Team Sky's Jaguar F-Type gets go-faster stripes - and they're rainbow ones

It may lack the old Carlos Fandango Super Wide Wheels, but the Jaguar F-Type car that will follow Sir Bradley Wiggins in the prologue of Paris-Nice on Sunday certainly won’t be lacking go-faster stripes – and befitting his status as world time trial champion, they’re of the rainbow variety.

It’s not the first time the sports car from the Team Sky sponsors has been wheeled out in their support, of course; last year, it featured in the Tour de France as well as the Tour of Britain, and while it would be totally impractical in a road stage given lack of storage space and the fact it can only carry two bikes, it works for a time trial.

Wiggins won Paris-Nice three years ago in a season that saw him crowned Tour de France and Olympic Time Trial champion, and while he is targeting a strong prologue performance on Sunday, he will revert to a supporting role afterwards to riders such as Richie Porte and Geraint Thomas.

He’ll ride his final race for Team Sky at Paris-Roubaix next month, so the race, which concludes a week tomorrow with a time trial stage on the Col d’Eze – Wiggins won there in 2012 – is likely to be the last time we see him go against the clock in the rainbow bands before he hooks up with his own development team to start his preparations for Rio 2016.

“Being World Time Trial Champion is a great honour and having an F-Type Jaguar in rainbow colours behind me on Sunday will be incredible,” Wiggins told the Team Sky website.

“I’m sure Jaguar’s design for the F-Type will create a lot of noise among the fans watching the race.”

Mark Cameron, Jaguar Land Rover brand experience director, added: “Sir Bradley Wiggins has been integral to the success of Team Sky, and to the activation of our partnership.

“We felt it important to celebrate his status as World Time Trial Champion in our own unique way. I’m sure the visual impact of the F-Type Coupé in Paris will grab a lot of attention and demonstrate the innovative nature of our award-winning partnership."

As for his own aspirations for the race, Wiggins said: “Paris-Nice is a massive race and I want to ride a good prologue there, not just to do the F-Type proud, but as part of my preparation for the classics.

“After that, I want to have a good, solid week of riding and help Geraint and Richie as they have big aspirations for the general classification. Hopefully we can get one of them into the same position I was three years ago to go for the win.

“That’ll be exciting because it’s a different role for me, and one I’m not used to, and it’ll be great to see them fight it out on Col d’Eze in the time trial.

He added: “I’ll try and have a go there as well, but with my classics training I’m 5-6 kilos heavier than when I won the race, and that’s a huge limiter on what I can do on a climb like the Col d’Eze. It’ll be interesting to see how I compare though."