Cyclist
Rapha’s Pro Team collection is built to be better – and not just for pros
Pro kit is an arms race, every new product has to be more aerodynamic, lighter weight and more breathable yet still comfortable and durable enough to last for days on end of high-intensity effort. Years of development goes into each millisecond of saving, through research, prototypes, amendments, testing, more amendments, more testing, and production. And once the cycle is over, the game starts again.
For Rapha, the pressure is even higher. Both because of the brand’s prestige and because of the demands of the EF Education-EasyPost and EF Education-Cannondale pro teams. But pressure makes diamonds and the new Rapha Pro Team collection looks fast, feels fast and is fast.
But Pro Team kit doesn’t just benefit pro riders. The sheer amount of time the pros spend on the bike means they’re in the perfect place to help develop kit that can not just withstand but thrive on endless long days in the saddle.
Pro Team is where Rapha’s true innovations come, and this year’s updates are just that. Cyclist went to visit Rapha Works – Rapha’s global HQ in North London – to get the lowdown on the exciting updates to the Pro Team collection.
‘Newness is really, really important on a Pro Team product. We’re on a two-year critical path so almost as soon as a product comes out we’re back to redeveloping it. We do that to push things on and innovate,’ explains Rapha’s senior product manager James Stannard. ‘We think of it almost like base models of cars, its refinements over the years, new types of wheel, new interior, all improvements, but the car is the car. Then after a few years, wow, we’re onto a new thing.’
The latest update looks like a whole new era though, as Rapha has looked to become more than just the armband. ‘It’s still going to exist in places, but we did want to move things on and modernise the branding. The new design feels dynamic and looks really good on the bike,’ says Stannard. That also shows up in a new colour theme across the update products including the Pro Team gilet and Pro Team Lightweight Jersey.
With the Training jersey the technical refinements come in large part in the form of the arm and hem grips. ‘Things like the big gripper work really well but if you get quite sweaty – and for certain shapes and sizes – it can be uncomfortable. Similarly with the arm you can get the same effect, especially if you’ve got more muscle mass, so we really wanted to eliminate those things to make it a more comfortable jersey for more riders’ Stannard says. ‘The Training jersey is the step up from our Core range into Pro Team. It’s going fit way more people, be more comfortable for more people and do everything for summer riding’
The long sleeve version was previously called Long Sleeve Training but is now dubbed Long Sleeve Lightweight after feedback from riders. ‘A lot of customers in the Asia-Pacific wear it as coverage for the sun. It’s a super-light fabric and we wanted to make sure people in the northern hemisphere didn’t think it was a winter jersey, so we’re introducing a Long Sleeve Lightweight and a Long Sleeve Midweight to make it easier to navigate the range. With the right layering the Long Sleeve is a year-round version of the Training jersey with the same lightweight material but a bit more closed on the front for light protection.’
The biggest winner of this season’s update is the Pro Team Aero jersey. ‘The brief here was “make the fastest jersey we’ve ever made”. That’s wind-tunnel improvements but it’s also thinking “what are the problems with the jersey from a customer’s point of view?”
‘In the sleeves we use an Italian fabric called Clima – from a mill we’ve worked with for years, we know it’s super-fast In the tunnel, but it’s really compressive. The previous jersey had a lot of bonding – and unless you’re built like Pogačar it could be quite restrictive . So it needed to be faster and more wearable, and the design team have done it. There are people walking around the office who wouldn’t have considered wearing an aero jersey before who are now over the moon. There’s definitely a perception of fast and a lot of that is due to it being compressive, but if it’s compressive in the right way it has the initial feeling of “wow” and this is one of those products that does that.’
It’s not just the feeling of fast either, the new jersey is officially fast. Wind-tunnel testing showed it saved an average of 7.8 watts over its predecessor across speeds ranging from 32 to 58kmh, and it already has big pro wins under its hem, including Alison Jackson’s legendary Paris-Roubaix win last year. Small savings on big days are nothing to be scoffed at, especially when the race finishes in a sprint. Because of where the rider hits the wind, it’s the shoulders and sleeves that show the aero fabric off with a visibly lumpy texture to keep drag to a minimum.
The grind never stops either. While discussing these products Stannard has one eye to the future with a new aero skinsuit on the way – a keen eye may have spotted it’s already on the road – and an increased focus on innovating hot-weather clothing.
‘Everything we do at this level is specific developments and solutions,’ he says, and it’s obvious looking at the kit. While it may feel like each new release is presented as the final solution, Rapha has to keep innovating, but it’s not shy of that fact and this latest update proves the company continues to lead the way with the Pro Team collection, for both professionals and the rest of us.
Shop the Pro Team collection now at rapha.cc
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