Just watching the Vuelta highlights and the thought occurred observing those Team Sky mesh tops that maybe they need to slap on the sunblock to maintain their pastey white pro torsos. I wonder if they’re mesh as a 1%er, or just to overcome the choice of black kit in the first place.

I’m pretty sure they know what they are doing…

the choice of black kit in the first place.

They’re black at the front to increase radiation loss, and blue at the back to increase reflection?

They appear to tune the design depending on the conditions:

They use that odd black fabric, erm ColdBlack or whatever it’s called that reflects sunlight. Mammut uses the same deal for some of their mountaineering kit.

Oh well, I figured there would be a sensible answer, but the low tech thought of them slathering on the sunblock amused. Still, it sounds like a pretty amazing fabric. Is it really expensive since I haven’t noticed any other teams looking see through? You’d imagine Movistar would get a bit toasty for example.

It’s a Schoeller technology, which generally means it’ll be expensive, yes. Probably one of the reasons that the Rapha Pro Team Sly kit is so much more expensive than the straight ‘replica’ stuff. Mammut use it for mountaineering kit and that’s expensive too, but then everything Mammut makes is top dollar.

It is a treatment to the fabric rather than the fabrit itself, so the fabric is something else.