Tour de Rapha: An intro
Cycling goes hand in hand with scenic cafe stops and, at least in England, a cheeky post-ride pint. So it’s unsurprising that the idea for the Tour all started with a post-ride joke along the lines of
“You are the local Rapha gaffer and travel all the time. Why don’t you visit all clubhouses in one year?”
Cue a few more beers, and, given my lifestyle, the joke didn’t seem so ridiculous anymore. But I’m getting ahead of myself. So let’s start at the beginning.
What even is my life?
Having grown up in Germany, I’ve spent the last few years in the UK, first at University and then stranded because of COVID-19. I picked up cycling after coming back from a gap year in China when I was 16 – then ended up racing XC mountain bike in Germany and the UK up to National Series with questionable success for a few years with one race summed up as:
You got lapped like a sketchy Taco — gobbled up and shat straight back out.
Ultimately, a back injury put an end to XC racing and, a few years later, to an attempted racing revival on the track. These days, I’m mostly found road and gravel riding in various corners of the world to escape the clutches of the next Zoom call.
The question “what do you do for a living” always gets a good laugh from friends and is followed by a convoluted and semi-mysterious answer summed up as “research consultant.” Lucky for me, the work is exciting and involves a fair amount of travel, which brings me back to the whole idea of the Tour.
Anyway, what’s the Tour de Rapha all about?
For the uninitiated, Rapha is a cycling brand from London, England, founded in 2004. Inspired by pictures of the 1950s St. Raphael racing team, Rapha celebrates (road) cycling, and although not necessarily unique in the industry they’ve gone above and beyond in terms of its commitment. They currently run 24 clubhouses (a combination of retail and coffeeshop) throughout North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Each cafe regularly hosts cycling rides and community events, presenting cyclists with a home away from home. The plan is to visit all 24 in 23 — with a head start to the European journey. But that’s a story for the next post.
