So you thought darker jerseys were hotter jerseys?<\/p>\n
You were wrong (sort of).<\/p>\n
Visma-Lease a Bike defended its use of dark kits during a Tour de France heatwave by claiming that fabric trumps color when it comes to cooling.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not at all strange that people think a dark jersey absorbs more heat than a light one,\u201d Visma head of performance Mathieu Heijboer said in a team note. \u201cStudies in the past have shown that darker clothing can be warmer than lighter colors.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, the textile industry in elite sport has developed to such an extent that it\u2019s been discovered that much bigger differences can be achieved with specific fabrics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe choice of fabric has a far greater impact on heat retention than the color.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an explanation that could make you reconsider your clothing choices this summer.<\/p>\n
The question about wearing dark or light bubbles up every time the mercury goes north.<\/p>\n
Darker colors are proven to absorb more sunlight than lighter ones. On the flipside, lighter tones reflect it.<\/p>\n
And when thermoregulation is proven to be a key limiting factor at all ends of performance, that matters.<\/p>\n
Velo<\/em> tech chief Josh Ross was so concerned about the topic last summer that he even turned his backyard into a science lab to research it.<\/p>\n But hold it right there.<\/p>\n Why is Visma-Lease a Bike giving us the thermoregulation science lesson?<\/p>\n Surely Jonas Vingegaard and Co. have got bigger things to worry about. They look like Tadej Poga\u010dar and Isaac Del Toro.<\/p>\n Visma issued its explanation on the eve of this Tour de France after commentators reminded the Killer Bees that \u201cdark kit is hot kit.\u201d<\/p>\n And the team is riding in a very black kit this summer.<\/p>\n The dark \u201carchitect\u201d swap-out kit the team is wearing was favored over a creamy yellow alternative in a public vote. <\/p>\n It\u2019s a fan favorite that could be a heat trap that hammers performance.<\/p>\n And with temperatures forecast to reach 40\u00b0C in southern France next week, that sounds like a very big problem.<\/p>\n Raging wildfires are already impacting how the race is being run.<\/p>\n Heijboer\u2019s not worried about his team getting hot at this Tour de France.<\/p>\n He said that the UV resistance and weight of apparel are at the top of the hierarchy in terms of an athlete\u2019s overall cooling.<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, you want to make sure the body doesn\u2019t heat up too quickly in the sun,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s also about how quickly moisture is dissipated. Does the moisture stay in the jersey, or does it evaporate quickly enough?<\/p>\n \u201cThe fibers used in our jerseys are treated to be UV-resistant. That UV protection is an important factor, as it ensures that some of the light is reflected rather than absorbed.\u201d<\/p>\n Visma-Lease a Bike claims it proved its color vs. fabric theory by testing prototypes of its Nimbl kits in climate chambers.<\/p>\n The results showed that jersey color causes only \u201cinsignificant differences\u201d in body temperature.<\/p>\n \u201cAll results show that the choice of fabric plays a much greater role than the color,\u201d Heijboer said.<\/p>\n Visma-Lease a Bike is not the only team using a swap-out kit for this Tour de France.<\/p>\n Pinarello-Q36.5 was one of many teams to roll out a special-edition uniform.<\/p>\n How the team described the \u201cfresh summer look\u201d of its Q36.5 jersey is intriguing.<\/p>\n There was no suggestion that the pale blue colorway was inherently cooler than its year-long navy blue. A press release instead cited ultralight mesh panels and thermoregulating yarns as the central cooling components of its Dottore Pro kits.<\/p>\n Vimsa-Lease a Bike\u2019s research should make cyclists reconsider how they approach their wardrobe deliberations.<\/p>\n During our temperature testing last summer, tech chief Josh found that a dark jersey was 20\u00b0F warmer than a paler alternative after one hour in the sun.<\/p>\n His experiment also found black helmets and water bottles to be significantly warmer after being left to bake in some Portland sun, FYI.<\/p>\n But here\u2019s the thing.<\/p>\n Velo<\/em>\u2018s testing did not compare like-for-like jerseys. We don\u2019t have endless kit, after all. A white Gobik Infinity short sleeve was lined up against a black Castelli Aero Race 8.<\/p>\n So what\u2019s the takeaway from all of this?<\/p>\n Yes, dark jerseys are hot jerseys. Josh proved that.<\/p>\n But like Visma\u2019s performance guru Heijboer said, fabric is king.<\/p>\n A dark but lightweight jersey \u2013 ideally with UV resistance \u2013 will feel cooler than a pale but heavyweight alternative.<\/p>\n Many high-end jerseys nowadays boast ultralight and UV-resistant materials. Examples include the Velocio Luxe Ultralight SE, the Castelli UPF short sleeve, and the Rapha Pro Team range.<\/p>\n One wrinkle in Visma\u2019s jersey defense?<\/p>\n The discarded creamy switchout jersey will be cooler than the black alternative worn at the Tour de France. They\u2019re made of the same materials.<\/p>\n The team is clearly confident that fabric is cool enough not to get in a sweat about it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france\/tour-de-france-dark-jersey-not-hot-jersey\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2225581761-scaled.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated July 6, 2026 10:28AM So you thought darker jerseys were hotter jerseys? You were wrong (sort of). Visma-Lease a Bike defended its use of dark kits during a Tour de France heatwave by claiming that fabric trumps color when it comes to cooling. \u201cIt\u2019s not at all strange that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2030382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2030382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2030382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2030382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2030382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2030382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A black swap-out in a Tour de France heatwave<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2284067363-1200x800.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Fabric trumps color for keeping cool<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2284770796.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Why does this matter to us?<\/h2>\n
![\"CYCLING](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Isaac-Del-Toro-cover-1200x675.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")