Best and Worst National Champs jerseys

[Eric8-A]

The BMC one's still better. I think maybe the yellow Highroad letters ruined it for me in the other one.

 

[RedheadDane]

Here's what I think is good champion jersey design conduct:

Make it cover the entire kit. Forget those tiny bands around the chest, if someone is national champion they should be allowed to wear their country's colours with pride.

You can't always expect to be able to incorporate team's colours with national colours! Take the newly crowned Danish champ. This is what his team's kit looks like

it simply won't do trying to mix green together with red and white! Same would be true for Saxo's blue and yellow. Also special design features, such as the Scandinavian cross, should be incorporated.

However, if a team has a specific design feature which would make is easy to see that a rider rides on that particular team incorporating these designs features is definitly a plus. Examples are the Garmin argyle, which could be changed so it is in the colours of the champion, and the Katusha skyline, which has already been used for classy kits.

Lastly I think it's important to remember that some flags simply have ugly colour combinations. Really nothing that can be done about that!

 

[will10]

 

[taiwan]

I find the worst national champ jerseys always come from RadioShack-Nissan and Movistar. They practically just glue the flag across the rider's mid-section. No creativity whatsoever.

The best designs, I find, are always the ones that incorporate the national colours and characteristics onto the existing team jersey design, like Rabobank's Spanish TT champ suit worn by Sanchez, and Astana's Slovenian TT champ suit worn by Brajkovič. I even like Zabriskie's Captain America design. It's bold, but well done by Garmin. I just don't like the ones that make the riders look like they are wearing a flag.

National TT champ suits seem to look better than RR champ jerseys, maybe because skinsuits are in one piece, the design flow can be more smooth.

Agree with all of this. Sums it up.

 

[RedZone]

PS - Boganesque is wearing an aussie flag bikini to the beach - it is not wearing your country's colours when you are its champion...

But Green and Gold are our countries colours. Every one of our sports teams wears green and Gold, why should the National Cycling Champ be different. For the record I like Gerrans National Jersey, its simple but noticable, I also like flamboyant ones as long as theyre done right (see Hincapie BMC)

 

[Zerak-Tul]

 

[valentius borealis]

This is one of my favourites.

 

[Stingray34]

Not the champ jersey, but the Belgian National team jersey is great. The woolen retro ones are especially nice.

 

[greatking88]

http://www.google.no/imgres?q=nicolas+roche+irish+jersey&um=1&hl=no&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&biw=1280&bih=614&tbm=isch&tbnid=Qcj1LIMoEdcnGM:&imgrefurl=http://ian-redmond.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-irish-hero-nicolas-roche.html&docid=aRu-Q6SAPKtOcM&imgurl=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Mf8f1YbF9hE/TUHuCokO8HI/AAAAAAAAAt8/LbRbiJE1paw/s1600/Nicholas%25252Broche.jpg&w=333&h=500&ei=SLTpT9LNIuTE4gSVnLzvDQ&zoom=1

The Irish national champions jersey of Nicolas Roche was pretty cool and the same can be said of Brammeier's. (biased of course)

http://www.google.no/imgres?q=matt+brammeier+irish+national+champions+jersey&um=1&hl=no&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&biw=1280&bih=614&tbm=isch&tbnid=1_wS-WZ4bvTMiM:&imgrefurl=http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/brammeiers-distinctive-new-irish-champions-race-kit-specialized-s-works-unveiled/&docid=DlXaKA9psktoXM&imgurl=http://www.stickybottle.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Matt-Brammeier-on-his-new-Specialized-S-WORKS.jpg&w=600&h=396&ei=A7XpT8XxB9SN4gTPhZn7DQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=113&vpy=157&dur=1587&hovh=182&hovw=276&tx=134&ty=74&sig=113671455094335174722&page=1&tbnh=137&tbnw=181&start=0&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:67

 

[BillytheKid]

Worst by far

I can only agree. A full small to medium-flag (with colors right) in the white below of the front, vertical and slightly larger on the back.

Not much you can do with it considering the design of the original jersey.

 

[Stingray34]

Samu's olympic champ gold accents compliment the Euska orange nicely

 

[The_Z_man]

I hate it when they have matching shorts for road jerseys. Phil's outfit would've looked a lot better with black shorts. I hope Boonen has black shorts again and the matching helm.

