AV not getting the fluoro champions' kit was more about a sponsor call that the team's signature rider wear something closer to the normal team kit. J-Rod, Rubinho, Guti and Luísle all got to wear the much more awesome kit (also Florent Brard got a similar carbon pattern French champions' kit). The Don would have preferred a more obvious national jersey, even if not as cornea-scorchingly awesome as the normal Caisse one.
However, since Caisse were replaced by Movistar as Abarcá's title sponsor, the champions' kits have been godawful. Even Gio's Italian kit was terrible, I thought the Italian fed would insist on a proper one after the Pozzato/Катюша debacle, and indeed his kit (and subsequently Rojas' Spanish kit) was not as bad as the usual Movistar national jerseys but it was still dreadful. It was about a 3/10 jersey if that.
Now, it looks like we're back to the minimalism. The stripes in the middle of an otherwise standard team jersey were bad but at least identifiable. This is up there with Big Mig's national jersey as nondescript. They've actually made their national champions' kits worse. It's almost a laudable achievement.
Edit: I've just re-read that post and I name no fewer than SEVEN Abarcá riders by nicknames, that's a bit over the top even for me.
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