Sidwells Chris - The Art of the Cycling Jersey

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A lithographic print produced in Detroit in 1895, at a time when cycling as a spectator sport was rapidly gaining popularity.

The bicycle and the body of the bicyclist are the two most essential components of the quality that might be considered something as simple as style but could also be described as presence, state, or even haecceity. Im talking about that specific rider-ness each of us has, which comes from or creates (or, probably, both) how we sit a bike, how we pedal, how much and in which ways we lean ourselves and our bicycles through corners, how we hold the bike, how we balance it beside us as we walk, how we handle it as we hang it on a hook or push it through a door or shoulder it up a staircaseany time we are in communion with our bicycle.

Of the rest of the elements that make us us, I put the cycling jersey an easy third to bike and body. Whats more, in terms of range of expressiveness, I put it first. The jersey! The most dominant value of the cycling aesthetic, and one of its simplest components, yet also the one most laden with subtext and potential ironies and sincerities and affiliations and memories and references often unknown to the wearer. A jersey can be a nod to a team, a racer, an era, a fabric, a design sense, a remembrance, a personal experience, an aspiration, or else simply come in a color we really really like and that happened to be in our size. One can, for instance, wear and cherish a Molteni jersey for the distinct and odd color, without knowing anything about Eddy Merckx; or, if one knows Merckx, remaining ignorant of the grand loyal domestique Jos Huysmans; or, fully immersed in racing history, forget that Molteni was a sausage factory and lose out on the delicious pleasure of that contradiction. And how to even begin comprehending the Brooklyn jersey, the vestment of an Italian chewing gum company in an All-American design, and best and most nobly worn by a Belgian known as Monsieur ParisRoubaix for his otherworldly career record in a quintessentially Flandrian race that never leaves France. (It is said that Roger De Vlaeminck never suffered a flat tire on the cobbles until he forsook the Brooklyn jersey late in his career.)

So it is that a jersey influences how others regard you, from the simplest observations (how pretty), to philosophical judgments that may be far beyond your own ken. But the jersey also influences its rider, I believe. It tells us who we are on a bike and who we might be and who we dont care to be, and it helps us get to whichever of those destinations it is that we have chosen to prize, and it helps us, as well, get what we need to arrive there. This volume is a wonderland for those who appreciate all that, and a door to that world for those who dont yet, but might.

Bill Strickland

Editor-in-chief, Bicycling magazine

July, 2016

This book traces the development of the cycling jersey from the jackets and woolen pullovers worn by early racers, to the sophisticated designs and materials that make up the very latest cycling jerseys today. It tells the story of the jerseys awarded to champions, and those that denote the leaders of the various competitions of the Grand Toursthe Tour de France, Giro dItalia, and Vuelta a Espaa. These jerseys are iconic, but so are those of the professional teams that the best riders in the history of cycling have raced for.

The French national team pictured at the 1932 Tour de France. From left to right: Andr Leducq, Albert Barthlmy, Julien Momeau, Louis Peglion, Marcel Bidot, Maurice Archambaud, Georges Speicher, and Roger Lapbie.

The most iconic cycling jerseys possess a mystique and a beauty that is a distillation of their design and the part they played in the sport. Professional teams have a very important place in the story of the cycling jersey, as do the riders, and The Art of the Cycling Jersey reveals facts about some of the famous, and not so famous, characters who have brought fame and glory to their jerseysfrom the Bianchi team jersey worn by Fausto Coppi, the Molteni of Eddy Merckx, and the St. Raphal of Jacques Anquetil to the Tebag of Ferdi Kbler and the EMI of Charly Gaul.

From the maiden Mapei, and ONCE. There is also a separate chapter dedicated to the story of the six-day jersey. An offshoot of mainstream cycling, six-day races have a long and fascinating history, and they have jersey traditions of their own. The stories of these and many more jerseys are told in this book.

But this book is not just a celebration of iconicity. It explains the ways in which cycling jerseys have developed over the years. As professional cycling changed, so did the type of businesses that sponsored the teams, and those businesses have been responsible for jersey designs, because they want something that best reflects their brand.

Finally, this book reflects the broad-brushstrokes history of Europe from around the turn of the 20th century, through two World Wars, and up to the present day. For example, when Europe went through the interwar years of rampant nationalism, so the Tour de France switched from trade-sponsored to national teams with national team jerseys. Then after the Second World War, as the continent grew more affluent, the sponsorship of cycling teams changed from bicycle manufacturers to a wider range of businesses.