Impact of leaders jersey on performance

[wouterkaas]

Ever since I started watching cycling on TV, I'm wondering whether wearing the leaders jersey issued by the organizers impacts your performance. I don't mean the supposed extra motivation it gives you, but more in terms of aerodynamics, especially during TT's. Riders get to wear skinsuits issued by the organization (tailor made thankfully)

Often teams with TT specialists, such as Sunweb and Team Sky, use windtunnel-tested suits with all kind of new features that are said to gain you an X amount of seconds per km.

Take this year's Giro for example. Tom Dumoulin won the Giro in the final GT, with a 31 second advantage on GC. He was in his own windtunnel-tested skinsuit, while Quintana was in the organizers' pink skinsuit. Say that Dumoulin's skinsuit would gain him 1-2 seconds per km, he basically won the Giro because of his skinsuit. Had Tom been in pink, no way that Quintana would beat him in a TT, but still.

Does wearing organization issued jerseys/skinsuit impact riders' performance or is this overrated? It keeps me puzzling...

 

[bigcog]

Ever since I started watching cycling on TV, I'm wondering whether wearing the leaders jersey issued by the organizers impacts your performance. I don't mean the supposed extra motivation it gives you, but more in terms of aerodynamics, especially during TT's. Riders get to wear skinsuits issued by the organization (tailor made thankfully)

Often teams with TT specialists, such as Sunweb and Team Sky, use windtunnel-tested suits with all kind of new features that are said to gain you an X amount of seconds per km.

Take this year's Giro for example. Tom Dumoulin won the Giro in the final GT, with a 31 second advantage on GC. He was in his own windtunnel-tested skinsuit, while Quintana was in the organizers' pink skinsuit. Say that Dumoulin's skinsuit would gain him 1-2 seconds per km, he basically won the Giro because of his skinsuit. Had Tom been in pink, no way that Quintana would beat him in a TT, but still.

Does wearing organization issued jerseys/skinsuit impact riders' performance or is this overrated? It keeps me puzzling...

Simple, they should be able to wear the teams skin suit. Apart from the organizers skinsuit being less optimal than their own, they have to waste recovery time getting fitted for it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXZ4ME33xKQ

 

[King Boonen]

Supposedly Cav lost a sprint in Qatar (I think?) last year as he was wearing the leaders jersey and Kristoff was wearing a skinsuit.

So yes, going from your own, custom designed and fitted kit to a race leaders kit will affect you. The difference is likely to be small but that doesn't mean it isn't significant.

 

[RedheadDane]

Probably also dependent on the race. I could imagine that the skinsuit you'd get in the TdF would be a tad better than the one you would get in, say, Tour of Denmark...

 

[wouterkaas]

Ever since I started watching cycling on TV, I'm wondering whether wearing the leaders jersey issued by the organizers impacts your performance. I don't mean the supposed extra motivation it gives you, but more in terms of aerodynamics, especially during TT's. Riders get to wear skinsuits issued by the organization (tailor made thankfully)

Often teams with TT specialists, such as Sunweb and Team Sky, use windtunnel-tested suits with all kind of new features that are said to gain you an X amount of seconds per km.

Take this year's Giro for example. Tom Dumoulin won the Giro in the final GT, with a 31 second advantage on GC. He was in his own windtunnel-tested skinsuit, while Quintana was in the organizers' pink skinsuit. Say that Dumoulin's skinsuit would gain him 1-2 seconds per km, he basically won the Giro because of his skinsuit. Had Tom been in pink, no way that Quintana would beat him in a TT, but still.

Does wearing organization issued jerseys/skinsuit impact riders' performance or is this overrated? It keeps me puzzling...

Simple, they should be able to wear the teams skin suit. Apart from the organizers skinsuit being less optimal than their own, they have to waste recovery time getting fitted for it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXZ4ME33xKQ

It would save the organization a lot of money, that they can then use to place barriers on mountains... :lol: