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Team Sky Jaguar F-Type rainbow bands (picture Teamsky.com)Vote: Team Sky and Jaguar to part ways in 2016? Maserati lined up? But which car do you think Sky should be driving next year?
Rapha today unveiled the new Team Sky kit for 2016 and apart from a new blue band, there is very little difference from last year's strip. But where has the Jaguar logo gone?
Jaguar’s sponsorship of Team Sky began in 2012, when a three-year deal was confirmed. That deal has obviously come to an end now, and with no news of an extension of the partnership and the missing Jaguar logo from the new Rapha team kit, we can only assume Team Sky won’t be driving Jags next year.
Word has it on the old rumour mill that luxury car brand Maserati, another Italian brand like Pinarello and which has been gearing up its involvement in cycling this past year with the Tour de Yorkshire and David Millar as a brand ambassador, could replace Jaguar as the new Team Sky sponsor.
But Maserati doesn’t have an estate car we hear you say. True, Maserati doesn’t offer an estate car, the favoured choice of the professional peloton due to its large storage capacity and space for a massive bike rack.
But the Italian company is set to launch its first SUV, the Levante, next year. Sponsoring Team Sky would be the ideal marketing vehicle for promoting this new SUV to the global audience the car maker is surely aiming the new car at, and getting involved with Team Sky would certainly allow the car brand to reach lots of potential new customers.
Some Jaguar Team Sky highlights
Surely the envy of every other team, when Jaguar unveiled the stunning F-Type with an integrated rear bike rack. It was too impractical to use regularly, seeing service in a time trial stage of the Tour de France in 2014 and a stage of Paris-Nice this year, when it followed Sir Bradley Wiggins. It was adorned with world championship stripes.
The Team Sky deal came at the same time as the launch of Jaguar's new XF Sportbrake (their posh name for an estate car). Remember the publicity photo with Mark Cavendish on the roof rack? You can fit of lot of cycling equipment in an estate car however.
Which car brand for Team Sky in 2016?
So who do you think will replace Jaguar as Team Sky sponsor next year? If not Maserati, could it be a British brand like Mini perhaps? Skoda is the default choice in the pro peloton so could be an outside choice, but Team Sky do like to be different.
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
Latest Comments
- quiff 2 sec ago
Maybe it's actually some sort of cunningly disguised sanctioned military product (been watching too much of the Jackal).
- quiff 7 min 36 sec ago
I'm sure they'd ask Lime to do that too. Come and collect your bikes and my neighbour - they're in pieces.
- brooksby 13 min 30 sec ago
Ireland seems to have a lot of problems with their cycle lanes… Almost as many as England
- quiff 33 min 14 sec ago
Fair point - I was restricting myself to pedal bikes. As I've never spent that kind of money on anything though (mortgage doesn't count), it's kind...
- brooksby 1 hour 35 min ago
And finally: I wonder how many of the "more than 3,000" signatures on that petition are actually locals, who live or work there (and are not just...
- Doug_D 3 hours 11 min ago
Another book suggestion - I can highly recommend "Lost Summers and Half-Forgotten Afternoons: A Mint Sauce collection" - a beautifully presented...
- chrisonabike 4 hours 24 min ago
But... the last is only not the case with drivers on normal roads because driving on the cycle path / footway / rolling a vehicle up there is seen...
- mdavidford 5 hours 2 min ago
I think you're missing an opportunity to pack even more tech into it - add accelerometers that can detect whether they're pedalling or stepping....
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15 comments
Nobody suggesting Nissian.....watch this space
British estate car as support vehicle?
Surely only one choice
Well, if they want something that's British with luggage space in the back, I think the ideal would be an Austin Maxi. If there are any still working.
My personal choice would be the Audi RS6 Avant. Spacious, 4WD, stupid quick.
Whilst the sponsorship deal has definetly been benefical to both parties, Jag aren't due a major sporty product launch for a while now, so it'd be understandable if the relationship is over.
Maserati are too upmarket, they don't have mass market product to benifit from the halo glow (ignoring the FIAT group portfolio that might not be obvious to the casual observer).
Alfa Romeo are due a major product line overhaul (but the current halo model is the 2 seater 4C and thus no good for peloton duties.)
Maybe they'll line up someone French in the vain hope that it'll stop the locals throwing piss at the riders?!
Maserati generally make gorgeous cars, the odd quattroporte aside. That fugly SUV isn't one of them.
Audi A6 Allroad...............3.0 TDi Quattro giving over 320 bhp.........brummmmmm
Isn't it about time someone started to use electric cars in the peloton?
It would be nice to have a bike race that wasn't followed by fifty smoke belching cars.
A race within a race, can they stay powered for the whole race? Can they recharge and re-join the peleton in time?
until the tech is there to give a fully electric car the range that some of the stages have isn't quite there yet and I'm not even sure if they would be able to cope on the climbs. Though the battery could recharge on the way down. The nearest will be hybrid vehicles and its quite possible that there will be teams using these already.
I get the feeling it's unlikely to be another British brand., shame.. team sky and jaguar partnership went together like fish and chips.. another knock to take a little bit of the Britishness out of our British team.
Maybe Jaguar will sign with a deal with Dimension Data?
Errmm, aren't Sky owned by an Australian/American and Jaguar owned by an Indian firm? Not a lot of Britishness there, unless you go back to the colonial days when the world map was pink and we ruled the bloody lot!
good deals to be had on VW cars I hear
I very much doubt that this will happen. There are no specifications available for that car but i suspect that it will be close to failing the UCI regulations regarding maximum vehicle height.
UCI Cycling Regulation 2.2.032 states -
Except in time trials, all vehicles accompanying the race are restricted to a maximum height of 1.66m.
Windows on team cars in the race caravan must not be marked as to obstruct the view through the vehicle or be significantly obstructed with decals other than the markings distributed by the race organiser to identify follow cars.
I have been behind a typical SUV size car on the road a few times while on the bike and have to say they are pretty tough to see around. I also would not want to be trying to grab a bike off the top of one in a hurry.
That hasn't stopped Lampre having Mitsubishi Outlanders, which was one of the original car/4x4 SUV type crossovers.
Who gives a fuck?