Jaakko is a triathlete from Finland attempting to break into the disturbing world of elite triathlon. We are very proud to sponsor his custom cycling and triathlon kit for racing and training and this is a podcast with him about what it is like training for Ironman and also just how bad he feels with 25kms to go on the run.

Find out more about Jaakko at his blog. Best of luck this season Jaakko!

We have a Carvalho Custom facebook page, but it is a little neglected! So we have decided to do a special offer for those ordering from us. We will give you a free cycling jersey in our new Bio-Cerâmica fabric and all you have to do is:
1. Place an order with us for some kit
2. Become a facebook fan
3. Post on our wall to say that you have ordered from us
4. Change your status to say your club has just ordered from us and include a link to our facebook page
5. Tell us that you have done the above and tell us what size jersey you require.

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Don’t try and tell me that this is not a great looking jersey! You will be the envy of everyone you ride with and it is worth €35/£30.

We have a few cyclists and triathletes round the world who we help out with custom kit in return for helping us to try out new fabrics and garments in race conditions. One of them is leading Dutch triathlete, Mirjam Weerd . It looks like she is going to have a fantastic 2010 season, so keep an eye open for her.

Well here is Mirjam going out to work this morning in full custom kit! One of the items she is trying out for us is our Drystorm winter cycling jacket, which we have recently improved to make it more stretchy for a comfortable fit, increasing the breathability by over 30% and adding a water repelant treatment to encourage water to bead of. It is a very warm jacket, as it has a microfibre insulation layer, as well as the breathable/waterproof/windproof membrane.

For the record Mirjam said the jacket kept her warm as toast! Best of luck to her this season.

We try very hard to keep all our fabrics bang up to date, but frankly with the rate of development of new fabrics it is very hard work. Not a week goes by without us receiving a new fabric to test and the pro riders we use to test them are always trying out something new for us.

A lot of the new fabrics are in fact pretty similar to the old ones, but sometimes something quite special comes along. So we have a new cycling jersey fabric, which is from the new family of bio-ceramic textiles. These are supposedly the big secret behind the clothing using by the GB Olympic cycling team, which had to be burnt after they were used so that nobody could copy them.

Bio-ceramics are natural materials consisting of a combination of mineral and ceramic oxides. This mixture is fused together at a very high temperature and the result of this is a bio-ceramic material which is capable of emitting far infra-red light (FIR). FIR penetrates deep into muscles, to promote blood flow, which means more oxygen can be delivered to them to increase their recovery rate. The end result is greater endurance and fewer aches and pains.

Our new fabric, Bio-Cerâmica is fantastically soft to the touch, is resistant to threads pulling and is stretchy for a great fit. It is not going to transform you from a back of the bunch grunter to Bradley Wiggins, but every little bit helps!

We have some etape places available – if you are interested, please contact Charlie. First come first served.

We regularly deal with the poor schmuck who has been blackmailed or otherwise bullied into organising custom kit for a cycling or triathlon club – by the time they get in touch with us, they are normally close to breakdown having spent months begging club member to VOTE ON THE NEW KIT DESIGN and to MAKE THEIR MIND UP about WHAT KIT THEY WANT and to PAY UP IMMEDIATELY etc etc.

We try our best to make the process of ordering and getting designs done as painless as possible (we can work from a crayon sketch if necessary, you can send logos in any format and we will redraft as many times as required for example), but Kit Manager has to be one of the hardest and most thankless jobs in the world of sport.

I had to share this video with you on the joys of running a cycling club:

We have just had a new program written for us that allows you to design your own custom cycling jersey online (and bib shorts too!). With this program you can choose one of our base templates, add colours, add text, add logos and then save to your computer.

It’s not that we are lazy and don’t want to do the work ourselves (!), but rather it gives you a chance to play around to find a look that appeals to you. Once you have decided on the design you want, then you can just email it in to us and we will polish up any rough edges before it goes into production. The program has to be the easiest graphics program in the world to work, so get designing!