So, ebony or ivory? You know, are you a black sock or a white sock type of rider? I’ve asked a lot of people lately and had some pretty funny answers. But jokes aside it seems there are two distinct camps. The traditionalists who prefer white. And the bad asses who prefer black. Of course, the real question is does foot fashion matter? To find out I conducted a little study of last year’s Tour de France. And the results were quite revealing.
Of the 21 stages (including the prologue) an overwhelming 18 of the stage winners were wearing white socks on those stages. Even teams like Sky who do wear black socks on a regular basis were wearing white the day Chris Froome won stage 7. Interesting, huh?
But it gets even better. Because the only three stages where the victorious riders were wearing black socks were the time trials. Cancellara in the Prologue and Wiggins in both ITT stages. Surely this is no coincidence?
Based on my highly scientific study of the world’s most famous race, if you want to win road races you must wear white socks. And if you want to win a time trial, it’s black socks/booties for you.
As for me? Well my bottom drawer has both black and white socks with a definite skew towards black. So I’m going shopping tomorrow for socks. White socks.
Carbon Addiction 
Pete, you fail to mention the importance of sock length which must be in the Goldilocks zone i.e. not too long and not too short.
Surely this is as, if not more, important than colour 🙂
Very true JV, excellent point.