Noted in the EC article that the owner of Q36.5 is reportedly also owner of Pinarello. So there’s some speculation Q36.5 will be on Pinarellos next year. Unclear I guess whether they’ll pull sponsorship from Ineos (who, to be fair, are not exactly crushing it) or just add Q36.5.
To be fair I think this is the most the cycling world has talked about Q36.5 (awful, awful brand name BTW), so this is certainly getting that team some publicity. They have a rich owner who wants SOMETHING TO HAPPEN ASAP, and guessing Pidcock is the highest profile rider they could sign. Works out for both parties, Q36.5 raises their profile, Pidcock gets a team he can control.
Pidcock transfer may not happen now…what a circus.
Also, very sad news about Chris Hoy…Stage 4 prostate cancer and his wife was also diagnosed with a severe form of MS. That one hits a little close to home for me.
And Scott already has a WT team sponsorship deal on which they have millions invested. Seriously doubt they would be interested in another similar investment when the owner of the team has just purchased a majority (full?) stake on another major cycling brand.
Ineos just announced a major restructuring of the team. No mention of the previous DSs but OTOH no mention of MTB or CX either. No idea where their aim actually is.
This seems like a fairly miserable outcome for all involved. Pidcock is clearly not happy with Ineos, and given that Ineos were prepared to pay part of his salary at another team just to be rid of him it seemed like the feeling was mutual. Ineos in general feels like a sinking, or at least rudderless, ship; tons of their top talent have left, and have said fairly unflattering things about the team after doing so.
Froome and Sagan were a pre-retirement green pasture moves to mostly sit back and relax with possible opportunity to shine one last time if the stars align
That is just for the Grand Tours and only if there is a conflict with the Leader’s Jerseys.
So Visma will still be in yellow for most of the races…but switch to an alternate design for the Tour (same as today).
EF will be in the same position as they always have been, just like Visma.
But a lot of teams may find themselves having to change their jerseys for the Giro, for example, since blue trade team jerseys may cause confusion with the climbers blue jersey.
Actual rule below. Teams can’t have jerseys that look like classification jerseys for the GTs, but also smaller stage races can’t have classification jerseys that look like team kits. So teams will need to change their jerseys if they look like any Tour leader’s jerseys (for example), but also the Paris-Nice leader’s jersey would need to be designed to avoid looking too much like the Visma kit.
This being the UCI there’s no clarity on what “sufficiently distinct” means…
In theory, no…but if you read the article above, you’ll al;so see that UAW is adding some back to their jersey design this year. They feel that will be enough. Whether that will be a significant enough difference for the UCI remains to be seen.
Thankfully, the UCI is very consistent in the enforcement of their rules, so I am sure this will be handled clearly, consistently and promptly.
