Primož Roglič and others show off their new 2024 team kits

Giro d'Italia champion, Sarah Gigante and more quick to don their new colours as the new racing year begins

Updated 11:16, Wednesday 3rd January 2024. Published 10:31, Monday 1st January 2024

George Poole

Junior Writer

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Primož Roglič wasted no time in showing off his 2024 headshot

The fireworks have popped, Auld Lang Syne has been sung and new riders have already been draped in their new team jerseys, marking the beginning of a new year in professional cycling. As the clock struck midnight around the world, old team contracts reached their natural end and riders on the move have been able to legally show off their new colours, including Bora-Hansgrohe's Primož Roglič.

The Giro d'Italia champion has already been pictured on the German WorldTeam's website, in his fresh attire, which sees Bora-Hansgrohe reunite with Sportful as their kit manufacturer. Featuring "fresh light green accents," the team's 2024 jersey is very much like their 2023 jersey, only with bright green/yellow replacing the tried and tested red patterns on the front of the kit.

As a former Slovenian national champion, the country's national flag is wrapped on the end of Roglič's sleeves, as he enters another year in the professional peloton. Now a four-time Grand Tour champion, Roglič's debut season in Bora-Hansgrohe colours will be spent trying to add a first Tour de France title to both his and the team's trophy cabinet.

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Mikel Landa, Victor Lafay and Wout van Aert break cover in new colours

Roglič is not the only rider to be loud and proud in his new jersey on 1 January 2024, with the likes of Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step), Victor Lafay (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) and Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) all spotted in their fresh colours ahead of the new season. For Van Aert, this means not a change of team, but a change in the shade of yellow in which his Visma-Lease a Bike team will be racing.

Wout van Aert shows off his new colours for 2024

The team formerly known as Jumbo-Visma may have lost Roglič in 2024, but they welcome Lease-a-Bike as co-title partners alongside Visma, who have stepped up their commitment in the absence of founding sponsor, Jumbo. With the new name comes a fresh set of jerseys, which offer a strikingly brighter tone of yellow than in the past.

Van Aert's jersey is emblazoned with the Belgian tricolore colours on his collar and sleeves, to signify his status as a former Belgian national champion - though the less said about his folded left sleeve, the better.

For the likes of Lafay and Landa, the New Year brings a change of teams for two of the peloton's best climbers. Lafay has been quick to post a picture of himself in the new Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale jersey on Instagram, whilst Landa has been pictured sporting a rockstar pose in his Soudal Quick-Step attire.

Mikel Landa cuts the look of a Matrix character in his new garms

Landa is perhaps the most noted of the two riders, having twice finished on the podium of the Giro d'Italia - along with two fourth-place finishes at the Tour de France - but it is Lafay who most recently won a stage at a Grand Tour. The Frenchman produced a career performance on stage 2 of last year's Tour de France, to beat the likes of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Van Aert and Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) to the day's honours.

In 2024, Landa will slot into Remco Evenepoel's support crew for the Belgian's tilt at the Tour de France, whilst also offering the Belgian WorldTeam a valuable asset in week-long and three-week stage races as a leader in his own right.

As for Lafay, the former Cofidis man will be hoping to add to his maiden Grand Tour stage victory, as well as finding consistency in the Ardennes Classics. Soon to turn 28 years of age, Lafay should be entering his peak years and he will do so as a leader on the newly-named Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale WorldTeam.

Victor Lafay wasted no time in posting a picture in his new kit on Instagram

Sarah Gigante and Tom Pidcock show off fresh threads on Instagram

1 January is a day in which Instagram is annually flooded with pictures of riders in their new jerseys, be it as part of their existing team, like Van Aert, or as a proud member of their new team, such as Lidl-Trek's Tao Geoghegan Hart. Many of these riders have, of course, been spotted in their new jerseys at recent training camps, but Monday marked the moment that they are contractually allowed to don their fresh jerseys in public.

UAE Team Emirates' new recruit Pavel Sivakov was among the cavalcade of riders who showed off his new colours on social media. Much like Geoghegan Hart, the Frenchman has left Ineos Grenadiers after years of service and will now look for greater opportunities elsewhere. At the team's recent training camp in La Nucia, Spain, Sivakov revealed to GCN that as well as the Tour de France this summer, he may also ride the Vuelta a España and try his hand at a GC bid.

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Alongside new kit, riders are also quick to become accustomed to their new gear as the first races of the season appear on the horizon. Australia's Sarah Gigante has been confirmed to ride the Santos Tour Down Under in the coming weeks and the 23-year-old has wasted no time in sampling the best equipment that Specialized have to offer.

Gigante has made the switch from Movistar to AG Insurance-Soudal Team for the 2024 season, and with this has adopted Specialized bikes and equipment. The brand has made waves in the last couple of seasons with the introduction of the snood balaclava which riders have adopted under their time trial helmets.

In recent posts on her Instagram, Gigante has found amusement in her first few training sessions wearing the aero snood matched with the TT5 lid, which does admittedly give riders the look of a Star Wars character.

Gigante will race the Australian National Championships time trial on Thursday and will do so wearing her fresh kit, which pays homage to her previous two victories in this discipline, with the green and gold bands on her sleeves. Infamously, Movistar had no such feature on their time trial kits for the Australian.

Sarah Gigante proudly sports her new kit ahead of the Santos Tour Down Under

For some, the first races of 2024 have already been and gone, with the cyclo-cross campaign continuing at a canter in northern Europe. New UCI ProTeam TDT-Unibet officially unveiled their new blue, red and yellow get-up on 2 January, but eagle-eyed fans will have spotted Lander Loockx in action in his new kit on 1 January at GP Pétange. Bas Tietema's team will hope to light up the peloton in their eye-catching strip throughout 2024.

Tom Pidcock, meanwhile, sported a special Ineos Grenadiers kit at the X2O Badkamers Trofee round in Baal on Tuesday. The mud of Belgium did not bring Pidcock much luck, but the former world champion remained an easy man to pick out from the bunch, given his all bright orange attire.

Ineos Grenadiers' new kit for 2024 may have been accidentally leaked by Egan Bernal ahead of its official launch, but Gobik have also produced a limited edition CX jersey that Pidcock will wear in his remaining 'cross races. Whilst the team's road jersey fades to black over the left shoulder, Pidcock's 'cross kit remains orange and sports some fresh patterns on the front.

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Pidcock will continue to sport the rainbow jersey as MTB world champion in 2024, though his commitments will likely be scaled back in advance of his crack at a Tour de France GC bid.

As it seems to do every year, January has rolled around in the blink of an eye, and with the sightings of many riders in their new colours, attention and anticipation will soon build to the first road races of the season. For both the men's and women's WorldTour outfits, the first real mark on the calendar will be the Santos Tour Down Under, which gets underway for the women on 11 January. The men's race follows just four days later.

Check out our race pages to find out everything you need to know ahead of the men's and women's Santos Tours Down Under, as the new racing season rears its head.