Life

We have sponsored tri kit for Mirjam Weerd, a pro triathlete from the Netherlands and she is racing the South Africa Ironman this weekend (on Sunday).

Here she is receiving a prize for a 25k warm up race she did a few days before, of course wearing one of our faboulous custom technical t-shirts! As with a lot of our products, our microfibre technical t-shirts are not cheap at €23.25, but that is because we use top of the range microfibre to make them and there is an enormous difference in terms of performance from one microfibre to the next. What is most important in a technical t-shirt is the wicking capacity, the silkiness (so that you can hardly feel you are wearing it) and the stretch in the fabric so that you don’t have to wear it baggy (and show off your rippling torso of course!). Our mission as a company is to provide pro quality at accessible prices, so we do not apologise if our prices are not the cheapest in Europe, even though we make the kit in one of the lowest cost countries in Europe (Portugal) and sell direct to customers without using national distributors to keep costs down.

Anyway, best of luck Mirjam on Sunday and enjoy the race….

Last weekend (7th and 8th of February) we had a stand at the TCR show in Esher and we will definitely be back next year. Probably the best thing about it was the chance to speak to clients we have been supplying for years and only every spoken to on the phone or by email – so many thanks for coming to say hello to Dunmow Tri, Tri Force, Barracuda Tri, NTri, TriLife and everyone else who turned up.

We managed to generate a fair bit of interest in some of the new kit we have available, mainly the new tri suits shown above, but also the new fabrics we have for the cycling jackets which are more stretchy, more breathable and softer to the touch.

Looks like our next show will be the Cycle Show in London this October and maybe the London Triathlon also in August. If you happen to see us there, please come and say hello.

We are going to have a stand at the Triathlon Cycling & Running Show on February 7th and 8th (in Esher, London).

It will be a fantastic chance to meet up with some of our existing clients and hopefully meet some new ones. We will have our new male and female tri suits on show, which we have been developing over the last 6 months. They have a more contoured fit and some new fabric technologies to improve comfort and performance.

At the show there will be more than 130 brands on show and lots of fun stuff to do, including and endless pool, indoor time trial, 10k run and various clinics and workshops.

Hope to see you there!

We have been supplying Henry Furniss with custom cycling kit for 3 years now, first as an elite rider for the Bike & Run team and then for his own cycling coaching organisation and race team, WyndyMilla.

Henry Furniss wearing our kit!

Henry has got ants in his pants and likes things done yesterday, so wanting a design for some new kit done quickly, he jumped on a plane from London at 6.30 this morning and he flew back this evening clutching his precious designs having spent the entire day locked in a room with Charlie and a graphic designer (apart from an extended lunch by the sea).

Henry likes to make innovative cycling jersey designs and we are always more than happy to work with all our clients to work with them to produce the perfect design for them. We do not charge extra for design hours, even if that might include completely redrawing logos, redrafting, working from photos or sketches on the back of an envelope. We just charge a one off design fee and for that you get all the work that is required and no limits on logos, colours or any of the other nonsense that some suppliers insist on.

Anyone who is brave enought to fly out from England, we will pick you up from the airport and buy you lunch and we will make you a design you will love! No excuses then…..

After years of sniggering at triathletes and their silly training regimes and bike handling skills, Charlie is finally going to race a triathlon or two.

I have been at it for a month or two now and to begin with it seemed pretty simple; train 5 or 6 days a week, an hour in the pool, an hour’s run or a couple of hours on the bike each time and finnish each session whimpering with exhaustion. But now I find out that I was doing it all wrong – rather than jump in the water and whip myself into an agony of exertion, or run like I was Coe breaking the mile record for the first time (remeber the last brutal 100m?) or ride a bike like a drug free domestique in the Tour de France, I have now found out that I need to do some complicated arithmetic involving my age and resting pulse, buy a heart rate monitor and then make sure I train in my aerobic zone (130 to 140 bpms more or less). Where is the fun in that!? That is exactly why cyclists laugh at triathletes and why nobody wants to sit next to a triathlete at dinner.

