Newly-minted world champion Thor Hushovd will race for the first time in his rainbow jersey Thursday at the Giro del Piemonte in the region around Turin, Italy. The Norwegian classics-man will wear the kit a second time at Saturday's Giro di Lombardia before closing down his season for a surgical procedure involving a collarbone, a steel plate, and more information than I want to know. Hey, that's cycling. Don't expect much for results from Hushovd, who tells the Norwegian press that his head is spinning a bit, and anyway Lombardia isn't his race.
For the second consecutive season, the Italian fall classics will feature a new world champion briefly donning one version of his rainbow stripes before trading it in for another. Hushovd, like Cadel Evans last year, is changing teams in the offseason, so while he will open his defense in Cervélo Test Team colors, designers in the USA are busily sipping absynthe in order to get into the right frame of mind for melding Hushovd's arc-en-ciel with trademark argyle of Thor's 2011 team, Garmin-Transitions.
Will Cervélo kick out something cool to honor the most successful rider in their brief two-year dalliance as a test team and lead sponsor? From the fashionista corners of cycling there is much hope, as CTT have led the pack in that respect the last two years. Plus the holidays are approaching, and there is no reason not to slake the thirst of Hushovd's fans in Norway aiming to honor their hero, as well as some Canadian fans who'd plunk down $95 for the Cervélo rainbow look. My suggestion is all white, classic rainbow, with a giant black é in the center of the bands. Front and back. Make it happen.