With the beginning of a new racing season, January often becomes a bit of a swirling, soupy mess of sponsor swaps as teams unveil new equipment for the upcoming year. So far we haven’t seen a great many substantive changes besides fresh paint and new colours for jerseys, though Astana will be racing on Chinese bikes and Groupama-FDJ has dropped Shimano wheels in favour of Miche, and Maap has entered the WorldTour as the new sponsor of Jayco-AlUla and Liv-AlUla-Jayco.
While the cycling world turns its focus towards the Tour Down Under, and the grey shorts and purple Maap jerseys likely draw the eye more than anything else, what is perhaps most compelling has been going on in the Netherlands, and playing out as the new year begins on some extremely muddy cyclocross courses.
