Famously ridden by the perpetual runner up at the Tour de France, Raymond Poulidor Mercier frames were among a handful of top tier French bicycles. Mercier produced a wide range of bicycles from cheep heavy steel road bikes to the higher end steel "Service des Courses" framesets. With their quintessential pink paint jobs "Service des Courses" frames were comparable to any high end racing bicycles. The "Service des Courses" frames came painted in other colors than pink and usually have long point cutout lugs with Reynolds or Columbus tubing. As well as steel frames Mercier sold screwed and glued aluminum or carbon models produced by Vitus. Mercier famously sponsored the GAN team and is best remembered as the bike Raymond Poulidor rode in his attempts to win the tour. Joop Zoetemelk also rode special 'Formula One' framesets with aero Vitus tube-sets in his years on Mercier sponsored teams. Much like Gitane and Peugeot, Mercier took advantage of the 70's American bike boom and produced many mediocre low end bicycles as well as hand crafted custom frames for top French riders. Like many brands today the Mercier marque currently adorns mass produced bikes manufactured in the far east and have nothing to do with the original French bicycle company.