The 2015 IAM Cycling kit, in which their riders were expected to enter a new chapter in team's short history as a WorldTour squad, was combining intelligent wordplay at the back with classy design. Revealing that the smartest and most elegant kit for the new season eventually won't be permitted buried the UCI under yet another avalanche of criticism on Twitter, but Swiss squad's owner revealed that they have been informed about it in advance.

“Under the UCI rules, they thought that this should not be permitted on the races,” team’s owner Michel Thetáz explained CyclingTips. “But in any other places, on the stage podium or whatever, we understood that it was okay. Our supporters really like it, so we use it in any other places outside the races.

The UCI explained that a spot below team's name, occupied by riders' surname in the preferred design, was reserved for sponsors.

“Podium is great, any other places is great, such as training, meeting fans, participation in [non-UCI] events as well. We want to be up to the expectations of our supporters, obviously.”

It would be naive to think that the wave of criticism with which the UCI has been recently flooded didn't work in a favour of the new WorldTour squad, but they insisted that an information posted on Twitter – nearly three months after acknowledging that the design won't be permitted – was due to receiving many questions from their followers.

“We didn’t find out yesterday,” he clarified. “We answered a question yesterday because there were questions coming up all the time saying, ‘hey, this is great, why don’t you use it in races as well?’ However the UCI already said no at the end of November.”

“As a contrarian, you must try to make progress,” he said. “Okay, we understand the UCI for their own reasons say, ‘no, it can’t be done.’ But we will come back again [in the future] and at some stage we think it is going to be accepted.”