Newly-worked team kit revealed two days before race starts

Having named Sharp as a new co-title sponsor on Monday, the Garmin-Sharp team today launched its new jersey, two days prior to the start of the Tour de France.



The Castelli-manufactured jersey is evocative of the previous Garmin-Barracuda design, although there have been some obvious changes. The most notable of those is a red band across the chest and back of the jersey bearing the Sharp logo; this is also present on the right arm of the team kit.



In addition to that, the previously white stomach area of the jersey is now blue, although the white panel at the back, which helps deflect the sun’s rays and thus cool the rider, remains in place.



The trademark argyle design which featured around the base of the previous jersey has disappeared. Instead, the solid blue sections now have a subtle argyle pattern on them.



The Garmin and Barracuda logos remain in place on the jersey.



Steve Smith, Castelli Brand Manager, welcomed Sharp on board. “Team Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda is the most tech-savvy team in the peloton and the addition of this new sponsor, prominently displayed on the new kit, is special for all of us involved.”



Calling the team clothing ‘the most comfortable and technically-advanced,” he said that riders would be using updated versions of the hot weather shorts and jerseys that were tested in the Giro d’Italia.



The team will be led by Giro winner Ryder Hesjedal, who will be attempting a Giro-Tour double last achieved by Marco Pantani in 1998. In an interview with VeloNation, Garmin-Sharp manager Jonathan Vaughters said that he believed Hesjedal could succeed where Alberto Contador and Ivan Basso could not in recent years.



“While in recent times there hasn’t been a rider who has been able to recover from winning the Giro to come and get the podium in the Tour de France, I think Ryder is unique in that he is very robust, physically,” he said.



“He also hasn’t taken a lot of the promotional opportunities, dinner with the prime minister of Canada and so on and so forth. He has actually just gone back and trained very hard for the month of June and recovered. From that respect, he has kept a very low profile and he has focussed on the Tour de France.



“And at the very end of the Giro, he was riding better than at the beginning. So, I have no reason to believe that he can’t be a contender at the Tour de France.”



Hesjedal will be joined by previous fellow top ten finishers Christian Vande Velde and Tom Danielson, who are both capable of stepping forward if the Canadian is too fatigued, Irish Tour debutant Dan Martin, team sprinter Tyler Farrar, Robbie Hunter, time trialists David Millar and Dave Zabriskie plus the 2011 Paris-Roubaix winner Johan Vansummeren.



The team won four stages plus the team classification last year.