Spanish Continental team reveals whacky new team kit for 2022 season

No, this is not the cover to a new children's book, this is the release of the new 2022 kit for the Spanish Continental team of Manuela Fundación.

The new eye-catching design is replacing the almost entirely black 2021 kit that was more about minimalism and, well, it was quite stylish. 

Now, the team that attempted to take over Team BikeExchange for the 2020 season, has revealed their new look along with their team roster. 

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Lets say that the kit is one of those which you will either absolutely love or hate with a passion.

As you can see, the jersey and shorts have taken the idea of women's WorldTour team, Canyon-SRAM with the galaxy theme and taken it to an all new level of design. 

The addition of Earth surrounded by very friendly-looking cartoon lions and potentially a nebula with wings that hold the centre of the jersey.

The jersey and shorts hold multiple galaxies on a black jersey with the new Manuela Fundación logo on the right side of the chest and the UCI continental team and kit make logos on the other. 

The words Manuela and Fundación take up the space on the shoulders and down the arms.

This design really harks back to the bonkers kits of the 90s and noughties such as Mario Cippolini's tiger and zebra style skinsuits at Aqua & Sapone in 2002.

Manuela Fundación did try and complete a takeover of Team BikeExchange, then called Mitchelton-Scott, for €7 million but after confusion around who would actually own the team, the contract was called off after a whirlwind few weeks in June of 2020.

The team announced that the merge was going to happen complete with new kit design that had been allowed by the UCI, but team owner Gerry Ryan stepped in and said it was off after the confusion arose.  

The contract was later leaked showing that the organisation based in the city of Granada thought they were buying 100 per cent of the team, but Ryan still owned the UCI licence for the team, allowing him to pull out of the deal.