Team Sky unveil white jersey for Tour de France

As revealed by Cyclingnews a fortnight ago, Team Sky will wear a special edition white jersey for the 2017 Tour de France, and the British team unveiled the new design on Thursday.

The new Castelli jersey retains the fragmented lines - representing key victories - of the original black jerseys, while the blue vertical stripe on the rear also remains. In a separate special edition, which will only be worn by riders at the Tour de France team presentation in Düsseldorf on June 29, the blue stripe will feature the names of fans, who can apply to have their names printed on.

"Castelli looked at different colours during the design process last year," said team principal Dave Brailsford. "We all loved the white. We are always up for doing things differently and decided the best time to unveil it would be at the Tour - the world's biggest bike race. We can't wait to get racing wearing it."

Three-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome added, "The backing we get from Team Sky fans means so much to the riders, and it really makes a big difference to us wherever we are racing. Giving fans an opportunity to be right there with us as we kick off this year's Tour de France is just a small way for us to say thank you for that support."

The design of the jersey does seem to clash with the maillot blanc, which is worn by the best young rider on the general classification. Historically, teams have altered their regular jersey so as not to clash with the leader's jersey at the Tour de France. In 2011, the team wore a custom green 'Rainforest Rescue kit' at the Tour de France when Adidas provided its apparel.

ONCE, Mercatone Uno and KAS were all known to alter their kits for the Grand Tour so as not to clash with the yellow overall leader's jersey. More recently, Tinkoff-Saxo swapped out their yellow and blue kit for a grey and fluo camouflage kit in 2015.

Special edition jerseys at the Tour de France have also become precursors for new sponsorship announcements for the following season. The blurred lines of transfer windows, contract negotiations and sponsorship deals begin in earnest during the biggest race on the calendar. Orica-GreenEdge, Giant-Alpecin and Cannondale-Drapac all released new jerseys for the Tour de France last year.