The UCI threatened to disqualify Pogacar from the Giro d'Italia for his kit
Although it already seems somewhat habitual, it continues to be incomprehensible for many professionals and fans that minor details of the clothing and garments worn by cyclists continue to cause incidents in the most important races. This time the mess has been huge and it seems that the UCI threatened UAE with disqualifying Pogacar from the Giro d'Italia for the color of his shorts. A kit that the Slovenian wore by order of the race organization.
Mess with Pogacar's kit colors
In stage 2 of the Giro, Tadej Pogacar achieved an epic victory that put him in the lead of the general classification, so the next day he started with the iconic pink jersey that distinguishes the leader of the Giro. A jersey that was part of a suit in which the shorts were purple.
It is clear that this suit was provided by the organization to Pogacar since the leader's kit must have the logos of Castelli, the official sponsor of the race, and that is why the Slovenian did not compete with the logos of Pissei, the team's sponsor.
The mess started at the end of the third stage when, according to Cyclingnews sources, UAE received a message from the UCI warning them that Pogacar could not wear the purple shorts as it is the same color worn by the leader of the points classification. And if he continued to wear them, they could disqualify him from the race.
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At the start of the fourth stage, Pogacar came out to compete with his usual black shorts and at the same start, the Giro leader joked that he couldn't attack that day because they didn't let him compete with the suit, which is more aerodynamic.
Upon learning of the controversy, the Giro organization explained that the reason for the color of those shorts had a very emotional meaning and expressed annoyance at the extent of the news: "Of course, we provided the suit to Pogacar, and since this year the start of the Giro was on May 4, the 75th anniversary of the Grande Torino tragedy, we decided to put some garnet inserts in the pink jersey, and together with our sponsor Castelli, we wanted the shorts to match that color, and with all the interesting topics that can be discussed in this Giro, I don't understand why people have talked about this."
It remains to be seen if in the fifth stage Pogacar continues to wear his usual shorts or if the organization along with Castelli have changed the set as requested by the UCI.