Thursday 21 April 2022 at 00h10
Every year, the Dutch Team Jumbo-Visma needs to wear a special team shirt during the Tour de France. The usual team shirt, yellow with black accents, is indeed too similar to the Yellow jersey worn by the leader of the general classifications and during the French Grand Tour a solution thus needs to be found in the form of a specific team jersey.
The team could have simply develop a specific team shirt and wear that every year for the Tour, but instead of that, the team chose for a surprise and originality in every edition of the Grande Boucle. Let's no longer wait to have a look at how Primož Roglič, Wout van Aert, Jonas Vingegaard and their team mates will be recognisable on the Tour de France 2022 roads: thanks to The Masterpiece!
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Why a specific team shirt?
According to article 1.3.051 of the UCI rules, A classification leader's jersey in stage races must be sufficiently distinct from those of the teams and clubs, as well as from national jerseys, world champions' jerseys and those of UCI cups, series and classification leaders..Based on this one could thus think that it's up to the organisor of the race to choose a leader's jersey for the different classifications associated with a leader's jersey to make sure that those are sufficiently different from the team shirts of the different participating teams.
However, the article goes on by saying: Conversely, concerning road cycling and more specifically for "grands tours" only, it shall be the teams that are required to differentiate their jersey from that of the individual general classification leader's jersey and with this addition it's thus up to the teams to make sure that in Grand Tours (Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España), they won't wear a team shirt which is similar to the leader's jersey of the general classification of the race in question.
It's thus logic that the Team Jumbo-Visma is obliged to use another team shirt for the Tour de France. The last change to this article was made in 2016, but it was not applied in 2020 concerning the similarness between Jumbo-Visma's team jersey and the Yellow jersey but that fact that during this edition it became clear that there was not enough difference, was what lead to discussions between the organisor Amaury Sport Organisation (A.S.O.), the UCI and the team. In 2019 there were more black accents in the Dutch team's team shirt.
What seems strange is that in other stage races organised by A.S.O. where the Yellow jersey is used as the leader's jersey for the general classification, Paris-Nice and in just a slight less manner the Critérium du Dauphiné (where a blue line is added on the yellow jersey), the organisor is not obliged to adapt its yellow jersey for it to look less like the team shirt of one of the participating teams, Jumbo-Visma!
The Masterpiece: the specific team shirt for Jumbo-Visma during the Tour de France 2022, with the paintings of 3 big masters!
For the Tour de France 2022 the Dutch team announced on April 14th "The Masterpiece.To produce this team shirt the team has worked together with its usual supplier and sponsor, AGU. This time the choice was made for a connection with the origins of the team, The Netherlands, based on an inspiration on the art history of the country. The team shirt brings together paintings of the three biggest Dutch masters, who are know world wide, Rembrandt, Vermeer and Van Gogh.
A method based on artificial intelligence was used to pull together in one team shirt (and for the race cap and the associated hand gloves), different colours, forms and combinations based on paintings by these 3 big masters. No less than 50 paintings have been partly used in different parts of the shirt, all this in a coherent design and matching colours. You can for example find colour inspirations from "The Night Watch" by Rembrandt (van Rijn) on the right sleeve, a part of the "Saskia as Flora" also by Rembrandt in the transition from the chest to the left shoulder, at the lower back the structure of Isaak's sleeve from "The Jewish Bride" again by Rembrandt, the left shoulder with a detail from "Wheat fields with the Alpilles Foothills in the background" by Vincent van Gogh, of his painting "Wheat field with a reaper" on the front at the lower side of the shirt and also a detail of "The milk maid" by Johannes Vermeer, in the form of the milk jug which forms the transition from the chest on the right side towards the shoulder.
The 3 steps in the design of the team shirt
| The inspiration comes from the three greatest Dutch Masters: Van Gogh, Vermeer and Rembrandt. They were born in The Netherlands, like the team, and known for their perfection, style and technique | Artificial intelligence was used to analyse 50 paintings by these three masters, to convert them into small pieces of digital art. From this came a first rough selection. | An algorithm transformed these digital pieces of art into an organic palette. Based on colour, patterns and contrasts, the algorithm created the transitions of styles in the new shirt |
The team explains that the drive for perfection and performance is something it has in common with these big masters.
The shirt worn by Wout van Aert
Until 25 April fans can order the team shirt and even the race hat or corresponding gloves, or the bibshort or socks of the team. And The Masterpiece can even be won in a prize draw (before 24 April).
The team has already started thinking of a project for 2023's team shirt for the Tour, thus continuing its logic to come with an original team shirt for every edition of the Tour de France: from a new obligation, they managed to create an opportunity for something original and eye catching!door Thomas Vergouwen
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1 comment | 6700 views
this publication is published in: Tour de France | Tour de France 2022 | Marketing
by Dany45 over
My question has to do with the kit that Van Der Poel gets to wear in the opening prologue. How is it fair that he gets to use a $2,750 custom skin suit that presumably makes him more aero and guys like Van Aert and Ganna are prohibited? That seems grossly unfair. Again I don't know how much of an advantage Van Der Poel achieves but they certainly would not spend that kind of money unless it was more than a little bit. And its not like Van Aert has a choice. He has to wear another kit. Unless its available to all I say they should ban that super expensive slippery suit. It's like saying Pogacar has to ride an 8KG bike but Roglic can ride the 6.8KG bike. Makes no sense.