Canadian National Team Wool Jersey
Pickup available at 45 Cranfield, Unit 6
Usually ready in 24 hours
Canada’s official national motto is A Mari usque ad Mare, which translates from latin to From Sea to Sea. It originates from the bible verse, “he shall have dominion also from sea to sea.”
Although our National colours are red and white, a light blue is often used to signify the three oceans and lakes as Canada is surrounded on three sides by water.
In the early 1970’s when the Canadian Cycling Association was designing a new jersey for their National team riders blue was adopted as the main colour over red, which it had been through the 60’s. The blue jerseys with white sleeves and red leaves on the shoulders soon became iconic. Not only was it visible in the peloton, but many of our nation’s champion cyclists had their finest performances in the jersey through the 70's, 80's and 90’s as they raced to their Olympic and World medals. Often, it was the jersey racers from other countries most wanted to trade for at international competitions.
At the 1974 World Championships in Montreal, the first worlds held outside of Europe, the Canadian team wore the blue and white jerseys for the track and road events. The track team’s jerseys were made of silk while the road jerseys were made of fine merino wool, which was the norm at the time.
A generation became accustomed to seeing Steve Bauer racing at the head of the peloton in blue. His silver medal at the LA Olympics in 1984 had the nation on their feet cheering and his bronze medal at the professional World Championships in Goodwood, England as a neopro among season veterans was a sign of his class and panache.
Clara Hughes made her debut at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg wearing the jersey and went on to win Olympic medals in Atlanta in an artist’s interpretation of the blue jersey.
Not only did our finest road racers wear the jersey but so did our sprinters. Gord Singleton won his World title in 1982 as well as many other fine performances through the 70's and 80's and Jocelyn Lovell won gold at the Commonwealth Games and Pan Am Games and performed internationally in the jersey. 1980's and 90' sprinting ace Curt Harnett spent his entire career in blue, white and red, racing to world championship and Olympic medals, as well as the final 200 meter world record. Tanya Dubnicoff and Lori Ann Meuzner won a World Championship and Olympic title respectively in blue.
In recent years, the iconic blue has been used less frequently so we decided to have the jersey remade in fine merino wool, as it was when it debuted over fifty years ago.
Technical specifications:
- 100% Lightweight merino wool with embroidered design.
- Half zip in the front
- 3 pockets in the back