With the start of the Tour de France only 11 days away teams seem in a rush to announce that they will have a new jersey to race in this July. Here is a summary of the changes so far…

It takes time to create the little graphic elements that feature on a race website and related media. When there are two lots of 22 teams selected for a couple of races that will be contested during a high point in the season these details are often redundant by the time the flag is waved to signal the start of competition.

Overnight the Movistar team(s) – men and women – confirmed that the predominantly blue jersey you can find on the Tour de France website will be swapped out for a white one.

With the Spanish team where there was blue, there’s now white and vice-versa. And, as is often the case for mid-season jersey changes, there’s a charity element associated with the colour switch.

“The ‘Iceberg’ kit represents the ocean’s blocks of ice put into danger due to the climate emergency,” explains the Movistar Team about the white jersey that was unveiled less than two weeks before the TDF.

The aim of the team, its clothing supplier Gobik, and the telco title sponsor is to raise “their voices against” this danger.

In the past, we’ve seen images of whales added to a media company’s logo (ie. Sky and the 2018 #PassOnPlastic campaign, around 11 months before plastics manufacturer Ineos took over sponsorship of the British WorldTour team).

Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome on the podium of the 2018 TDF with the yellow jersey and the special-edition ‘Ocean Rescue / #PassOnPlastics’ team jersey. (Photo: Stefano Sirotti)

Often race organisers ask teams that share similar colours to a leader’s jersey to create a race-specific colourway that limits any possible confusion about who is on top of GC. Last year, for example, Jumbo-Visma changed its traditional, predominantly yellow race jersey to one with plenty of dark colours and a nod to the artistic world (ie. Dutch painters including Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Van Gogh).

The same will apply for the team of the defending TDF champion in 2023 with Jumbo-Visma getting in early enough to have the team’s altered designs featured on LeTour.fr (and publications such as the Official Tour de France Guide).

It means that Jonas Vingegaard, 2022 green jersey winner Wout van Aert, multiple stage winner in the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift Marianne Vos, and the other riders from the Dutch team will get a fresh batch of kit delivered in the coming days.

The same applies to Movistar as well as a host of other teams that have already announced changes to the look of their jersey, and even the logos featured on them.

Of the six confirmed changes, four relate to teams in both the #TDF2023 and the #TDFF2023: Team DSM-Firmenich, Uno-X Pro Cycling, Lidl-Trek, and Movistar Team.

Below is an overview of what has already been announced as changes for team jerseys that will begin to appear in the peloton in the coming weeks but, going on past experience, there are likely to be more revealed in the next 10 days or so.

Jumbo-Visma

Yellow with added black…

This is the least surprising change of all listed on this page as the Tour-specific jersey was revealed months ago on the site of the Tour de France. The predominantly yellow kit of the Dutch team will include a large slab of black (for both the men’s and women’s team).

Last year there was a special-edition jersey which was part of an accord struck with ASO to limit any risk of confusion between Jumbo-Visma and the yellow jersey. It just so happens that three riders from the two teams – men and women – spent time in the maillot jaune during the 2022 races.

Marianne Vos would surrender the lead of GC on the final weekend (to compatriot Annemiek van Vleuten) but before the TDFF, there was a strong yellow tint to Jumbo-Visma anyway… with both Wout van Aert and Jonas Vingegaard wearing the yellow jersey during the race.

The Dutch team finally scored the ultimate prize in cycling and Vingegaard swapped his team colours again on the final day while standing on the top step of the podium in Paris.

Team DSM-Firmenich

New design with extra title sponsor

The crew currently known as Team DSM will soon become ‘Team DSM-Firmenich’. It’s the result of a “merger and launch” which apparently “brings together one of the largest innovation and creation communities in nutrition, health, and beauty”.

“The new brand and logo captures the spirit of bringing two iconic organisations together in a merger of equals,” says co-CEO Dimitri de Vreeze.

“The brand symbolises the company’s mission to combine what is essential for life, desirable for consumers, and more sustainable for the planet. The purpose of dsm-firmenich is to bring progress to life, together with customers and partners, to achieve positive change and make a difference in the world.”

Okay? So, although the title includes an all-caps ‘DSM’, the official communication has the brand all in lower-case – so expect to see some confusion in reporting as people adapt to the mid-season change of titles.

