New Rapha Editions

Published to mark Rapha’s 20th anniversary, The Extra Mile tells the inside story of how a brand was built through passion, innovation and obsession. Richly illustrated with Rapha’s genre-defining photography, trailblazing products and beautiful graphic design, Simon Mottram’s personal stories are combined with contributions from friends, colleagues and keen observers of cycling. 

“Storytelling has always been an important pillar of the Rapha business. Unlike many of our competitors, we have always had a three-Cs business model where content and community sit alongside the more conventional commerce. Storytelling has long formed part of the most successful marketing and it also played an important role in the historical growth of road racing in the first half of the 20th century. Without the instant and pervasive access to the races and racing news we have today, journalists had to use the scraps of information available to them and create their own narrative about the day’s racing. These accounts were often semi fictional and undoubtedly very romantic, focusing as they did on moments of panache and the heroic acts of the racers.”

“The history of cycling is full of myth and legend. Marco Pantani’s infamy almost underlined when he removed then threw his diamond nose stud to the ground on Montecampione before putting Pavel Tonkov to the sword in the 1998 Giro d’Italia. Or when a young Federico Bahamontes, who was apparently terrified of descending, stopped to eat an ice cream at the top of an alpine climb in 1954 and waited for the peloton to catch up so he could descend with them in safety. Jacques Anquetil who would allegedly move his bidon from his bottle cage attached to his bike to his jersey pocket to make his machine lighter on the climbs. Did any of these things actually happen or were the stories just myths?” 

– Simon Mottram, The Extra Mile

The Anniversary Edition of Kings of Pain features a revised text, updated with a selection of pieces taken from Rapha Editions’ award winning publications. Combining these extracts alongside a new edit of images from the Pressesports archive in Paris – the result is a mesmerising journey into a world of riders like Coppi, Anquetil, Simpson; and the beauty, suffering and eccentricity of the world’s greatest bike race.

“The longevity of Simpson’s fame is also partly down to the empathetic nature of road cycling. By and large, the sport’s most prestigious races and hallowed places have not altered since the Briton’s era. The casual enthusiast can ride up Mont Ventoux and, if so desired, get very close to feeling what history’s great racers felt there. Few other sports have an ability to transcend time and place to give such a visceral connection. Cycling has a profound storytelling tradition too, be it sustained by café stop raconteurs, literature, or internet forums. Simpson’s unprecedented success, madcap character and audacious tactics have caught the attention of generations of British cyclists. Whatever you think of his drug-taking, his premature death sealed his immortality. This folk hero’s tale is lodged deep in the soul of the domestic sport.” 

– Andy McGrath, Tom Simpson: Bird on the Wire