EF Education First-Drapac reveals 2018 colours

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The EF Education First-Drapac team has revealed its kit for 2018, opting for bright pink, white and green as its colours for the coming season. The colours have been designed to show of the sponsor logo and also stand out in an ever-darker professional peloton.A similar orange, white and green kit has been designed for training, with the bright colours designed to help road safety.

The clothing is produced by technical sponsor POC, which also provides similar brightly-coloured helmets. The new colours were presented by team manager Jonathan Vaughters, directeur sportif Andreas Klier, POC's head of sports marketing Sara Laurell and new signing Kim Magnusson Friday at the Rouleur Classic in London.

The EF Education First logo takes a central position on the front and rear of the jersey, with Drapac and Cannondale in smaller font below it. Drapac fills the side of the shorts, with the Cannondale C on the shoulders. The shorts are traditional black with touches of green argyle. Green argyle also appears on the cuffs and collar of the jersey, with green socks seemingly a part of the bright look.

EF Education First stepped in to become the new title sponsor of Jonathan Vaughters' Slipstream Sports WorldTour team for the 2018 season after an expected €7 million sponsor backed out.

The team will be known as EF Education First-Drapac powered by Cannondale, and its 2018 roster will include Tour de France runner-up Rigoberto Uran, Sep Vanmarcke, Michael Woods, Taylor Phinney and new signings Sacha Modolo, Dan McLay, Mitch Docker and Matti Breschel.

Vaughters said the team had gone for a cleaner Scandinavian-inspired the design for 2018.

"Both EF Education First and POC have Scandinavian roots and so it's clearly got more of a Scandinavian design to it. In the past, we've been a little bit messy and helter-skelter in our design as we try to keep it fun. This time we've gone for a cleaner design," he said.

Vaughters pointed out the new colours still include touches of Vaughters' trademark argyle design. He sees argyle as part of the team's identity.

"We always keep that little bit of argyle there. We're at a dozen years of being argyle," he said.

"We're the only team in professional cycling that has maintained an identity that is independent of riders, sponsors and races. That's a part close to my heart and close to (former team owner) Doug Ellis heart."

The kit was immediately compared to the bright kits used in Italy in the nineties when sublimation material printing first emerged.

"I think you'll see immediately when you switch on TV. I think everybody will be happy: sponsors and the families looking for their kids or husband," Klier suggested.

"I don't think the other teams will come up with something (as) cool. I like that it's not that fancy with all of the argyle. I'm half Swedish and I like a clean and simple design. I think we're going to have a very nice team kit next year."