Pro riders throwing away kit

[CoolC]

Just watching today's highlights on Eurosport and there were a couple of riders in the peloton throwing their jackets away in the same way they do with bottles.

Would they get in trouble for this? As I'd think they would be pretty pricey items. Bottles at €1 a shot I can understand but jackets must be a hundred times the price/cost (even if they're free from a sponsor)

From what I know most teams don't have huge "money no odject" budgets.

[Jimbo.]

CoolC said:

Just watching today's highlights on Eurosport and there were a couple of riders in the peloton throwing their jackets away in the same way they do with bottles.

Would they get in trouble for this? As I'd think they would be pretty pricey items. Bottles at €1 a shot I can understand but jackets must be a hundred times the price/cost (even if they're free from a sponsor)

From what I know most teams don't have huge "money no odject" budgets.

Most - if not all - of the kit is given to them by their sponsor/kit supplier, and a £100 jacket certainly doesn't cost the manufacture £100! Given the amount of exposure the kit gets (try getting anything Rapha come Giro/Tour time!), they can write off a couple of quids worth of stuff to be plastered all over the worlds press.

[Some Gump]

Bearing in mind the cost of that rider being there - the training, salaries, cars, transoprt, hotels... That jacket isn't even a feature in the total cost. Imagine if they did worse due to trying to keep a poxy jacket for later?

[Rouleur]

The vast majority of the time they either pocket the jacket or pass it to a domestique, but if they're close to the finish they'll want to get rid of all unnecessary weight as easily as possible. Nice for a lucky spectator!

[CoolC]

Rouleur said:

The vast majority of the time they either pocket the jacket or pass it to a domestique, but if they're close to the finish they'll want to get rid of all unnecessary weight as easily as possible. Nice for a lucky spectator!

Well this was the thing. It was in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege which was 250+km and around half way through, so not in the "jettison all unwanted weight" section of the race.

Surely the sponsors will only supply so much kit per season, and with it being the kit fully emblazoned with all the other sponsors, it isn't going to be the cheapest thing for the clothing supplier to create.

As mentioned above, there are the costs of travel, hotels, wages, food etc to be added on. my understanding was that once all this is taken into account most teams were close to break even budget wise. I could be wrong with that and I'm more than happy to be corrected, but it just seemed odd for the jackets to be thrown to the lucky crowd member.

[anonymous-user]

Jo Rowsell posted a picture of all her team kit at the Wiggle-Honda launch, lets just say no one in the Rowsell family will need to go clothes shopping this year... or next...

Anyway, whats the cost of a jacket compared to a rider saying comfortable, regulating their body temperature and staying at the front, potentially getting maximum coverage for winning a race... Any solo breakaway rider will sit up and make sure their jersey is zipped up with the sponsor visible before they cross the line too for the same reason.

[HundredthIdiot]

Sky aside, pro cycling is not a rich sport.

When Nico Roche was riding for AG2R he didn't even have a dedicated TT bike at his disposal.

The smaller teams would not want to be wasting clothing. Send a domestique back to the car - that's what they're there for!

[itsnotarace]

Expensive clothing will normally be taken back to the team car, I've seen a few really cheap jackets being discarded over the years

Also see http://road.cc/content/news/81390-top-riders-risk-...

[Rouleur]

CoolC said:

Well this was the thing. It was in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege which was 250+km and around half way through, so not in the "jettison all unwanted weight" section of the race.

Are you sure it wasn't by a feed zone? They sometimes drop kit off there for the soigneurs to pick up.

[bakerstreet]

CoolC said:

Well this was the thing. It was in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege which was 250+km and around half way through, so not in the "jettison all unwanted weight" section of the race.

Surely the sponsors will only supply so much kit per season, and with it being the kit fully emblazoned with all the other sponsors, it isn't going to be the cheapest thing for the clothing supplier to create.

As mentioned above, there are the costs of travel, hotels, wages, food etc to be added on. my understanding was that once all this is taken into account most teams were close to break even budget wise. I could be wrong with that and I'm more than happy to be corrected, but it just seemed odd for the jackets to be thrown to the lucky crowd member.

I think Team Sky have a €15m budget, so to loose a few jackets and overshoes is a drop in the ocean. I appreciate that not all teams will have that kind of budget.

[TKF]

Sometimes they drop off more than just a water bottle or a gilet

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1015081992344...

[CoolC]

TKF said:

Sometimes they drop off more than just a water bottle or a gilet

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1015081992344...

^^ NICE!

Looked his size too

[Johnny]

HundredthIdiot said:

Sky aside, pro cycling is not a rich sport.

I'm pretty sure Sky don't have the biggest budget... BMC & ORE both have bigger budgets than Sky to my knowledge.

Not to say there aren't teams that are a bit short of cash though!