Rapha, nice but a bit pricey?

Time for a petition on change.org

It was discussed many times BITD off the back of the performance of the Pantani jerseys but was felt to be too recent and too tainted despite the obvious commercial opportunity, particularly as Rapha were involved with pro teams.

One of the reasons Pantani died was because of people like Armstrong, i.e. those who bullied their peers into accepting doping and ostracised anyone who dared to speak out.

He deserves fuck all and I hope Rapha would never even consider commemorating him in any way.

One of the reasons Pantani died

Also the mafia...

Great podcast on the interesting circumstances around his death:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0IrpATnO48IisFE8tto6lQ

Cycling or Italian?

Italian. I think he was supposed to throw a race and the mafia bet money on it but he went ahead and won and upset them. Or something. Can't remember exactly the rumours

It was a crap attempt at a joke.

The number of conspiracy theories around Pantani are insane, and Matt Rendell's book does a very good job of debunking a lot of them.

Naww that's spoiling the fun

I actually thought Cofidis were paying homage to the Motorolla Kit at the giro, until I realised Gheske was in the blue Jersey. Surely Rapha would start with the iconic 1993 Motorolla jersey before USPS.

too recent and too american

no romance

cocaine vs coké

Gheske

Geschke

Bless you

I would actually physically queue for a Lance x Rapha jersey.

Bassons x Rapha, fixed that for you.

Think the Five Decades T was closest it got in 2012 - and there was a ‘Texan’ story label in a jersey

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Great timing. 👌

Got a voucher from my accidentally sheer-bottomed core cargo bibs. Should I buy another pair and continue the cycle, or upgrade to classic and lose the very useful pockets?

Yeah, was fascinating to see the iceberg coming. I think the collection launched a few weeks before the official report came out, by which time it had sold out.

Honestly though, given the Pantani multiple releases, I doubt they care about that era of doping. I'm more inclined to think the Waltons have some sort of personal beef with Armstrong than they disapprove of his cheating.

Wouldn't there have been Lance products pre-Waltons, if that was the case?

The Pantani jersey is more about this than doping.

I think many people (those old enough to remember it at least) view Oropa as the peak moment of the EPO years. So it is inextricably linked to doping.

I think it's more about saving money if anything - a re-release means you don't have to pay someone to design a new jersey which seems very much to be their vibe at the moment.

They could go back to the original classic then…

I'd also love a reissue of the Data print stuff, I've still got some unopened arm warms and maybe some socks somewhere.

There was always a bit of crossover, events, rides, but I guess Mellow Jonny's had their own kit, and they did do this via custom (think there might have been more).

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Fair enough, the Walton thing was more a flippant comment. That said, more seriously, why Pantani rather than Armstrong, Super Mario, Ulrich etc. Is it just that Pantani died in pretty shitty circumstances so we can rewrite his narrative without the complexity of the actual person being around?