Vintage Racing Bikes?

Question

There's a huge market for vintage racing cars, and even motorcycles. Granted during races like The Tour de France a cyclist may use several bikes, but I would imagine that certain winning bikes could be very valuable or just simply desired by collectors. What happens to bikes after the races? Imagine owning the Trek that Lance road around the Champs-Élysées on his 7th tour? Or the bike Eddy Merckx rode won to win Mont Ventoux?

Answer 1

Many times the bikes are kept by the rider that won on it. I have one of Greg Lemond's bikes hanging in my garage which I traded him for a custom touring frame.

Other times the main sponsor keeps the bikes or the bike is in such bad shape it is destroyed. Bikes that are raced in big events often push the envelope of strength and weight and are not very, um, servicable after a couple of serious bouts.