By Jamie White – Head of Communications

The new Jaguar F-PACE broke cover at the weekend in front of a live audience of around one million people, as it supported Team Sky on Stage One of the Tour de France in Utrecht.

Over two billion more were also estimated to have watched on television or online around the world.

Five Team Sky riders – Ian Stannard, Luke Rowe, Peter Kennaugh, Leopold König and Chris Froome – were supported by the F-PACE during the Grand Depart, providing a pressurised real world test of Jaguar’s first performance crossover.

A new short film captured all the #FPACE action as the gruelling Tour began in the Netherlands – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC3woUBN6Dg.

A cutting edge bike rack, designed with an innovative telescopic clamp by Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations, was developed specifically for the stage and carried two Team Sky’s Pinarello Bolide Time Trial bikes.

The F-PACE shed its hard camouflage in public for the first time and instead sported a specially created wrap, hinting at the final design of the vehicle, which will be fully unveiled later this year.

Team Sky Head of Technical Operations & Commercial, Carsten Jeppesen, said: “The atmosphere in Utrecht was incredible. The Netherlands has a huge passion for cycling and right from the moment we arrived at the start line, you could feel the excitement. The appearance of Jaguar’s F-PACE prototype definitely added to the hype today – you could see it made a big impact with the crowds.”

The world premiere of the Jaguar F-PACE will be at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September and will go on sale from 2016.