The debut collection includes a jersey, base layer, waterproof jacket, gilet, bib shorts, arm warmers and knee warmers, as well as a select casual clothing line. We reported on the new range at Bespoked Bristol, where it was displayed for the first time.

The Chapeau brand, which started as a skincare range, has been developed alongside The People’s Bicycle Club, which allows members to take part in British Cycling races for an annual membership fee of £1 a year.

“When we started Chapeau and The People’s Bicycle Club we wanted something which really incorporated and included everybody,” said Chapeau co-founder Luke Humphreys. “Anybody who wants to ride a bike is welcome in our club.

“Chapeau moved into clothing because, as a business, we felt there was a requirement to provide a line of clothing which fitted a certain look and high-end quality brief but at a reasonable price.

“We want to give people the best and that’s been my goal my goal with the clothing: to give people the best I can give them for the amount of money they want to spend on clothing.”

The Stoemper Taylör is the fruit of the labours of Todd Gardner and David Alvarez, two American cycling fanatics who this time last year rode five of the spring Classics in five days. While its origins are in Springfield, Oregon, Stoemper’s DNA, they claim, is Belgian.

Alvarez went someway to backing up their presumed association with Belgium’s none-harder cycling culture by riding the full race routes of Gent Wevelgem (230km), the Tour of Flanders (254.4km), Paris-Roubaix (258km), the Amstel Gold race (260.4km) and Liege-Bastogne-Liege (255.5km), in five days.

For a closer look at the rides, and a glimpse of the Taylör, check out the video below, and head to our Mpora sister site for more.

So what of the Taylör? It’s a machine Stoemper describe as their “wrecking ball”, a race bike made from True Temper steel, with suitably aggressive 73 degree and 73.5 degree head and seat tube angles, and short-ish 406mm chainstays (the 405mm units on the recently-tested Giant TCR Advanced SL-4 proved a notable inducement to speed).

The fork comes from the highly rated Enve Composites (we spent a satisfying month last September rolling on their 3.4 hoops, a collaboration with Simon Smart).

And of the machine heading our way? It’s the personal steed of Stoemper’s UK importer, Scott Purchas, and judging from his blog, one on which he’s cut no corners, equipping it with a Chris King headset, full Campagnolo Chorus groupset, and a full Deda finishing kit, with Selle Italia SLR saddle. The wheels are Campagnolo’s Neutron Ultra.

The Stoemper Taylör is due to take its place in next month’s test schedule alongside machines from Belgian manufacturers, Merckx and Ridley, brands with their own claim to the heritage of the Classics. It promises to be an interesting month’s testing!

Check back soon for a ‘first look’ and full review.

Discuss in the forum

Stoemper

As I jump from a car brought rapidly to a halt by IG-Sigma Sport’s directeur sportif, Simon Howes, the wind nearly rips off the door. The temperature is some way below the balmy Balearic climes for which I had hoped and for which I am dressed, and the latest freezing shower has swept in. This is pre-season training on Mallorca, and it is time to begin lead-out drills.

The riders arrive moments later, already soaked by heavy showers on the short ride from the hotel, and battered by crosswinds. Howes gathers his troops and swiftly separates them into two groups, dividing in relatively equal number the ‘diesels’, lead out men, and speed merchants into two sprint trains who will perform consecutively over a two-kilometre strip.

Ian Goodhew, a coach with seven national championships to his credit, is tasked with marshaling the riders from a scooter, while Howes, team mechanic, Steve Davis, photographer, Paul Hayes-Watkins, and I drive behind, alongside, and in front of the speeding trains of riders, who, finding themselves suddenly on a drying road surface and beneath clear skies, attack the task with a desire seemingly alien to the weather-beaten group who had shivered on the barren landscape of a petrol station forecourt minutes earlier.

Ten minutes and three runs along the impromptu drag strip later, and the mood in the car is very, very buoyant. Little is said, but no-one is in any doubt about the significance of what they have witnessed. When riders reach speeds touching 80kmh, words are perhaps unnecessary.

Highlights include Joe Perrett, former European junior time trial champion, flat-backed and relentless, driving through the pedals, seemingly capable of destroying the machine beneath him; Andrew Griffiths, former British under-23 time trial champion, burying himself in a titanic turn; Pete Hawkins, out of the saddle and flying, and Ross Edgar, the track star turned road man, shorn of much of the bulk required of his former calling, but retaining still the sprinter’s outlandish thigh muscles, two pistons that force his bike to skitter and dance.

