Every winter Rapha like to tease us with what’s on their horizon. This year’s highlights look to include lighter weight mountain biking kit, a gravel race-only jersey, and more adventure-ready Explore & Brevet gear. Whether developed with pro cyclists for their Pro Team and replica kit, mixed-surface ambassadors for adventure gear, or artists for special limited editions, Rapha has plenty of unique new riding kit hidden up their sleeves…
Rapha 2022 cycling kit tease: Pro Team
Rapha focuses heavily on their top road Pro Team line first designed for pro riders before quickly making their way to consumers. Working with L39ion of LA they have a new crit-specific aero jersey coming soon. With Colin Strickland they developed a gravel race-specific jersey, something I’m curious to see what that means.
Together with EF-Tibco-SVB & Roxsolt-Liv-SRAM road teams, they will soon debut a women-specific version of the unique Pro Team Powerweave Bib Shorts. And working with Canadian CXer in the US Maghalie Rochette, there will be a bee-keeping-themed, full iridescent rainbow limited collection of Pro Team kit.
Rapha MTB Trailwear teases a lighter summer refresh
Rapha mountain bike gear made a big splash last summer with warm weather kit, then more cool weather kit in the fall. But now they’re getting ready for even hotter weather with a tease of more lightweight MTB riding Trailwear.
Coming this season will be lighter fabrics in both MTB shorts for the absolute hottest rides & long pants to offer more protection even on summer rides.
What exact pieces of kit & features will come remains up in the air, but we’ve seen names of Men’s & Women’s Trail Fast Light Shorts and Trail Lightweight Pants, plus Trail Lightweight T-Shirts and Lightweight Trail Tanks to take on hot conditions.
New adventure-ready Explore & Brevet kit
The gravel Explore kit takes some mountain bike Trailwear inspiration with new Explore Overshorts that look to be shorter, simplified version of the excellent Trail Shorts that debuted last summer – promising smooth on & off-the-bike use.
There’s also a new 1/3 zip version of the synthetic Tech Tee, and a lightweight synthetic Women’s Tank top for hot summer exploring.
Explore may be Rapha’s modern gravel riding kit, but big distance mixed-surface adventure riding started with Brevet. New this year will be a Women’s Brevet Lightweight Gilet which has simply been a long-running staple for men, mixing high-visibility with superlight packable wind protection.
Breveting men will get a new rain-shedding bib short with some mini cargo pockets, plus a new super-packable Brevet Gore-Tex Rain Jacket combing waterproof, breathable weather protection, with hi-viz reflectivity.
Artists series
It’s always hard to guess where Rapha limited edition artists series will go beyond this tease. But for now, we know that 2022 will bring a colorful Ellen Paige-designed capsule collection for women this spring. And they’ll follow that up later in the year with designs calling back to 50s Swiss cycling stars Ferdi Kübler & Hugo Koblet, then an all-new look for the Women’s 100 kit in time for that global group ride on September 18, 2022.
