Czech firm Kalas replaces Adidas as Great Britain Cycling Team's kit supplier - though not for the Olympics

Kalas is to replace Adidas as supplier of racing and off-bike kit to the Great Britain Cycling Team from 1 January 2017. The full kit will be unveiled inJanuary, with a set of teaser pictures in the gallery above suggesting it will retain key elements of the current design - a union flag-inspired motif on a predominantly white background, and red cuffs on navy blue shorts - although the colour palate looks less muted than the outgoing version.

The Czech clothing manufacturer, founded in 1990, currently supplies clothing to the likes of the Czech national team and the Belgian UCI Professional Continental outfit, Wanty-Gobert.

Besides the kit that will be sported by the country's top cyclists in competitions in the New Year, there will also be a range of clothing for supporters.

The company, whose UK operations are based in Somerset, also supplied the jerseys for the recent Six Day London – including these Great Britain-themed ones sported by Jon Dibben and Ollie Wood.

British Cycling’s Chief Operations Officer Jamie Obank said: "We began our search for a new clothing supplier with one clear aim, to ensure that the GB Cycling Team [GBCT] can continue to perform at the highest level, in so doing we sought a company which could provide cost-effective, high quality and innovative clothing, in addition to being able to respond to the changing requirements of our athletes and the team.

"Kalas, in addition to being able to deliver on all of our primary objectives, will help consolidate British Cycling’s reputation as being at the forefront of elite cycling across all disciplines and both parties are really excited about working together to produce the next generation of performance race-wear through our unique collaboration.”

Jakub Věncek, director and co-owner of Kalas,  commented: "This is a proud moment in the history of our company. We are honoured to be chosen by British Cycling ahead of some more famous companies. It is a unique and exciting partnership for us both and we are fully committed to developing new products with British Cycling as well as a fresh new GBCT inspired range for the fans.

"We look forward to revealing the new GBCT kit design in January that we are confident is going to be very popular with the fans."

We haven't seen the last of Britain's top cyclists in Adidas-badged kit, however; in 2015, the British Olympic Association's long-standing deal with the German brand was extended until 2024, so it will be sported at Tokyo in 2020 and wherever the Olympics are hosted four years later.

That contract applies across all Olympic sports, irrespective of any separate supply agreements individual governing bodies have with other sportswear manufacturers.

In cycling, where Team GB has dominated the track events at the past three Olympic Games, the kit used in that competition has been held back until the last minute to avoid rivals getting wind of any technological advances.

That doesn't necessarily mean the kit would actually be made by Adidas - in 2012, when it still supplied Team Sky, Sir Bradley Wiggins wore a cutting edge skinsuit in the time trials at the Tour de France with the same design also used when he won the Olympic Games time trial in London the following month.

The skinsuits, which had aerodynamic wires within the fabric of the arms, were actually made by Italy's MOA, owner of Nalini - so it's possible that while the Tokyo 2020 kit may look as though it comes from Adidas, it could well be Kalas that provides the technology behind it.