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With the holidays approaching we like to spend some time looking back at 2021 and give some of our favorite products a shout-out. In this post, we look at John’s personal favorite products of the year. Some are cycling-related, others are just solid staples John’s enjoyed using this year, so let’s get to it!
The latest installment of Rapha Gone Racing just landed on our Youtube front page and features Lachlan’s Alt Tour. The beauty of this project lies in both the physical challenges Lachlan faced but also in the immense fundraising this effort achieved. Rapha and EF Education First donated 1000 bikes to World Bicycle Relief before inviting those following Lachlan to support the cause. With help from fans around the world, Lachlan managed to raise over £500,000 and counting…
Hit play to spend 40 minutes of your Monday experiencing the details of this achievement.
“Keep Riding” is Rapha’s video lookbook featuring its Fall/Winter Trailwear lineup. Check the whole drop out for yourself at Rapha.
Earlier this year, Lael departed on an FKT on the Alaska Pipeline route. Rapha was there, documenting her efforts:
“Four feet wide and carried five above the ground by a seemingly endless series of stanchions, the Alaska Pipeline is, for most of its 800-mile route, the only mark humanity has made on the pristine wilderness of this last frontier. The only mark, that is, except for the road that accompanies the pipeline on its long journey south from the Artic outpost of Prudhoe Bay to Valdez.
For born and bred Alaskan Lael Wilcox, this lonely road has always held a special interest. In fact, she’s ridden most of it before. But this time she’s back with a new challenge to set a Fastest Known Time, or FKT, for the route and bring a new source of energy to the road. By pushing herself, she hopes to encourage other riders, wherever they live and however long they’ve been riding, to do the same.
But this is a record attempt not a race, so Lael’s number one adjective is to have fun. All you have to do is show up with what you have, ride with all your heart and see how it goes. Oh, and you need to eat like it’s your job! Created by an all-female crew, tune into this latest episode of Rapha Gone Racing to find out how Lael got on in the Alaskan wilderness and whether the rumours that she is quicker than crude oil are actually true.”
Check out this wonderful documentary here and see Lael’s gear breakdown in our Related Archives below!
Black Champions in Cycling is a book that explores and analyzes in detail the rich and often overlooked history of Black cyclists. A world expert in the history and life of Black cycling champions, former elite racer and academic, Dr Marlon Moncrieffe, combines his own elite racing experience with that of several other contributors. The first book of its kind, this collection of stories, personal reflections and interviews with historical icons of sport and current agents of change, addresses the essential questions of access, diversity, inclusion and of representation. Exploring how figures such as Major Taylor and Maurice Burton discovered cycling, the book sheds light on the mentors who encouraged them to pursue their ambitions as well as the explicit and implicit forms of discrimination they faced. From the first non-white rider to compete in the Tour de France in 1914 to the Black cyclists who push the boundaries today, discover how the determination to succeed despite discrimination defined the careers of these great athletes.
Includes interviews with:
Major Taylor, Kittie Knox, David Weller, Maurice Burton, Russell Williams, Nelson Vails, Justin and Cory Williams, Gregory Bauge, Rashaan Bahati, Kevin Reza, Tre Whyte, Shanaze Reade, David Clarke, Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, Nicholas Dlamini, between others.
In stock now at Rapha.
Over at Rapha, Sarah Swallow shares her story about how her Tour Divide almost ended before it even began:
The journey began with a three-day drive from my home in Colorado to the start line in Montana. My partner Adam and I were wrapping up a long day of driving and looking for a place to camp south of Seeley Lake, Montana when we drove over a large bump in the tarmac at 60 mph. The entire truck bounced like a sea-saw, causing us both to cringe when we heard a snap and saw something in the rearview mirror.
“What was that!?” I yelled.”It was a bike…” Adam answered.”Was it your bike?” I asked desperately.”I think it was your bike…” he responded.We stopped the car, and I got out to confirm that my Tour Divide bike lay one hundred yards down the road. I ran toward it hysterically like it was a loved pet that had just been run over.
Head on over to the Rapha blog to read more!
Experimenting with patterns is in Rapha’s DNA as a brand and their latest experimentation is part of a Woodland Camp Print Pack. Included in this drop are MTB jerseys, both long and 3/4 sleeved, for men and women, a women’s trail tank top, sunglasses, and a Smith helmet. These will most likely sell out before you click over but check out the full drop at Rapha.
Rapha just posted its Unbound Gravel XL video, showcasing Lael Wilcox’s efforts along the 350-mile course. Check back here on Monday for Lael’s Unbound report!
Our friend Sarah Sturm has such a vibrant personality, captured beautifully here in this Pro Team Aero Kit design for Rapha. Sarah worked on the design alongside Rapha and the whole kit is now available including a jersey, bibs, cap, and socks.
See the full drop at Rapha and find out more about who Sarah is at this blog post.
What an amazing achievement! You can still help reach the £400k goal by visiting the World Bicycle Relief’s fundraising site. Check out the full press release below.
This is quite the undertaking!
