Ray Green wrote:
Viking Cycles seems to have had an imaginative marketing department in claiming four victories in the ToB. This includes, presumably, the team race in 1959 which is claimed in a contemporary advertisment. In fact Belgium won the team classement however "the whole Belgian team rode Viking Severn valley framesets"! Pretty neat trick for a trade team to claim the team win in a race exclusively for national and regional teams.
They certainly seem to have had an effective marketing department. Cycling: of Nov 28 1964 tells us:
Viking's sales manager, Bob Thom, sold Severn Valley framesets with mostly British components to the German Ruberg team through contact made at the Cologne show. Williams AB77 chainset, Cyclo Star freewheel, Cyclo Benelux P2 gears, GB bars and stems, Airlite hubs and Brooks saddles. This at a time when most teams were using continental components. I have no knowledge of how successful that tem was though.
Peter Brown, Lincolnshire, England