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news
Team Sky's Jaguar F-Type time trial support vehicleVideo: Coolest support car ever? Team Sky's Jaguar F-type
Team Sky may be having a tough time at the Tour de France — with defending champion Chris Froome crashing out in the opening week and illness causing Richie Porte to fall out of contention in the Alps at the weekend — but one thing’s certain, they will have far and away the coolest support car on Saturday’s individual time trial.
Team sponsor Jaguar has supplied Sky with a bespoke F-type coupé that will follow its riders on Stage 20 from Bergerac to Périgueux. It’s a striking vehicle – although one that would be entirely impractical as a support car for anything other than a time trial stage – as the video below shows. Let's face it's a shameless marketing ploy, but it's a shameless marketing ploy with style.
The one-off vehicle has been specially modified for Team Sky and includes a separate electrical supply in the boot to provide power to the radios, amplifiers, microphones, horns and televisions that provide communications between Team Sky’s sports director and the rider.
Team Sky’s normal support vehicle is the Jaguar XF Sportbrake. This video shows how much kit gets packed into it for a typical road stage.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- chrisonabike 2 sec ago
I prefer "dressing for the destination" - so if I want woke headgear I'll just put my thinking cap on, thanks.
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And good chat! I'm going on Zwift now. Have a good weekend.
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18 comments
I'd take one. Not for the £100k it probably cost though. I'm open to sponsorship options.
Um, isn't it just a TATA built Mondeo in a frock?
err...no.
@nevis - precisely, this will have been Jaguars marketing idea, since the soft-top was gifted to Froome in return for the win last year, and this hard-top is just released. If you're Team Sky, what would you say to this request - no?!
I suspect Brailsford did not get the bus down Chester Road and nonchalantly wander into the customer centre at Castle Bromwich and spec his F Type with bike rack and extra batteries.
I would expect it more to do with their sponsor Jaguar wanting to showcase a trick piece of kit that will look nice in target markets such as the US.
...and it does look nice and as has been said upthread, it's good to see a successful British team paired with an exceptionally success British (Indian) car manufacturer.
...and Sky find yet another way to look like tw@ts!
Yay! Let's go back to the good old days of British pro teams being restricted to six riders so they couldn't even ride continental races and leave that bike racing lark to Johnny Foreigner. It's so not British to be that professional isn't it? Why can't we just have some amateurish part-timers under the direction of Mr Cholmondley-Warner flying the flag for us?
That's right - having an F-Type team car is the pinnacle of professionalism! They'll claim they're a carbon-neutral team next! Tw@ts.
Can't really understand this kind of attitude at all. Why you would even bother making a comment like that, I don't understand.
why make any comment on an internet site? Why comment on a comment even? Does a comment always have to be positive? This is what I genuinely think, so it is a genuine comment. If you think something different then you have every right to say so.
Have you asked if you can have it for the Swag bag?
What does it draft like?
Are they only using it on the ITT as they realise it's useless when it comes to a bit of Magic Spanner!
This is actually the first time I have ever considered buying a Jaguar. I won't need the radios but the bike rack is an essential
they could get an etype out of the garage and strap Porte's bike on the back, its small enough
It should be able to keep up.
Saw this on ITV4. As product placements go, that is a pretty cool bit of team kit.
That is the first piece of Sky merchandise I would like to own