Despite not enjoying host to any highway racing, December is often a fairly busy month right here at Cyclingnews because of the fixed washer spin cycle of recent package, sponsor swaps, and normal teases and releases for the 2025 season. We’re effectively into it now, with a tonne of recent kits out, with Maap getting into the WorldTour on the backs of Jayco-AlUla and Liv-AlUla-Jayco maybe the most important information so far.
The large groups don’t at all times present probably the most attention-grabbing information although, no less than from a tech perspective. This yr probably the most curious sponsor swap is maybe from the Scandinavian Uno-X Mobility groups, that are swapping from, Belgian model BioRacer to Danish model Fusion, extra in step with a workforce nearly fully composed of Scandinavian riders and employees.
The package design isn’t something new visually – the traditional crimson with a giant cheerful yellow stripe – however what’s attention-grabbing, no less than within the teased Instagram pictures, is the shortage of a zipper on the boys’s jersey. Zipperless jerseys aren’t new typically, and are used primarily in cross-country mountain bike racing, however these are made nearly fully of mesh for higher warmth administration.
UAE Team Emirates has trialled a zipperless design previously too, way back to 2018, however the riders appear to have most well-liked the choice of opening it up absolutely and it was not often seen in use. A zipperless design precludes using a full skinsuit too, as there is no such thing as a approach to really get into the garment in any other case.
Looking at Fusion’s sponsorship of the Danish ProContinental workforce coloQuick evidently the zipperless choices are used interchangeably with zippered fits and jerseys based mostly one can assume on rider desire.
Where the Fusion Jersey appears to diverge from the norm, a lot as ‘the norm’ exists, is that it isn’t absolutely mesh, no less than not the one within the pictures. The model makes three zipperless jerseys, the ‘TEMPO! ONE’ is seen within the pictures and is fabricated from strong lycra for the physique, however it additionally has the ‘TEMPO! HC’ fabricated from mesh, and the extra usually named ‘biking coaching jersey’, for coaching functions.
On the Fusion web site the descriptions for the TEMPO! ONE jersey mentions improved aerodynamics with the removing of the zipper, however additional digging reveals that some color choices have aero sleeves with trip-strip traces down them, and others have mesh sleeves. The Uno-X package we’ve seen has the latter, which appears an odd alternative given the clear aero intentions of the jersey, although there’s each probability the workforce could have entry to a number of choices.
Given how skinsuits are primarily the norm it will likely be curious to see if the riders go for zipperless typically use, or use modified variations of the model’s long-established triathlon fits. I put this to Casper Von Folsach, the workforce’s Performance Coach:
“It is for normal use and I believe it really improves the match. It is my to-go jersey when I’m driving in bibs and jersey. But the riders additionally obtain a jersey with a zipper for coaching if they like this. However, for race use, we’ll just about completely race in one-piece fits (completely different fits for various circumstances).”
