, even when it is a Basque team they're outfitting. This bike helped Mikel Astarloza grab a big stage win and sports Shimano Dura-Ace components.

8: Lampre's Wilier Triestina. While Lampre didn't do much in this year's Tour (do they ever do anything or just run out of steam after the Giro), this bike at least made them look good. Bike pictured is that of World champ Alessandro Ballan.

7: Garmin Slipstream's Felt AR. Felt stepped up their game this year with this aero-beauty and so did Garmin Slipstream. This bike took fourth overall thanks to Bradley Wiggins. Christian Vande Velde and Tyler Farrar raced pretty well on it as well.

6: Columbia-HTC's Scott Addict. Mark Cavendish uses this bike. Is that enough said, maybe but this bike does more than just go fast in a sprint. It also helped Tony Martin take second on Mont Ventoux and almost grabbed George Hincapie yellow.