“La Grande Boucle is cycling’s ultimate challenge, with the biggest audience, the toughest parcours and the most prestigious prize. From the outside, the race is a constantly moving feast of sound, colour, effort and emotion but for the racers inside the bubble, life on Tour travelling from one hotel to the next can be somewhat sterile particularly in the midst of a pandemic.
This year, for a fresh perspective on what it takes to compete at the world’s greatest bike race, Lachlan Morton is taking on his own Alt Tour. In a challenge inspired by the inaugural edition of 1903, he’ll ride every stage and every transfer completely unsupported, covering a distance of 5,500km and climbing over 65,000 metres in just 23 days. Starting just before the first stage, he’ll ride nearly double the distance and make the equivalent of an extra thirteen ascents of the Tourmalet, all with the ultimate aim of beating the peloton to Paris.
As well as a fresh perspective, Lachlan will also be riding with a new purpose. To make every kilometre he covers really count, Rapha and Education First are each donating 500 bikes to World Bicycle Relief and, with your help, we can donate even more. If you’re inspired by Lachlan’s challenge and would like to support him, you too can donate to WBR and help provide even more young people with the bikes they need to access an education.
With no teammates to shelter behind, no mechanical assistance and no rest days, the Alt Tour is Lachlan’s greatest challenge yet. How many bikes can we donate? Will Lachlan make it to Paris? And will he arrive before the peloton? There’s only one way to find out…”
This video has all the vibes and our friends and we couldn’t be more happy to share it with y’all!
“The spirit of adventure runs deep in cycling. It also goes way back. In 1976, riders from across America, many of them women, took to the newly established TransAmerica Trail for the trip of a lifetime from coast to coast. Inspired by their journeys and designed to help you on yours, the limited edition Nomad collection is designed for discovery, helping to unlock the sense of freedom that only a bike ride can provide.”
Good job, Rapha! See the entire Nomad Collection on their website.
In the outdoor space, few companies provide products as resilient as they are good-lookin’ as Snow Peak. Their titanium cookware lasts forever and their compact camping solutions have proven to be excellent allies on bicycle tours so it makes sense that Rapha would pair up with Snow Peak on a capsule collection, live now at their site. Sure, if you already have this gear, you don’t need to be bothered but if you’re a fan of Rapha and are curious about Snow Peak’s legacy, this is for you. I’ve been using the new Kanpai bottle for hot and cold-brewed coffee and its worked a treat.
See the collection at Rapha.
Today marks the launch of Rapha’s new Performance Trailwear for MTB riding and included in the launch today is this video that caught our eyes with its lo-fi appeal. See the whole men‘s and women‘s Trailwear lineup, including helmets, hip bags, jerseys, bibs, and jackets at Rapha. We got our grubby mitts on some of it, so expect a more in-depth look on the way.
We’ve known about this for some time and over the past few weeks, there have been various hints on social media, all pointing to the newly-formed Rapha MTB Instagram page. This short video teases out the MTB line. What do y’all think of this?
When this year’s last winter storm went big (like, really big) we realized we’d have to adjust our plan to bikepack the Coconino Loop in northern Arizona. We shifted our focus South, to the Arizona Trail segments around Tucson, hoping the lower latitude and elevation would deliver the sunshine we craved.
Instead, we were greeted in Tucson with heavy rain, so we postponed the trip by a day, hoping it would blow over. When the next day also looked rainy, and kind of snowy too, we lost half our riding crew. My partner Brandon, our friend Sarah and I decided to make a start anyway.
In my opinion, you don’t need racing shoes to do rides. Back when we started riding ‘cross bikes on singletrack and fire roads, the only real options were stiff ‘cross racing shoes. Footwear tech and ideologies have come a long way since with the case in point being the latest from the Rapha apparel line, the Powerweave Explore Gravel Shoes. I’ve been lucky enough to get my grubby hands on a pair to check out and post up a quick first impressions review of these beautiful shoes.
Rapha presents an Icelandic excursion:
“I’ve ridden many thousands of miles on my bike all these years and I can’t say I regret anything… There were rough times but also good times. You just know it’s a challenge that you’ve got to overcome.”
We all have roads that lodge in our mind, routes we want to take. One such route is across the Sprengisandur, an uninhabited highland plateau crowned by an 826-metre pass in the central ranges of Iceland.
Plenty have tried to cross, and plenty have failed. In 2015, Rapha sent filmmaker George Marshall and framebuilder Tom Donhou to attempt the crossing. But after days of high winds, the pair were forced to stop. Four years later, George returned to lead another group across the 170 miles between the end of the tarmac near Reykjavik and the northern stronghold town of Akureyri. But they were far from being the first to make the crossing.
Over 60 years before, Ron Bartle joined Dick Phillips, Bernard Heath and their guide Raymond Bottomley for the first-ever unsupported ride across the Sprengisandur. They spent ten days in the wilderness, crossing rivers in inflatable dinghies and pushing their bikes for miles over boulder fields until they finally reached the first farmstead in the north.
Now in his mid-eighties and still an avid cyclist, Ron has recounted the story of his unexpected Icelandic adventure. And at a time when many of us cannot ride the roads lodged in our minds, he reminds us that they’ll still be there this year and the next.
