The Federation of the Sport of Cycling in Luxembourg (FSCL) is reportedly concerned about the design of Team Leopard’s national championship jersey of Frank Schleck, and could be looking into requiring the rider to change it.
The thin red, white and blue bands on the jersey are far less visible than the tricolour jersey of previous years, and there appears to be a push to revert to the previous design. According to Le Quotidien, the secretary of the federation Ed Buchette sent a letter last week to Schleck, one of the Leopard Trek managers Riccardo Scheidegger and to the members of the administrative council of the FSCL about the issue.
The newspaper points out that the same occurred twice in the past with Kim Kirchen; once when he was with T-Mobile, and once with HTC-Columbia.
Schleck recently spoke about his fondness for the subtle colouration of the jersey. “We can see the bands of the Luxembourg champion, but this jersey also has the advantage of respecting the design of our team. Frankly, I liked wearing the other jersey, but I am very, very happy to wear this one now.”
The issue of national jersey has long been debated by teams. On one hand, distinctive designs stand out in the peloton and bring extra attention to the rider in question. On the other, the team risks having less exposure in that its own jersey is not visible when the rider is in breaks, or winning races. It’s generally accepted that the first outweighs the second, but that too depends on the design of the top.
The Festina team famously preferred its riders not to compete in the French national championships, with the sponsor stating that he wasn’t paying riders to wear colours other than those of the team. That statement was later called into question when former team soigneur Willy Voet revealed that the riders’ real reason for not competing was that banned substances they were using in training were still in their systems the week before the Tour de France.
In recent years, the Italian national champion’s jersey of Filippo Pozzato was also changed following complaints from his federation. His Katusha team had designed a maillot which incorporated the red, white and green of the country’s flag into the Moscow skyline on the jersey.
The federation felt that this didn’t respect the flag, and also that it was not visible enough.