Cycling Team Kit – leave it to the professionals

I’m no style icon so please feel free to rubbish any of the following, but I can’t help noticing a worrying rise in the amount of cycling team kit being worn….in public….by people who have the pick of the world of cycling apparel to choose from.

Style

For the pro’s the kit will match the bike, the helmet, the sunglasses, the water bottles, the shoes – everything. To get away with wearing one of the more…experimental, lets say…team kits, you have to go the whole hog. Maybe you were quite taken with team Garmin’s rather fetching (?) blue, white and orange argyle pattern from 2010? Good for you, a bold move. Now you need everything else to match. And what goes with Garmin argyle?……..more Garmin argyle I’m afraid.

Let Pierre Rolland’s 2013 polka dot adventure be a lesson in how not to wear matching kit.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting a bit of style on the bike. If you don’t want to be a Castelli, an Assos or a Rapha, try one of these less mainstream brands:

http://www.cafeducycliste.com
http://www.dannyshane.com

Team Sky Kit

The most common team cycling kit seen on the roads of Britain is undoubtedly Team Sky’s sleek black Rapha number.

If you want to wear Team Sky kit because you think it’s cool and stylish, you like the retro look of it and you don’t mind paying premium prices, that’s fine. Treat yourself to some Rapha. Most of it is pretty cool and doesn’t say ‘Sky’ on it.

If on the other hand you want to look like you ride for Team Sky, unfortunately, unless you are some kind of hardcore racing snake you probably don’t look like Richie Porte when you wear it. You probably look like most of the rest of us….not like Team Sky look on the TV as they menace the rest of the peloton.

Advertising

To me it seems strange that a grown man or woman would happily ride around in public providing free advertising space? That is the purpose of team kit. To paraphrase Mark Cavendish (in one of his more cynical moments) pro cyclists are simply moving billboards.

So you choose to wear, for example, team Saxo-Tinkoff kit and advertise a Danish online investment bank, and Russia’s leading provider of online financial services. That’s your choice. Mr Tinkoff might well be a perfectly decent bloke running a respectable, ethical financial institution…..in Russia.

On the other hand you might want to have a think about whose business you’re promoting. We’re back to Team Sky again……do you really want to advertise for Rupert Murdoch….really?

And what the hell is a Belkin anyway?

You received your team kit as a birthday present from your wife or child?

This is fine….carry on.