It has been a similar story in the first train, with Matt Cronshaw in the Edgar role, and 18-year-old Ryan Mullen, reigning Chrono des Nations junior time trial champion, doing a similar job to Perrett (Mullen’s desire for effort is seemingly insatiable: he capped a five-and-a-half hour training ride the previous day with a visit to the local velodrome, beating colleagues from the Irish junior track team in their kilo and pursuit training races before rejoining IG-Sigma Sport for dinner).

A further five hours in the saddle await the riders the following day, and Howes despatches his charges to the hotel, to shower, warm themselves, and relax ahead of another grueling day. Three of the senior riders, however, have other plans.

Team IG-Sigma Sport’s riders faced a range of conditions at a recent pre-season training camp on Mallorca. Pic: Paul Hayes-Watkins. Used with permission: Team IG-Sigma Sport

Hawkins is keen to make the most of his time on the island, and is joined by Wouter Sybrandy, riding again and riding strongly after a career-threatening crash on the final stage of last year’s Tour of Britain, and by James Moss, formerly of Endura Racing, and last year a member of the Malcolm Elliott-led Node4-Giordana squad. The three riders set off on the coast road, a winding loop of punishing but beautiful gradients. This is the Mallorca of the brochure: red earth, stone houses, and foliage by turn verdant and sun bleached. Far in the distance lies a shimmering blue sea on whose surface the much-delayed sunlight glints.

The trio ahead of the hire car, however, has little time to admire the scenery. The pace is steady, but unrelenting. Rain capes are taken on and off with a frequency demanded by the constantly changing conditions, and with a skill that marks the riders as bike handlers of impressive ability.

Hawkins dances up the climbs, while Moss opts for strength training, and a slower but more demanding progress necessitated by remaining stubbornly seated and in the big ring, grinding forwards in pursuit of his Dutch and Irish colleagues. On the descents, he is the fastest, or at least the most committed of the three, all of whom display a skill on their journey to the valley floor that belies the relatively flat conditions on which they ply their trade.

The groups are reunited at the lunch table: a large circle around which the easy and inclusive conversation suggests a group already cohered and among whom banter is the chosen mode of discourse. The team’s management and guests sit at the table adjacent, but there is nothing of the ‘them and us’ sentiment that might prevail among a team less at ease with itself, and with the future.

There will be tougher engagements ahead, but the 2013 incarnation of Team IG-Sigma Sport seems well placed to deal with them. Watch this space.

Discuss in the forum

Team IG-Sigma Sport

The clothing – on and off the bike wear for Team Sky’s riders, staff, and fans – will go on sale on Friday (4) from Rapha’s website.

A short film featuring Team Sky’s Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Peter Kennaugh, Joe Dombrowski, Luke Rowe and Chris Sutton, has been released to promote the partnership.

Wiggins says: “It’s very easy when you get successful at  cycling to forget why you did it in the first place. There’s an initial love to get into the sport. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who’s into cycling that doesn’t love it.

“I’ve never done anything else but cycling since I was a kid. I’ve never had a job. Since I was 18, I’ve earned my money from cycling. It’s given me everything, cycling. It’s made me the person I am today.”

Team Sky’s clothing was previously supplied by Adidas, but made by the Italian company, MOA-Nalini.

Sky Pro Cycling’s team principal, Dave Brailsford, said: “Team Sky’s successes over the last three years have been achieved because of a strong and steady vision to find improvement at every level to help our riders win.

“I see Rapha joining us as another step in that direction. They share our ambition and vision for cycling.”

Edvald Boasson Hagen, Bradley Wiggins, and Ian Stannard in Team Sky’s new Rapha kit

British company, Rapha, launched in 2004 by CEO, Simon Mottram, will continue to sponsor the Rapha Condor JLT UCI Continental team, and the Rapha FOCUS cyclo-cross squad that includes American national champion, Jeremy Powers, and top British rider, Gabby Day.

Mottram said: “The success and enjoyment we’ve had working with the Rapha Condor and Rapha-FOCUS teams in recent years has set us up for this next step. “ remain committed to continuing those relationships, just as we look forward to forging more through this exciting new partnership.”

Rapha’s Pro Team summer kit was voted Kit of the Year by readers of RoadCyclingUK. For all the results from the RCUK End of Year survey, click here.

