Girmay was wearing a skinsuit made by Verge, the kit supplier of his former team Intermarché-Wanty, with the red, blue, green, and yellow of Eritrea on the top half and black on the bottom, along with branding of both Eritrea and his trade team, NSN Cycling.

Mulubrhan was wearing Eritrean colours on both his jersey and his shorts, but the uppers of the two riders' kits were not an exact match, with Girmay's arms being predominantly blue with some red, while Mulubrhan's were red and green.

Kudus, meanwhile, the only rider to escape a fine, switched his kit between the pre-race podium ceremony and the start line. On the podium, he wore an Ekoi jersey that matched the upper of Mulubrhan's skinsuit along with black shorts made by RH77, the brand that supplied kit to most of the Eritrean riders last year.

But in the race he was wearing multi-coloured RH77 shorts that look to be the same ones worn by most of the team – with the exception of the skinsuited Girmay – at last year's Worlds.

There is another theory, in that both Girmay and Mulubrhan started the race in gilets from their trade teams, NSN Cycling and XDS-Astana, respectively. In fact, they rode with them into the breakaway and only took them off 25km or so in.

However, Kudus – who was not fined – also started the race in a trade team layer, wearing a Burgos-Burpellet-BH long-sleeve jacket, although this was a more neutral black.