Triathletes of the world you have nothing to lose but your chains! Throw away your training calendars, your heart rate monitors and your food-weighing scales and just do what the hell you feel like each day (but just do it hard). You might lose a couple of minutes on your PB, but who is counting anyway?
Rant over….

Looking for something original to fill the long Summer holiday? How about a 24 hour cycle race…..

For those with a very low ratio of IQ to VO2 max, you can do the whole thing on your own – the rest of us can enter in teams of up to 8 riders. For more information see  http://www.24heuresvelo.fr .

custom bandanaWe actually supply a lot of custom kit for cycling and triathlon events (mainly jerseys for charity cycle rides and similar) and we have supplied custom jerseys to events such as the Help for Heros cycle ride to France  and the London to Paris ride. We can also supply give-away kit for entrants to races to take home with them, such as custom bandanas, buffs, musettes (feed bags) and so on.

We supply a unique pro cycling team in the USA with kit – they are Richmond Pro Cycling. They are one of the top teams in the US, finishing 4th in the USA crit series in 2008, but what is special about them is what they do when they are not racing.

Richmond pro cyclingRather than be dependent on one or two big name sponsors, they decided to integrate the team with their community, teaching local kids to ride bikes and inspiring them to make something of themselves. They also raise money for a lot of local charities. That way that have encouraged the local community (in Richmond, Virginia)  to support the team financially.

Craig Dodson, runs the team and races in it and lives off thin air to pursue his dream – and so he has recently been nominated by Outside Magazine/Crocs Footwear as an “inspiring sole”. This award recognizes five athletes who have dedicated their lives to raising awareness for meaningful causes.

It takes seconds to vote and for anyone who wants to help raise the profile of cycling and supports the idea of cycling teams integrating into their local communities, it is a great thing to do.  http://www.inspiringsoles.com/pages.php?pagename=awardnom_submit&pagecolor=green

You can find out more about the team at http://www.richmondprocycling.com. Well done Craig and lets hope for an even better 2009!

I had the opportunity to do a day of cycling out of Geneva the other day, and we chose the Col de la Colombière. It is a typical alpine climb, 16.3 kms at an average of 6.8%, with a kick in the teeth at the end with 3 kms at over 10%.

It was pretty embarassing to get my backside whipped by my brother, but was made up for by the sight of another guy who was riding with us when he hit the top. Jake was not in the best of shape, but through brute will power he charged to the top and suffered like a dog, in the best tradition of amateur cycling. Pictured here at the top!

If you’ve got a summit photo of someone looking worse off than this, please send it in and we will publish it here (especially if you are wearing Fernando Carvalho kit!).

It is pretty impressive for anyone to ride the Marmotte, so well done to Tom Aikens for completing the course. You can read about it here http://www.menshealth.co.uk/Fitness-&-muscle/active-cycle-challenge/v3.

He was riding with Wyndymilla, which is a new cycling team/cycling coaching outfit, run by ex elite rider Henry Furniss and his gorgeous wife Nasima. They help everyone from complete novices to established cyclists get the most out of riding a bike, with none of the hassle. See their site at www.wyndymilla.com .
Given that they demand only the very best quality cycling clothing and equipment for their members, we are very pleased to supply them, having supplied Henry’s Bike and Run team when he was an elite rider.

We are really happy to be working with AtoZ Adventures who work with us to run cycling holidays in Portugal. They have an outstanding range of moutain bike, road and hybrid holidays on offer and they are fantastic guys as well! They can do guided tours and self-guided tours with GPS or old-fashioned maps, so they have something for everyone.

We used to do a lot more work on running cycling holidays, but our cycling and triathlon custom clothing business has grown so much that we can no longer spend the time required on cycling holidays so we had to hand this side of the business over to a partner company.