Team Jumbo-Visma have asked their fans to choose what their kit should look like for the upcoming 2021 Tour de France at the end of June.
The Dutch team had the yellow jersey on the shoulders of their main man Primož Roglič up until the 20th stage of the race when he lost it to fellow countryman, Tadej Pogačar.
But often you were not able to tell that they had the yellow jersey at first glance as the team's kit is the exact same yellow as the race leader's jersey. Jumbo-Visma have decided to make their jerseys predominantly black with touches of yellow for this year's race after a request from the organiser to make a change.
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In a team press release the team said: "Because of the similarity between Team Jumbo-Visma’s regular jersey and the Tour de France's yellow leader’s jersey, the organisation of the Tour and the UCI have asked the team to come to the start with an adapted jersey. The team uses this as an opportunity to do something special. For the first time in history the choice of the jersey is in the hands of the fans.
"Together with partner AGU, three special designs were created, each with their own story. Fans and cycling enthusiasts can vote for their favourite shirt from April 7 to April 15 via ourjersey.teamjumbovisma.com.
"But Team Jumbo-Visma goes one step further. Besides their own character, the three jerseys have one thing in common: fans are central in the design. On all three shirts space is reserved for the names of the fans. This summer fans will ride with the team. Literally!
"Fans can get their place on the jersey by purchasing their preferred jersey between 19 and 28 April. From that moment on, the fan actually becomes part of the Tour de France team and a unique experience follows, bringing the cycling fan closer to the Tour than ever before. More about that later."
Richard Plugge, general manager of Team Jumbo-Visma: “Since the last edition of the Tour de France we have been in talks with the organisation ASO. Out of respect for the yellow jersey, we and our main sponsors Jumbo and Visma wanted to think along to adapt our shirt. This presented us with quite a challenge.
"We have taken this as an opportunity to involve cycling fans in our team as never before. So the ‘ninth’ man will be at the start in Brest with our team of eight."
