The new UCI rules will change the jerseys of the peloton

The UCI has just revised the rules regarding the designs of jerseys, which can no longer have the colors of any of the leader jerseys in the Grand Tours. This will lead to many more changes in these races than usual, affecting the similarity with the general classification leader's jersey.

UCI makes it harder for teams to choose their jersey designs

We are used to seeing how EF Education-EasyPost changes their jersey as the Giro d'Italia approaches or how Visma-Lease a Bike abandons their usual yellow every year as they cannot use those colors in the Tour de France to avoid confusion with the general classification leader's jersey in the Grande Boucle.

However, starting in 2025, the UCI has taken it a step further and extends this obligation to avoid color coincidences with all the jerseys distributed in the three Grand Tours. Therefore, teams going to the Giro d'Italia cannot wear pink, blue, cyclamen, or white, the latter color affecting a good number of teams; those participating in the Tour de France will have to avoid yellow, red polka dots, green, and white. On the other hand, participants in La Vuelta cannot wear red, green, blue polka dots, and again, white.

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As you can imagine, this will mean that many teams will have to change their clothing when participating in the Grand Tours. For now, the rule allowing up to 3 temporary design changes each season remains in place, which must be submitted 60 days before use for approval by the UCI.

A rule that the UCI aims to, according to the official version, facilitate the task of judges in recognizing the leaders of the different classifications during the race.

On the other hand, in the rest of the races, it will be up to the organizers to create leader jerseys that are distinctive enough to avoid confusion with the clothing of participating teams, including national champion jerseys.

So, in light of this, the 2024 season promises interesting waits before the races to see how our favorite team will dress. In addition to the aforementioned EF Education-Easypost and Visma-Lease a Bike in the Giro and Tour, it will be interesting to see how Movistar Team dresses in the Giro d'Italia or La Vuelta. How will the new kit of UAE Team Emirates, whose white coincides with the best young rider in the three Grand Tours, be? Or how will Decathlon-AG2R dress, whose green tones could be confused with the leader of the points classification in the Tour and Vuelta.