Bahrain Victorious

“Homage to Bahrain’s rich pearling history”

At the end of May, Bahrain Victorious announced that the red and orange jersey worn throughout the 2023 season will be swapped for a white, teal and gold one for the Tour de France.

It’s not just new kit but also new bikes for the eight who are selected for #TDF2023 with Merida creating frames with Bahrain Victorious’ “pearl-inspired design”.

The teal “accents” are said to symbolise the “waters of the Arabian Gulf” and the gold is to represent the “shimmering glow of pearls”.

 

Movistar Team

‘Iceberg’ kit – highlighting effects of climate change

With the intention of spreading a message about environmental concerns the Spanish Movistar Team has created clothing “produced with fabrics at least 60 perceent made of recycled plastic”. The kit by Gobik is the latest in a series of planned colour changes in advance of the Tours de France.

This team is often one of the best-dressed in the bunch with great looking kit and use of Movistar’s corporate blue often featuring subtle changes from one season to the next.

The darker jerseys worn early in 2023 will switch to lighter colours with white more prominent than blue.

In the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, the winner of last year’s race won’t be seen in the revised outfit as Annemiek van Vleuten will compete in the rainbow jersey as reigning road race world champion.

Movistar has also often integrated the colours of national champion’s jerseys into the team outfit. Riders from European countries will be contesting the nationals in the days leading up to the TDF so we wait to see if there are other customisations to the revamped outfit.

 

Uno-X Pro Cycling

Welcoming a new sponsor

Making its TDF debut in 2023, the Norwegian Uno-X Pro Cycling Team will be adding more red – and a few logos – to the jersey that has been raced early in the season.

‘REMA 1000’ will appear on the team kit that had been predominantly yellow, with splashes of red, but is now largely red. It relates to the sponsorship arrangements for a team that raced the inaugural Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift last year.

What’s it all about? Well, according to the official announcement: “REMA 1000 has over 1000 stores combined in Norway and Denmark. ‘R’ is REMA 1000’s own series of high-quality products sold at a low price.”

This team is one of the wildcard recipients for Le Tour in 2023 and we can expect big things from a talented line-up that should do a lot more than just make up numbers in the peloton.

 

Bora-Hansgrohe

Celebrating 10 years at the TDF

Back in 2014 the team known as NetApp received a wildcard invitation to the TDF. This marked the beginning of a significant chapter in the history of the outfit managed by Ralph Denk. With Leonard König, the German squad scored seventh place on GC… a result that, evidently, was enough for the rider to be poached by Team Sky for the following season.

Still, Denk continued his ambitious project and by 2017 his roster boasted one of the true superstars of the peloton, Peter Sagan. That relationship prospered for a few years before the Slovakian moved on to join another wildcard team for his final seasons as a pro.

Now a GC team that won the Giro d’Italia in 2022, it has created a jersey that offers recognition to all the riders who have been part of the journey.

It’s a relatively subtle design change – similar to what they did at last year’s Tour, essentially creating a ‘summer’ jersey – but solid colours have been replaced with blocks of colour with small type spelling out the many names of those involved.

Trek-Segafredo

Name change coming soon: Lidl-Trek

We can assume that the new jersey design is still under construction, with the big reveal likely to come in a little over a week when riders start arriving in Bilbao, Spain for the Grand Départ of the 110th Tour de France.

The long partnership between Trek and Segafredo is coming to an end, and a new title sponsor will soon appear on the US-registered team’s kit.

Lidl, a budget supermarket chain, will replace the coffee brand and get priority over the bike company that has a long history in the pro peloton.

Trek remains an integral part of the team, suppling bikes and helmets, as well as shoes and other accessories for the riders.

From July onwards, both the men’s and women’s teams will switch names to Lidl-Trek… but we don’t yet know what the outfit will look like.

 

 

What’s next?

We wait to find out which team will next announce a change of outfit in advance of the Tour de France. Perhaps it will only be those listed above but anyone who has followed cycling of late knows to expect new kit come July.

Stay tuned for more team announcements in the coming days… and also confirmation of the rider selection.

The TDF is almost here and cycling is about to get a lot more attention than it does throughout the rest of the season. This is one of the reasons for the changing colours and it makes sense in a sport where the team name is also that of the companies that provide the sponsorship.