Mirror, mirror on the team bus wall, which is the ugliest cycling kit of them all? Well, recency bias may be at play here, but I’m sure the same thought popped into quite a few of your heads: Ineos, 2026.
It’s fair to say the British squad’s latest design choice – a bizarre blend of bright orange and white, paired, inexplicably, with grey shorts – has divided cycling fans around the world. Actually, scratch that, it’s united them all in a shared hatred of what is, let’s face it, a sartorial car crash (expect for white short-loving Adam Blythe, of course).
“Offensively awful.”
“Truly terrible.”
“A ‘breach of contract’ kit.”
Those were just a few of the comments made in the aftermath of the Ineos Grenadiers’ kit release back in December. But at least they’ve had the sense to ditch the grey shorts for some good old fashioned black bibs for the often-rainy early-season European stage races and classics (which makes you think, why go for grey in the first place, then?).
To be honest, Ineos’ orange-grey meltdown is nothing new. Pro cycling has a long, not-so-illustrious history of fashion disasters, from DIY cosplay to painted-on abs (looking at you, HTC). So, inspired by Ineos’ new questionable design, I decided to list my ‘top’ ugly cycling kits.
Obviously, this is all down to personal taste, which means I skipped the much-derided pink and yellow Chazal kit of the 1990s, which wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Barbie Movie (and I mean that as a compliment).
Anyway, here’s my own dastardly dozen – and please let us know your ‘favourite’ ugly kit in the comments.
Ineos Grenadiers, 2026
The grey shorts, the wannabe Land Rover… I feel ill. A visual and style match made in team Tinder hell with a broken screen and a dodgy thumb flip? I guess there was a visual hint (or alarm) of things to come for the British team when TotalEnergies came on board as sponsor last year, and things would only get worse on the optical front from then on.
Personally, I always found the Ineos kit a tad lacking anyway, to say the least, but with Geraint Thomas strutting it, I guess we all had to squint and bear it.
As for TotalEnergies, what can we say? The kit of their namesake French team is pretty dire itself, mix it all together with the Ineos theme, and throw in some sickly grey shorts, and yeah, not great. I have the feeling there’ll be a few riders gasping to win national titles this year in order to get out of those grey shorts.
Castorama (1990-95)
When Monsieur Bob Le Builder got left with a box of Lego and the chance to design the team kit for the French Castorama team, visual hell broke loose in the peloton. It’s crazy to think the late, great Laurent Fignon had a hand in the design of this DIY abomination, paying homage to the uniform worn by the home improvement retailer’s staff.
Rumour has it that riders had to deliver paint and nails by bike on no-race weekends, and tiles after a bad showing.
Footon-Servetto (2010)
Spanish squad Footon-Servetto’s riders must have been shocked when they rocked up to their first winter training camp to be greeted by these ghastly skin-beige coloured jerseys and shorts. And don’t forget that massive footprint (they were selling shoes after all).
The team general manager, Mauro Ginaetti, a former top pro and now head of the UAE Emirates, seems to have had a hand in a few, ahem, dodgy team kits over the years.
Astana (2006)
Sadly, cycling photography was all in full colour by 2006, the year that Alexander Vinokourov and his Astana team rode out in their full cyan-pale blue team kit, along with matching shorts. Things didn’t improve much over the years that followed, but I guess you could say that original Astana kit always stood out – a bit like Vino’s drug test results.
Phonak (2000s)
Phonak were perhaps one of the most questionable pro teams of all time (I know, it’s a crowded field), and not just due to their rag-tag roster of questionable stars.
Phonak was a hearing aid manufacturer owned by the late Andy Rihs, a man who was crazy about the sport of cycling. So much was his enthusiasm for bikes that he went and bought Swiss bike brand BMC, too. The Phonak team was the passion-led meeting of his hearing aid business and his new bike company.
Swiss precision didn’t quite arrive on time with the squad’s eye-wateringly ugly kit, all green, white, and yellow, with a huge great ear plastered on the front. Floyd Landis did, however (with some extra help, of course).
BigMat Auber 93 (1990s)
What is it with French building and DIY suppliers sponsoring cycling teams, and then making some of the most tragically blocky team kits of all time?
BigMat Auber 93 have been around since the early ‘90s, and have gone through various guises and disguises over the years. To be fair, they have surprised with a couple of half decent team kits over the past 30 years, but their hit ratio stands at about 10 per cent to the good.
There have been so many shocking BigMat kits over the years, but perhaps the worst was the Castorama dungaree-rivalling (or topping) approach they took in the ‘90s, which was a rung too far up the dodgy builder’s ladder.
EF’s Palace Giro d’Italia collaborations (especially 2020)
When seemingly suffering from lockdown stir craziness, EF-Pro Cycling turned up at the re-scheduled Giro d’Italia in a ‘one race only’ special edition kit, somehow drawn up between Rapha and skateboard company Palace. Eyebrows raised (and eyes closed), questions were asked, attention was gained – job done.
To be honest, some of EF’s one-off kits have been fun (though the novelty has worn off a bit now). However, for that duck-tastic 2020 version, I think I’d need a fair old dose of dayglo-infused fire water before daring to wear it outside.
Belkin (2014)
When Belkin turned out in their bland and industrially techy green, white, and black team kit in 2014 it felt like they were stuck between a big rock and a sandy place in kit design terms.
From the often equally, but more dazzlingly, questionable Rabobank kit they’d ridden in the past, Belkin – the phoenix from Rabobank’s EPO-strewn ashes – seemed like a digital blip before they would soon transform into Visma, and one worth forgetting from a kit point of view. Restart and reset?
