Theory emerges Visma's black kit is to blame for Stage 12 suffering at Tour de France: "It's such a small detail but Tadej Pogacar is in all-white"

Tadej Pogacar cooked Team Visma | Lease a Bike on the first summit finish of the 2025 Tour de France on Thursday. The Slovenian romped to a dominant stage 12 win atop Hautacam, with more than two minutes separating the UAE leader and Jonas Vingegaard. What was to blame for the Visma team's disappointing underperformance though? Adam Blythe thinks he might have the answer.

Speaking on TNT Sports, the former British national champion theorises that more than a physical or even mental aspect to the suffering endured by the likes of Vingegaard, Matteo Jorgenson, Sepp Kuss and Simon Yates, it might actually boil down to something as simple as the colour of the Team Visma | Lease a Bike kit at the Tour de France.

"One thing with the heat that I'm always surprised by, and it is such a small detail, but when it's hot and you've got a black outfit on, you're always going to be hotter. Because black attracts the sun," he explains. "I know it's such a small detail, but Tadej is in all-white, and that reflects the heat."

"If you look at Visma, for the last five years, all their kits have been really dark colours. And on a day like yesterday, it attracts more heat, and it might be marginal, but if your body temperature is going up two or three points of a degree, that is a lot when you're trying to keep your body temperature down," Blythe adds.

The Brit has some support in his theory too. "It can make the difference during such an effort on such a hot day, such a fast day, it can make a difference," agrees former Tour de France stage winner Zdenek Stybar.

"A big part of the problem I guess, is that they've chosen a kit that is predominantly yellow throughout the whole season and they must change for the Tour de France. They can't wear a yellow kit," adds sprint legend Robbie McEwen. "But there's options. You can't have white, because there's a White Jersey in the Tour, but there are other options. Very minor details, but you add it up over an entire Tour... And it's been very hot these first two weeks."