Spanish Continental team reveals whacky new team kit for 2022 season
The organisation attempted to take over Team BikeExchange for the 2020 season but negotiations fell apart
No, this is not the cover to a new children's book, this is the release of the new 2022 kit for the Spanish Continental team of Manuela Fundación.
The new eye-catching design is replacing the almost entirely black 2021 kit that was more about minimalism and, well, it was quite stylish.
Now, the team that attempted to take over Team BikeExchange for the 2020 season, has revealed their new look along with their team roster.
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Lets say that the kit is one of those which you will either absolutely love or hate with a passion.
𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗨𝗘𝗟𝗔 𝗙𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗔𝗖𝗜𝗢́𝗡 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 ya es equipo UCIDebut:23/1/22 Clasica CV 196911 corredores inicialesVicente HernaizRaúl RotaDaniel JiménezJoan BennassarMiquel VallsFco CasausEduardo PérezErik MartorellIsaac CantónSantiago MesaFranklin Chacón pic.twitter.com/1Tyj5acPoqNovember 5, 2021
As you can see, the jersey and shorts have taken the idea of women's WorldTour team, Canyon-SRAM with the galaxy theme and taken it to an all new level of design.
The addition of Earth surrounded by very friendly-looking cartoon lions and potentially a nebula with wings that hold the centre of the jersey.
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The jersey and shorts hold multiple galaxies on a black jersey with the new Manuela Fundación logo on the right side of the chest and the UCI continental team and kit make logos on the other.
The words Manuela and Fundación take up the space on the shoulders and down the arms.
This design really harks back to the bonkers kits of the 90s and noughties such as Mario Cippolini's tiger and zebra style skinsuits at Aqua & Sapone in 2002.
Manuela Fundación did try and complete a takeover of Team BikeExchange, then called Mitchelton-Scott, for €7 million but after confusion around who would actually own the team, the contract was called off after a whirlwind few weeks in June of 2020.
The team announced that the merge was going to happen complete with new kit design that had been allowed by the UCI, but team owner Gerry Ryan stepped in and said it was off after the confusion arose.
The contract was later leaked showing that the organisation based in the city of Granada thought they were buying 100 per cent of the team, but Ryan still owned the UCI licence for the team, allowing him to pull out of the deal.
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Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
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