Columbia-HTC (2009)
Rising, or rather side-stepping away from the old Telekom team, which was left smouldering in a great huge pile of unholy pink tainted smoke, came Highroad, made from the remnants of the once mighty but fallen German squad.
Over the years Highroad, in its various forms, and with its new ID, scored some great victories, many of them thanks to Mark Cavendish, including his last-gasp win at the 2009 Milan-Sanremo – which no doubt masked the questionable team kit for many. Let’s face it, no-one wants to see Marvel-style abs on a cycling kit.
Intermarché–Wanty (2021-2025)
It has to be said that the French don’t have a monopoly when it comes to producing terrible pro team kit. There are a whole ruck of smaller (and bigger) Belgian teams strutting around in some of worst kits ever seen.
Take Intermarché–Wanty, for example, the underdogs who scored big on results, but not with their fashion choices. While the last few years of the team’s existence (before its merger with Lotto this winter) fared a bit better on the sartorial front, those earlier billboard clashers were a tad frites and chocolate with a generous coating of mayo too far.
AG2R-La Mondiale (2011-2023)
For a brazen 13 years French team AG2R strutted around in brown shorts, and somehow. they got away with it.
Did they ever grow on us? Well, kind of. Brown even caught on with cargo short wearing bike packers and graveleurs, for a while. Thankfully, the team have had a major spruce up of late when it comes to their kit, and the brown shorts are now lingering in the lofts of Europe alongside flares and creeper shoes.
IDRD-Bogota Humana San Mateo-Solgar (2014)
Finally, let’s all shake our heads in exasperation one last time at the pinnacle of bad cycling kits – Bogota Humana’s flesh-coloured horror show from 2014, a frankly ridiculous, obscene design which prompted a huge backlash and was described by then-UCI president Brian Cookson as “unacceptable by any standard of decency”.
Well, at least the new Ineos kit isn’t that bad, I suppose.
Dishonourable mentions
Of course, it’s hard to limit a list of cycling’s worst kits to just 12, so dishonourable mentions must go to Milram, Festina, Tonton Tapis, Predictor-Lotto, Fassa Bortolo, Le Groupement, Toshiba, Androni, Rock Racing, Carrera’s denim, Alpecin’s double denim… I could go on.
Call the fashion police on the lot of them.
Do you agree with Steve’s list? Did he miss out your ‘favourite’ ugly jersey? And is the new Ineos kit really that bad? Let us know in the comments…
12 thoughts on “The dastardly dozen: The 12 ugliest pro cycling kits of all time… Where does the Ineos Grenadiers’ orange and grey monstrosity rank?”
I love the castorama kit. Perfect to be able cycle to work, fix steam engines then cycle home again all in the same kit
By far the worst of these is Footon Servetto – probably the cycling equivalent of football’s Coventry City brown away kit.
The INEOS kit is unpleasant because I associate it with Ratcliffe.
I own a HTC Columbia jersey. It looks OK, but I admit I bought it for £10 on a bargain rail in my LCS.
I also used to own an Astana jersey and my performances always improved by 5% whenever I wore it. I got rid of it when my heart nearly stalled in bed one night🙂
Personally, I don’t mind the Bogota Humana kit. It seems ok as long as all of the riders were happy to wear it. I’d like to think they were given the opportunity to approve the design beforehand.
I actually like the INEOS kit this year. They stand out in the peloton and orange is just an awesome color overall. Light grey is a much better alternative to white, and makes for one of the best kits in the pro peloton this year to my eye. I think the worst kit I’ve seen recently is the one the author, Steve Thomas is wearing in his author profile picture. It basically removes all credibility for him making any fashion or design related statements. Also, maybe learn a little about the Grenadier before making uninformed, derogatory comments that aren’t really necessary or applicable to the subject at hand.
I am entitled to express my opinion. I don’t like the idea of the INEOS association with cycling or the way Ratcliffe and INEOS treat their staff and do all they can do avoid taxation in the UK.
I think my comment is very relevant.
Much as I agree with your comment and opinion, I don’t think he’s actually having a go at you, rather the article author, given that you didn’t say anything about the Grenadier and the author did. If we could have back the previous reply facility, where it was obvious if somebody was making a standalone comment or replying to someone else, it would eliminate these misunderstandings.
You are correct, I was commenting on what the author said, not responding to Mr. Blackbird. Using the threaded view clearly shows replies versus separate comments. We are all entitled to our opinions, which is all I was giving in response to the article. I was also indeed only commenting on the Grenadier vehicles and the “wannabe Land Rover” term and not on the company or Jim Ratcliffe personally.
Apologies JOHN5880.
Do you work for INEOS by any chance? Each to their own but the INEOS kit has been widely derided, on cycling forums opinion is 90% against at least. No idea why you think Steve’s kit in the profile picture is so bad, it’s a perfectly neutral black and grey top with a yellow band, you could say it was boring but that’s about it. The Grenadier is a foul machine that shouldn’t be allowed on sale for numerous reasons, including its disgraceful fuel consumption (15-20 mpg for the petrol version) and its extreme size and weight that puts other road users, particularly cyclists, in danger. Oh and it is totally a Land Rover wannabe, when Jaguar Land Rover announced that they were ceasing production of Land Rovers at their Solihull plant Jim Ratcliffe asked if he could buy the tooling and carry on producing them, when he was told to get lost he started planning to build his own, so that comment is perfectly justifiable.
I like castorama and Astana kits pictured here.
Personally, I think the belkin one was a vast improvement over pretty much all the rabobank offerings – blue and orange – bleuch! Although the blanco kit was much better than either of them (or the subsequent visma ones).
Try Specsavers
I’m not sure that really counts as the pro peloton, does it?