London-based clothing brand Rapha has featured a cyclocross jersey in its range since its early days and also sponsors a professional cyclocross team, Rapha Focus, in the United States. Now, it is building its involvement in the sport on this side of the Atlantic with the launch of the Rapha Super Cross Series, aimed at everyone from complete beginners to seasoned competitors.
The series – which has with the tagline “MUD. FRITES. SWEAT. COWBELLS.” – comprises three rounds, kicking off at Brockhole Visitors Centre, Lake Windermere on Saturday 15 October before moving to Huddersfield New College the following day with the finale at London’s Alexandra Palace on Sunday 23 October.
Entry for spectators is free, and Belgian beer and frites, among other delights, will be sold on site, with a DJ on hand to provide a suitable soundtrack to the fun and games, with Rapha seeking to recreate the party atmostphere of US cyclocross meetings.
Besides an invitation-only Elite race, entries are invited in the following categories: Under 10/12, Youth, Junior, Senior, Veteran, Woman and Novice.
Entries for Windermere and Huddersfield can be made on the day and for the Ally Pally event can also be made online at Rider HQ, and further details of the series can be found on the Rapha website - be sure to read the FAQ.
Rapha says that there will also be a ‘Clydesdale Category,’ which “Riders over 90 Kilos can win by eating the most frites and waffles over the series (or by winning their category).”
We’ve already started training for that one.
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7 comments
Excellent! The huddersfield event is on the fields where I walk my dogs. I'll be there!
Extra incentive for riders not to slip over and go head first into the, er, mud, eh?
Fair enough Simon.
As an English person with a Northern Irish wife and two Scottish sons living in Scotland I do find myself getting a bit pedantic over this sort of stuff
same here. i clicked with eager anticipation that i may enter a scottish cross event, but alas its not to be i guess.
(ps i get really upset when the weather forecaster says 'its been a sunny day everywhere , and clearly they just mean SE england even just looking at the map behind them would show them that!)
Well, all the venues might be in England, but they are also in the UK
As a Scottish person who has lived in England most of my life, I tend to get more upset when 'England' is used wrongly to mean 'the UK'(as occasionally seen on BBC News etc)
(I only stuck UK in the headline to distinguish it from anything Rapha might be doing in cyclocross over in the US...)
Looks great - although by my reckoning 4 would be the minimum number of events to be 'UK'... and 3 of them would have to be outside of England....
This is a 3 round English CX Series isn't it
Road.cc will be at the Ally Pally. We're bringing an actual CX racer and several contenders in the Clydesdale category. Ding Dong!