— like this one in Portland last February — at
Lance Armstrong’s shop in Austin, Texas.
(Photo: Dat Nguyen)
Rapha, the UK-based high-end cycling apparel maker who recently established their U.S. headquarters in Portland, is wasting no time sharing the bike culture that brought them here.
According to the company’s U.S. general manager Slate Olson, Rapha is staging a weekend of events at Lance Armstrong’s new retail store in Austin, Texas. Beginning this Friday at Mellow Johnny’s bike shop, Rapha will host an exhibition of photographs from their Roleur magazine, followed by a roller racing competition on Saturday and a “Gentleman’s Ride” on Sunday.
“Lance himself said he wished Austin could feel like Portland… we’re going to do our part.”
–Rapha’s U.S. GM Slate Olson
Rapha’s roller racing event — where competitors pedal stationary bikes to see who can cover the most ground in a specified amount of time — was a huge hit in Portland. For the Mellow Johnny’s event, Rapha built themselves a new piece of equipment built just for the sport. The device (photo here) will link four bikes up to a timing clock and it will allow them to hold more roller racing events in the future.
Rapha’s venture into Austin builds on the success of a similar series of events they hosted in Portland when the North American Handmade Bike Show was in town back in February.
Olson says his company is, “Taking what we did in Portland and making it happen in Austin.”
Besides being an authorized Rapha dealer, Mellow Johnny’s famous owner himself (Mr. Armstrong) has said that he wishes Austin could be more like Portland.
“Lance himself said he wished Austin could feel like Portland,” says Olson, “we’re going to do our part. We thought they could handle a crazy weekend like this.”