Le Col to make pro cycling debut with Team Bahrain McLaren

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Dec 16, 2019

Cycling clothing brand Le Col has announced its “most advanced collection” yet in partnership with British F1 racing pioneers McLaren. The technical kit will be worn by Team Bahrain McLaren for the 2020 WorldTour races.

This is a major milestone for London-based Le Col, which was established by former GB cyclist Yanto Barker in 2011, as it makes its first step into the highest levels of the sport.

“Our purpose has and will always be, to make the best performance kit in the world so that riders can go faster and further. This is the perfect time for us to enter the WorldTour; the conventions of cycling kit design are mature and they’re ripe to be disrupted,” said Le Col founder Yanto Barker.

He is working alongside team principal Rod Ellingworth and technical director Duncan Bradley to look at how the whole package of a rider, their bike, kit, position and environment all lead to success.

The partnership deal will see a new race-collection presented to the team for the 2020 season, with each rider receiving an entirely bespoke range made using special fabrics and panel construction specifically suited to individual stages of Grand Tours.

Rod Ellingworth, Team Bahrain McLaren team principal, said: “We were blown away by Le Col’s attitude to collaborating with us to create the very best performance products and taking a ‘rider first’ approach to improving athlete performance.”

The kit deal comes shortly after Le Col received a £2.5 million investment from Puma Private Equity to support its growth. The funds will be used to increase the brand’s R&D capabilities after a surge in revenues in the first half of 2019.