2021 PRO thread

[BenSiskri]

I've been saying for a while that teams have a 'change' top, so there is less clashing of colours....They just have to work out when you wear the change top....It's also an opprotunity to sell more merchandise.

[ms6073]

Looks like Belgium has decided to ban spectators at sporting events: Diegem Superprestige cancelled after new COVID-19 spectator ban sparks chaos in Belgian cyclo-cross

[Mr.Gib]

Great article on Mark Pedun. An interesting explanation of his inconsistent performances by Vaughters.
https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/it ... ark-padun/

[Mr.Gib]

It is pretty funny

Absolutely absurd. The Canadian Football League used to have two teams with the same name (imagine the play by play commentary ) but at least they had different uniforms.

[TobinHatesYou]

The previous SD Worx and Rally kits were excellent. The Andy Schleck kit is the best of the 2022 rainbow sherbet themes with the clean/smooth horizontal fade...and they were first to use that color palette.

[MichaelK]

The Andy Schleck kit is the best of the 2022 rainbow sherbet themes with the clean/smooth horizontal fade...and they were first to use that color palette.

...and they're the ones being forced to change the kit by the UCI.

[Karvalo]

I've been saying for a while that teams have a 'change' top, so there is less clashing of colours....They just have to work out when you wear the change top....It's also an opprotunity to sell more merchandise.

Given that almost all the same teams are racing at almost all the same major televised events then I don't really see how that idea is going to help. It'd just make make it more confusing to casually tune in to a race and try and figure out which teams are using which colours on that particular weekend.

Yes to the merchandising - but a lot of teams are already using their one race a year in different kit to sell a whole new range, and doing it well.

[Kjetil]

^Schleck is The one team that’s not WWT.
Let’s hope for some diversity in helmets.

[Dan Gerous]

^Schleck is The one team that’s not WWT.
Let’s hope for some diversity in helmets.

Isn't the Schleck team a lower level team that rarely participates in bigger races that are on TV? Forcing them to change the kit is not only insulting as, contrary to the others, they already had that kit in 2021, but it will not really change much of the confusion as it's the other three teams who are bound to race against each other a lot more often and on races that are watchable on TV.

[BenSiskri]

It's cycling, it can never get things right - they had those colours first, so they should keep them. Is it really that hard to come to some sort of arrangement on who wears what, and when. It shoudn't be, but cycling frequently can't organise a **** up in a brewery.

Large numbers on the back, different colour helmets (or even personalised helmets) are also solutions, but for some reason never happen.

[BdaGhisallo]

It's cycling, it can never get things right - they had those colours first, so they should keep them. Is it really that hard to come to some sort of arrangement on who wears what, and when. It shoudn't be, but cycling frequently can't organise a **** up in a brewery.

Large numbers on the back, different colour helmets (or even personalised helmets) are also solutions, but for some reason never happen.

I wouldn't even bother to have the UCI involved. Let the teams themselves figure it out. If a team adopts a kit design that doesn't distinguish them from other teams and they lose out on valuable and easy recognition on tv and in other media then, if they're smart, they'll figure it out and change it.

All the riders will have numbers pinned on their jerseys and transponders on their bikes so kit clashes shouldn't be a matter for the UCI or race organizers to be concerned about.

[Kjetil]

Need to change rules for that. As it is now you need a team name change or a single race to use a different kit to the one recognized by the uci for the year.
Maybe it’s possible to make these kits less similar before January 1st/the first race?

[Stendhal]

Thank you for the outstanding video of the Uno-X team riding the race you invented

[Karvalo]

I wouldn't even bother to have the UCI involved. Let the teams themselves figure it out. If a team adopts a kit design that doesn't distinguish them from other teams and they lose out on valuable and easy recognition on tv and in other media then, if they're smart, they'll figure it out and change it.

That doesn't explain why the situation has just arisen with team choosing to use colours they know are already in use. In truth, I don't really think it matters to them, does it?

It's not like sponsor logos are really visible when you've got a wide shit of a peloton motoring along with 15 different jerseys mixed together. Major sponsor value comes from the finish line shots where it doesn't really matter what the colours are, you can read all the sponsor names and you know which team it is anyway because you know who won.

[Geoff]

How about Wout van Aert and Lucina Brand!?