The Tour de France not only offers spectacular scenery and some thrilling racing, but also some creative custom paint work on the frames of the riders. Whether it be a nick name inspired decoration or a commemorative graphic, we take a look at some of the more memorable motifs that have appeared at this year’s Tour.

Young Slovak rider, Peter Sagan, has made an explosive debut to the Tour as the Liquigas rider wowed us with his stage wins and creative celebrations. We’re also fairly impressed with the paint work that features on his bike. This Terminator-themed paint job was inspired by his Tour nickname, the “Tourminator”.

This year sees George Hincapie embark on the record setting 17th Tour de France of his career. To celebrate the occasion BMC created this custom painted SL01 with gold highlights and “lucky seventeen” and “gentleman’s round” lettering on the frame. Definitely a keeper.

Philippe Gilbert hasn’t quite lived up to his 2011 season although winning the 2012 Belgian national champs and being presented with this custom paint job by BMC will have helped eased this.

If you can take your eyes off the slammed stem you’ll notice that Ryder Hesjedal’s steed has been decorated with maple leaves to honour the Giro 2012 winner.

FDJ decorated the head tubes of their TT bikes with the head of an eagle for this year’s Tour.

Ridely have produced this Gorilla motif for German rider whose nick name is the Gorilla funnily enough. If you’ve ever seen Andre in the sprint the resemblance is uncanny!

Not that Jens Voigt would need any motivation, but if he did all he needs to do is look down at his top tube.

This may be Vinokourov’s last Tour but that doesn’t mean he’s not going out with a bang with this pair of custom Plasma integrated handlebars.

So there we have it, the artistic side to the Tour. Which are your favourites? Have you seen any we’ve missed? As usual let us go in the comments section below.