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Members of the public will be afforded their first view of upcoming Jaguar F-Pace crossover at the 2015 Tour de France, set to begin on July 4 in Utrecht, Netherlands. Unfortunately, it will not be an official debut in its truest sense - that'll take place in Frankfurt later this year - as Jaguar has stated that a lightly-disguised prototype of its new crossover will serve as a support vehicle for Team Sky.

The Jaguar F-Pace prototype, like its F-Type stablemate, will be masked in a specially-developed wrap that resembles a "unique carbon texture" along with rubber and chain motifs that mimic a road racing bicycle. The overall dark hue gets offset by turquoise accents, mimicking the team's colours.

As a support vehicle, the Jaguar F-Pace will be responsible for ferrying four key members of the team - Team Sky's sports director, a team physician, mechanic and another senior team member. Aside from the human cargo, the Jaguar F-Pace will also carry the team's equipment which includes sports drinks, energy gels and supplements, clothing and spare parts for rider Chris Froome's bicycle.

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"We are delighted to be supporting Team Sky again at such a prestigious sporting event and are excited at the prospect of the F-Pace being seen in action in public for the first time," commented Kevin Stride, line director of the Jaguar F-Pace. "The Jaguar F-Pace is a striking balance of performance, style and practicality and what better way to showcase the vehicle's attributes than on this crucial first leg of the Tour de France."

The Jaguar F-Pace is slated to go on sale in 2016 following its debut in September at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show. Jaguar's first crossover will sit on a lightweight aluminium-intensive iQ[Al] platform and is expected to be powered by a range of petrol and diesel engines from the Ingenium umbrella. Also, a hotter F-Pace R has been rumoured to follow on, powered by the Jaguar F-Type R's supercharged 5.0 litre V8 engine.

GALLERY: Jaguar C-X17 Concept