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Video: Coolest support car ever? Team Sky's Jaguar F-type

One-off sports coupe will follow riders on Saturday's individual time trial at Tour de France...

Team Sky may be having a tough time at the Tour de France — with defending champion Chris Froome crashing out in the opening week and illness causing Richie Porte to fall out of contention in the Alps at the weekend — but one thing’s certain, they will have far and away the coolest support car on Saturday’s individual time trial.

Team sponsor Jaguar has supplied Sky with a bespoke F-type coupé that will follow its riders on Stage 20 from Bergerac to Périgueux. It’s a striking vehicle – although one that would be entirely impractical as a support car for anything other than a time trial stage – as the video below shows. Let's face it's a shameless marketing ploy, but it's a shameless marketing ploy with style.

The one-off vehicle has been specially modified for Team Sky and includes a separate electrical supply in the boot to provide power to the radios, amplifiers, microphones, horns and televisions that provide communications between Team Sky’s sports director and the rider.

Team Sky’s normal support vehicle is the Jaguar XF Sportbrake. This video shows how much kit gets packed into it for a typical road stage.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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