Kaleidoscopes

I don’t know of any sport that is as colorful as cycling. No, I’m not talking about the color the doping scandals. I’m talking about the variety of the changing pattern of colors of team jerseys that you can see in a peloton under the summer sun.

If you want a clearer example of the colors of cycling, watch a team time trial in the Tour de France and you can see poetry of motion. Nine cyclists, decked in the same outfit, hunched in aerodynamic position over their similarly painted bikes, turning the pedals like a metronome, and doing it for an hour at speeds of about 55kph!

Cycling jerseys have come a long way. In its early days, sponsors’ names and logo’s were stitched on the jersey. This made the jersey not only heavy but felt thick were the logos were stitched. Also, in those days, lycra or polyester wasn’t developed yet so wool was the material of choice adding another layer of weight and unwanted warmth during hot days and heavier still during rainy days. It was tough wearing those jerseys.

The advent of textile paints, rendered stitching logos obsolete but making silk-screening became very popular. The silk screening process was so easy to do with cotton that it was a requirement in one of our classes back then in high school.

However, cotton never became a material of choice in cycling because it absorbs sweat and water. Besides, cotton doesn’t stretch. When polyester became available, the silkscreen process was used on the new material but the paint was hot and sticks on your skin. The paint also had a tendency to flake after a few visits to the washing machine.

Then thirty years ago, a process called sublimation was developed. It is defined as a “process of printing synthetic materials using special dyes which turns from solid into gas at a specified time. The process goes like this: the design is printed on a special paper and then a cut of polyester (cotton won’t work here) is overlaid over the printed-paper. It is then inserted into the sublimation machine and after a few minutes or so, the design from the paper will be transferred permanently into the fibers of the polyester. Unlike textile paints which sticks ton top of the cloth, sublimated inks become a part of the polyester fiber. The design will not fade and color selection is only limited by your imagination. There are two limitations though: 1- it will work only on white polyester and 2- it wont work with cotton.

In the Philippines, the company “Anatomic” is the best when it comes to sublimated jerseys. There are a few companies who do sublimation here in Cebu but they’re not as good or as experienced as the Anatomic.

These days, sports other than cycling has taken advantage of the new, hi-tech, sweat-wicking, polyesters and the sublimation process. For sure, sublimated jerseys add color to the sport!

Finally, Miguel Flores had a nasty accident in Mantalongon yesterday but fortunately he came out fine. But his helmet did not! So if you still think it’s uncool to wear helmets, go ask Miguel.