How the colours pink and orange coloured the canvas of cycling.

 How the colours pink and orange coloured the canvas of   cycling.

Written by Oran Scully 13.01.2026                                                            

If the history of cycling was painted onto a canvas two colours would dominate that of the colours of pink and orange.

Professional cycle racing is a great drama its actors are its cyclists and its audience are its spectators and the colours pink and orange were ideal for its colourization.

Cycling had the actors and an audience it also had a dramatic stage the large backdrop of the Alps and the Pyrennes.  

Of course all this drama required production and this is where the world of business comes in.

When business choses colours its purpose has always been to draw attention to itself and orange and pink were a perfect fit.  It is widely known that people are hardwired to be attracted to these two colours.

The first colour to be chosen out of the paintbox and then splashed onto cycling’s blank canvas was pink.  In 1931 the Giro D’Italia gave pink its first outing as the colours of the race leaders jersey the Maglia Rosa.

Pink was the colour of the sports paper La Gazetto dello sport which sponsored the Giro D’Italia.  It is not known what the riders thought about the colour but everyone was not happy .  The Italian daily newspaper La Stampa remarked “ It is a pale pink that looks like a woman’s garment “ .

It must be noted that pink was a popular colour in the late 1920’s through to the 1930’s.  Pink fitted in with this period of time and was an important colour for the Art Deco and later Streamline Modern style that was all the rage in the 1920s and 1930s.

In literature pink appears in the Great Gatsby in the colour of Jay Gatsby’s suit so having pink on the shoulders of a male cyclist was not that out of place.

In cycling the colour pink gained a foothold within the sport that continues to this day.  Whilst the colour of pink is more famous that the colour of orange it must be said that orange is a very close second in terms of popularity.

Pink dominated the 1920s and the 1930s but orange waited in the wings and by the 1960s it was the more dominant colour of the two.  Professional cycling teams like BIC and Molteni all used orange as their racing colour.

BIC Team Jersey and Maglia Rosa Pink Jersey        Photo by unknown 

But it was in the 1970’s that orange seemed to be everywhere in both fashion in the home and even the colour of the cars on the sides of the road.

It was also quite fitting that the 1970’s was a time when two of the fiercest colours on the spectrum pink and orange were employed by the two of cycling’s greatest rivals Eddy Merckx and Raymond Poulidor.

I am thinking here of the orange colours of Eddy Merckx’s Molteni team and the pink colours of Raymond Poulidor’s Gan team.

Eddy Merckx   Photo by Panini S.p.A 

Despite the muted tendencies of the 1970’s with its over use of brown and beige pink was still a powerful eye catching shade.

When Eddy Merckx donned the pink leaders jersey in the Giro D’Italia its hue paired well against the warm burnt orange of his Molteni team mates.  

What is noticeable in the 1970’s is that the colours of the spectators clothes and the colours of the cars they drove were as colourful as the riders themselves.

Orange was everywhere in the 1970’s and companies used it to promote their products and services.  Hitachi used orange as a design colour in its electrical appliances its tv’s its agricultural machinery.

When Hitachi took over the Splendor cycling team it brought its bright orange livery onto the shoulders of the great Belgian cyclist Claude Criquelion.  

The Hitachi colour’s had a wonderful effect on its Citroen CX team Hitachi cars not to mention its memorable jersey made famous by the late great Claude Criquelion.  

Pink influence was seemingly fading by the early 1980s but this would all change in 1987 with the arrival of the Z Peugeot team with its comic book explosion logo and its sky blue fade with hot pink graphics.  

The bicycles they rode were quite striking especially its Lo profile bikes which like its road bikes were finished in a lovely dusty pink which faded to a dark navy blue metallic. 

Pink became a dominant colour in the 1990's with orange bleeding away into the backround.  The Belgian Lotto team and the French Z - Peugeot team employed the colour in their liveries.  

The time period covering 1989 to 1995 was arguably the most colourful period in the aesthetics of the sport.  

Not only the jersey was colourful but also the tech itself was eye catching with coloured disc wheels which were always colourful.

Brightly coloured disc wheels    Art by Artistic Racer 

But it became even more colourful with the introduction of new time trial wheels which came in varying colours of attractive four five and even six spoke designs.

Team Time Trial  Art by Artistic Racer 

The mid 1980’s to early 1990’s were heavily influenced by the Memphis design group aesthetic which itself had been influenced by the earlier movement of Pop Art.  Companies were quick to adopt the Memphis Design aesthetic into their designs.  

Art by Artistic Racer 

In 1993 the Chazal team appeared and became one of the sports most colourful teams.  

Its jersey an example of what results when you combine pink and neon yellow with touches of blue.  

The famous colours of the 1990's is represented by the famous Chazal team jersey as seen in the image below.  

Chazal Jersey with MBK bicycle  Artistic Racer 

The late 1990’s was a dark time for cycling’s dramatic production with revelations of drug enhanced performances.  The bright aesthetics of the riders and the tech did not match the mood the colours seemed a little too bright and optimistic. 

Teams began to employ more sombre colours and the even the tech they used became darker with all those carbon frames unpainted left in their natural state.  It seemed that a lot of the colours were washed out of the peleton because of  the use of drugs in the sport.  

But two colours seemed to have been kept to one side the colours of pink and orange.   It was these two colours that seemed to keep the peleton from completely losing its colours.   

The Dutch Rabobank team used combinations of bright orange and navy blue to create a striking effect.  The German T - Mobile and the  Italian Lampre Team used the brightest of pink to draw attention to their brands right through to the start of the 21^st Century.

Then came what became known as the orange tide the colourful fans of the Euskaltel team.  

The Euskaltel logo took the form of a stylised orange coloured butterfly and its bright jersey was a beautiful yellow orange to bright orange.  You can see the use of orange in the image below created a memorable aesthetic for early 2000's cycling.  

 Euskaltel  Photo by Brian Townsley  

CCC a Polish footwear manufacturer found orange to be a wonderful colour and was one of cycling’s most colourful teams until its demise in 2020.

Whilst a dusty variety of pink is now firmly a key colour in digital art and fashion orange is also enjoying a popularity not seen since the 1970’s.  

In cycling the popularity of these colours both pink and orange have never completely faded and in every decade the colours have been there.

Now cycling has the American EF - Education Easy post team with various editions of pink most notably a  special jersey that celebrated women cyclists participation in the Tour De France.   

EF Education Tour De France Femmes  Photo by G.Garitan 

Let the clash of pink and orange recommence.