Originally Posted by pearcem
you don't have to wear your national colors, but a lot of riders and officials seem to consider it bad taste not to. Example - Dave Z. won the first tt in the giro in his CSC skinsuit when he was the US TT champ. The UCI officials got mad at him and the team and his sponsor made him a stars and stripes skinsuit for the next TT.
There even have been times recently where riders were not sure what they should wear because the rules were unclear. I think it was TT champions or road champions during the TT in the Tour.
And what about Team Time Trials, does an individual TT champion wear the champions jersey for that?
There also have problems recently getting a Tour leader a skinsuit in Yellow or Green as good as his team suit, at least when someone unexpected is leading the race.