Rapha An Open Road 2019

As part of each season Rapha now put out an article they title Up The Road or similar. It outlines their plans and visions for the season ahead, gives a look at their product plans and sometimes an idea of their thinking on current cycling culture. All usually really good and a nice little look into the future.

This week saw their article for SS19, and among all the goodness there was a little nugget. Pantani. Their infamous/celebrated jersey from 2014 will return. As always, it's Rapha and Pantani, it gets a subset of cycling fans a little hot under the collar, we usually end up with a certain Texan having his name brought into the conversation. Usually ends up distasteful and confrontational.

I'll avoid that.

It's a jersey and I'm here to talk about kit.

So here's an extract from the article and a look back at that controversial 2014 piece.

An Open Road, Simon Mottram Rapha. January 2019

There’s also a plethora of new products; some you might expect, while others may surprise. I’m particularly excited about our new range of shoes. We’ve approached footwear afresh, designing three new models from the ground up over the last two years. From a super stiff race shoe to a resilient off-road shoe, each pair will be a show-stopper, perfectly tuned to the terrain and type of riding for which it was created. On the racewear side, our proprietary Shadow fabric is back and lighter than before in a new jacket that provides the best weight-to-weather protection I’ve ever seen. The jacket will feature in both our Pro Team and Souplesse collections and, in a first for our Shadow products, will be available in a range of colours. Elsewhere, the designers of our ever-growing women’s collection have been working to improve bib shorts. We undertook a three-year project to improve comfort, from the chamois up, and looked to solve an age-old problem for female cyclists: bib straps and the bathroom break. As well as renewing and refreshing our products next year, we will continue to use them to retell the stories of riders and races, both famous and forgotten, from cycling’s past. We’ll be re-releasing one of our most iconic jersey designs in tribute to beloved Italian cyclist, Marco Pantani, and publishing a new book to mark the fifteenth anniversary of his tragic passing. We’ll also celebrate a pioneering American track cyclist who, despite having garnered far less recognition than the Italian, is no less deserving of it. Product remains at the very heart of what Rapha does best, and this is just a glimpse of the road ahead.