Team Sky 

Rapha

]]> http://roadcyclinguk.com/gear/rapha-team-sky-wiggins-video-1923.html/feed 0 http://roadcyclinguk.com/video/wiggins-weller-thats-entertainment-video-9834.html http://roadcyclinguk.com/video/wiggins-weller-thats-entertainment-video-9834.html#comments Sat, 22 Dec 2012 18:45:47 +0000 Timothy John http://roadcyclinguk.com/?p=52482 Bradley Wiggins has done little to harm his rock ‘n’ roll persona in the last week, making two separate appearances on stage, the latter with long-time musical hero, Paul Weller.

Playing what looks like a Gibson ES335 in cherry red (the axe of choice for guitar luminaries Johnny Marr and Bernard Butler) Wiggins confidently strums along with Weller and band to The Jam’s 1982 hit, That’s Entertainment.

Wiggins’ status as a mod, obvious to those of a similar calling for several years, is as much a part of his public persona as his professional accomplishments, and he’s as likely to appear in the mainstream press in mohair as lycra.

A good thing for cycling? Certainly. Cavendish, Hoy, and Pendleton have transcended the sport in recent years, but Wiggins’ journey from back page to front has been made on his own terms. Don’t expect to see him in cereal or shampoo commercials any time soon, or appearing on a reality television show.

While Wiggins is famous, he is not a celebrity in the modern sense. His public recognition is based on his athletic achievement, not his haircut. And if he jams with another working class hero in the off-season to raise a few quid for an extremely worthy cause, more power to him.

Weller, however, seems to have entered an uneven partnership. At 54, he is likely to find Team Sky’s training camp in Mallorca next month a challenge. Last seen on a bike in 1984 in a video to promote The Style Council single, My Ever Changing Moods, Weller’s riding partner on that occasion was pianist, Mick Talbot. He will find Wiggins a little faster.

Crisis

Trials rider Martyn Ashton swaps his mountain bike for a £10,000 Pinarello Dogma 2 – a replica of the machine used by Mark Cavendish at the Tour de France – and takes it for a spin around the UK.

“I’m going to take you a new route I’ve made for my road bike,” says Ashton. “It’s certainly not conventional – but it should be a lot of fun.”

Fun, terrifying and astonishing in equal measure. Just watch it.

Discuss on the forum

This moody and beautifully shot video from photographer Geoff Waugh captures the savagery of the Three Peaks, won for a ninth time by Rob Jebb.

“The Three Peaks is so hard it is mandatory that each rider carries a survival blanket and a whistle in case of emergencies,” said Waugh.

“Weather is a factor and this year it rained and the rain got gradually worse. On top of the hills the wind was ferocious. Riders were ground down by fatigue and cold.

“This is a short video that hopefully gives some clue as to what it was like to be a rider in the mist and clouds during the world’s toughest cyclo-cross race.”

Ferocious winds and torrential rain turned this year’s Three Peaks into a tale of survival (© British Cycling)

Mark Cavendish has identified five opportunities for victory in the 2013 Giro d’Italia

“There are a good five stages that will be sprints and especially the first stage,” said Cavendish, speaking after the 2013 route was announced in Milan.

The sprinter, who has previously worn the pink leader’s jersey in 2009 and 2011, added: ”It’s a circuit race in Napoli and it’d be really nice to pull on the maglia rosa again.”

Giro race director Michele Acquarone revealed a balanced route, with three time trials and seven summit finishes, in a bid to attract the biggest names in the peloton, including Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins, while providing a captivating spectacle for the fans.

“What we’ve tried to do is to not have just one race, but to have 21 different races within one race, so every stage is different for our audience,” said Acquarone. ”The race is for every fan of cycling all around the world.”

Watch the video below for more reaction from Cavendish, Acquarone, defending champion Ryder Hesjedal, Alberto Contador, Ivan Basso and Vincenzo Nibali.

This trailer from race organisers RCS Sport is sure to whet your appetite, with all the drama we’ve come to expect from the Giro d’Italia.

The 2013 route will be announced on Sunday but we already know the Giro will start in Naples on May 4, and the race will venture into France with a summit finish atop the Col du Galibier.

The neo pro was drafted in as a last minute replacement for Thomas Löfkvist and responded by winning the opening stage when teammate, Mark Cavendish, crashed in the closing kilometres.

Rowe’s alliance with Cavendish bore fruit on stages three and four with victories for the world road race champion, and on yesterday’s queen stage, Rowe produced a strong performance on home roads to finish fifth.

The IG Markets film crew followed Rowe through his victorious opening stage, from hotel room to team bus.

Discuss in the forum