Considering that OPQ wear black shorts to begin with, I think he'll wear them too. Maybe with red and orange highlights, like when Chavanel had red, white and blue accents on his.

 

[greatking88]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Mf8f1YbF9hE/TUHuCokO8HI/AAAAAAAAAt8/LbRbiJE1paw/s320/Nicholas+roche.jpg

 

[greatking88]

The Irish National Champions jersey of Nicolas Roche was pretty cool and the same can be said of Matt Brammeier's jersey. (Biased of course) I was also a fan of Thor Hushovds Norwegian Garmin jersey and Cancellara's Saxo Bank Swiss jersey.

 

[hrotha]

I can only agree. A full small to medium-flag (with colors right) in the white below of the front, vertical and slightly larger on the back.

Not much you can do with it considering the design of the original jersey.

What makes it even more hilarious is that it just has an arbitrary number of stars and stripes.

 

[meandmygitane]

I liked Marcus Ljungqvists jersey as a swedish champion when riding for Saxo Bank. The Swedish jerseys have often had awkward designs and colors but Saxo always does nice-looking jerseys (the teams should definitely have some freedom playing around with the colors, this one is a bit brighter than the flag).




So few good linkable pictures of it though, notice the jersey-ception.

 

[ruswilks]

Some of the new Vermarc national champion kits (from @vermarcuk twitter). The Rwandan one is really nice.

 

[Kwibus]

I got the Australian jersey here:
http://cycling-review.com/clothing/bicycle-jersey/national-cycling-jerseys/

That website also has some other very good national jerseys (IMHO), including:

Germany

Spain

and a much better Columbian jersey

In case you can't tell, I'm not a fan of understated national jerseys...

This would be brilliant really.

edit: Allthough looking at them longer they might be a bit over the top. The sponsors have to be on them as well somewhere.

 

[Andy99]

I see your point. This way it looks like he went to his old mother on a rainy sunday afternoon so she could sew it on his shirt while enjoying a way too cheap bisquit for a succesful pro rider's mother.

Yeah, I agree, but I think the idea was to bring in an element of retro from the old days..

 

[will10]

Matija Kvasina, Croatia

 

[RedheadDane]

I liked Marcus Ljungqvists jersey as a swedish champion when riding for Saxo Bank. The Swedish jerseys have often had awkward designs and colors but Saxo always does nice-looking jerseys (the teams should definitely have some freedom playing around with the colors, this one is a bit brighter than the flag).




So few good linkable pictures of it though, notice the jersey-ception.

Now I feel bad for not remembering that one! (I didn't even realize Saxo has had the Swedish Road Champ)
I like it but that's just because I like Saxo's way of designing champion jerseys.
As for the jersey-ception, you mean the fact that it could look like the jersey from this season (well, before Tinkoff became a co-sponsor) with the Swedish cross added?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I got the Australian jersey here:
http://cycling-review.com/clothing/bicycle-jersey/national-cycling-jerseys/

That website also has some other very good national jerseys (IMHO), including:

Germany

Spain

and a much better Columbian jersey

In case you can't tell, I'm not a fan of understated national jerseys...

The Colombian one couldn't work as it looks almost identical to the Vuelta a Colombia leader's jersey. The Spanish one is, well, more or less the same as most of the national jerseys in the last few years, only vertical instead of horizontal; it's only with Movistar that the gaudy kits have disappeared; Garate, Plaza, Rodríguez, Gutiérrez, Sánchez and Contador's awful TT kit all went with the cornea-scorching approach.

Frankly, I don't know how anybody can advocate changing the traditional German jersey. It is the classiest of all national jerseys, as until Leopard Trek came along with their "hide it, quick!" approach, it looked good every year. Reimer at Cervélo, Knees at Sky and especially Wegmann at Gerolsteiner. Those were great national champion's kits - clearly a German jersey, showed the flag clearly but subtly, nice symmetry with the country's national sporting colours - traditionally white with black and then the black-red-and-gold trim.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The talk of Nic Roche's (excellent) Irish champions' jersey reminded me of another hideous one - the Dan Martin jersey that it replaced:

 

[Winterfold]

I really like the Spartacus Saxo swiss one and the Hushovd Cervelo Norwegian one.

And the bogan alternative aussie one - never let them forget who their daddy is

The British ones are hopeless, the ones from last years worlds were a total abomination.

This is much better:

(great idea for a thread btw)

 

[DominicDecoco]

This is much better: