For reference, the artist's other sports team design work:
for Athletic Club de Bilbao
I don't speak Spanish, but from what I gather, these are referred to as "ketchup shirts."
I actually like the Ketchup shirts more than the Spanx.
http://www.bicycling.co.za/articles/tour-de-france-2010
The six [wildcard] teams join the 16 teams which were automatically selected under a September 2008 agreement with the International Cycling Union.
The 16 automatically selected teams under the 2008 agreement are: Team Milram, Quick Step, Omega Pharma-Lotto, Team Saxo Bank, Caisse d'Epargne, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Footon-Servetto, HTC-Columbia, AG2R La Mondiale, Bbox Bouygues Telecom, Cofidis, Francaise des Jeux, Lampre-Farnese, Liquigas-Doimo, Astana, and Rabobank.
Wild card invitations: Garmin-Transitions, Team RadioShack, BMC Racing Team, Team Sky, Katusha, and Cervelo TestTeam.
As of next year, the selection process will change, under an agreement between the organisers of the three Grand Tours and the UCI. The first 17 teams in the world ranking as of the end of the 2010 season will automatically be invited to the 2011 Tour de France and the organisers can issue wildcard invitations to fill the remaining places. This year, the Tour was required to invite the 18 ProTour teams from 2008. Two of those teams no longer exist, Credit Agricole and Gerolsteiner, so the other 16 ProTour teams from 2008 were invited, freeing up two extra spaces for teams to be invited.
For reference, the artist's other sports team design work:
for Athletic Club de Bilbao
I don't speak Spanish, but from what I gather, these are referred to as "ketchup shirts."
I actually like the Ketchup shirts more than the Spanx.
I also checked up on Footon-Servetto, one reason they have so many new-to-the-TdF riders is that they had to do a bit of house cleaning after some doping problems a few years ago. Footon-Servetto was not allowed to enter the TdF last year.