It's no secret I buy a lot of cycling gear. Too much, no doubt. But with a half-decent collection of jerseys collected through the course of 2020, I thought it would be fun to host a competition on my Instagram account to find the "viewers' choice" cycling jersey of the year.
The competition featured 16 designs from an array of clubs, cafes and manufacturers. 16 would be whittled down to eight, then to four and ultimately to the final two.
Round one saw victories for Paul Smith, Huub, Komraid, Rocacorba Girona (Tactic), Four Boroughs (Atacus) and Rapha (in the forms of Legion of LA, Allied Cycleworks and Pave Cycling!).
Round two brought a couple of surprises, with Rocacorba losing out to Paul Smith, as well as losses for the UK brands with both Komraid and Four Boroughs losing against their Rapha rivals.
The semi-finals featured no less than three Rapha designs facing off against a sole Paul Smith jersey.
It was hardly surprising then that the final was a Rapha vs Rapha head-to-head in the form of Pave Cycling's Mexican-inspired design against Allied Cycleworks' blue and pink design (which, interestingly enough, I had only got as their Colin Strickland design was sold out!).
Two worthy finalists, for sure. And in the end, it was the Mexican design that won out - partly I have no doubt because Pave rallied the full might of their social media following, who voted in their masses!
It is a truly beautiful design and one I am pleased I managed to get my hands on before they all sold out (even if I had to settle for the flyweight version when I would have much preferred the medium weight jersey).
So there we have it. The 'official' Sartorial Cyclist jersey of the year for 2020 goes to Pave Cycling Cafe and Rapha (and a special well done to Rapha's in-house designer Ollie Howe, who beat his boss's Allied Cycleworks design in the final!).