Cast your mind back to March 17, 2013. On the northwest coast of Italy, somewhere between Milan and San Remo, 200 professional cyclists were facing torrid racing conditions as they battled on to win – or even just finish – La Classicisima against wind, ice, sleet, and snow.
Watching the race back now or looking through epic images of Peter Sagan, Fabian Cancellara, Mark Cavendish, and eventual winner Gerald Ciolek facing all the elements Mother Nature could throw at them, you’ll see – amongst the mass of old school rain capes flapping in the wind and doing little to protect the riders from the wintery conditions – tens of riders wearing a sleek, black jersey which cuts a remarkably aero profile for a rain jacket.
In most cases, the logo was scribbled out with a black Sharpie, but after the race, it became clear that throngs of pro teams had gone out and purchased Castelli’s new foul-weather racing Gabba jersey to keep their riders warm whilst maintaining an aerodynamic advantage.
But does it still happen? Why do teams stray, and what do brands think when they do? How does a team’s relationship with a sponsor actually work? We spoke to people from every side of the conversation to find out.
“Up until that day, we had only sold about a thousand Gabbas in the whole world, and 150 of them showed up in that stupid race,” Steve Smith, Global Brand Manager for Castelli, told me, recalling that infamous Milan-San Remo moment.
“But it wasn’t just San Remo. The entire spring that year was super wet. If you watch Tirreno [the week before Milan-San Remo], you can see [Matteo] Montaguti on AG2R [not a Castelli-sponsored team] off the front all the time wearing a Gabba.”
I asked Smith, who was integral to the design of the original Gabba in 2011, if – given the…
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