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Rules of the Road

By Joe Hall • 20th January 2010 03:33pm • Posted in Misc

1. Road riding is a serious business
You wouldn’t go to a business meeting wearing all the colours of the rainbow. World champion stripes should only be worn if you are a world champion.

2. Standards are important
Zips up, pockets organised. The only place for a flapping jacket or jersey is when chasing down a breakaway or climbing over 3km.

3. A good fit means good form
Anything less than clean lines looks ugly and will cause discomfort. For tights, close fitting is key. That’s why they’re called ‘tights’.

4. Keep it over your hat
The arms of your sunglasses should never be tucked underneath your Winter Hat. Nor should they sit under the straps of your helmet. Espressos cannot be consumed otherwise.

Photography © Ben Ingham

5. Win by a neck
Scarves and winter collars should be worn below the chin. The one rider who could get away with wearing his scarf on his head is sadly no longer with us. If, on the other hand, you’re also a pirate, by all means continue.

6. It’s the little things
Never leave a gap between your arm warmers and jersey. A gap between your shorts and knee warmers is even worse. If your legs are covered, your arms should be too.

7. New is good
Team leaders demand fresh bar tape and clean white socks for every stage. Black socks are for training, domestiques or Mellow Johnny.

8. Ride your own race
If you adhere solely and strictly to fashion advice given to
you by a blog page, you will never possess true style. Make it your own.

Some of these rules were first featured in Bicycling magazine in 2008.

Readers may be familiar with OREC: The Official Rules of the Euro Cyclist. At times we endorse some of these 'Euro Cyclist' tenets, but not all of them.

We also have a Facebook page where you can discuss and review Rapha products: Rapha Reviews. Feel free to sign up.

Comments

Jon Cannings

20th January 2010 05:22pm

Good post Joe. I am taking it that you took inspiration from watching me enter the building every day to lead you to these conclusions?
Style over function EVERY TIME.

Stefan Rohner

20th January 2010 05:28pm

NO rules roulez …

Stefan Rohner

20th January 2010 07:05pm

7. New is good

or lance armstrong …. ;)

Jan Sotorník

21st January 2010 10:42am

Nice :) Is there any exception for number 4.? I'm wearing eyeglasses should I arrange contact lenses and than wear sunglasses properly? :-))

Bruce Rychlik

21st January 2010 04:20pm

I have to offer up a exception regarding #4 - as a wearer of prescription Oakley Radars - and all of my prescription glasses for that matter - I cannot get a proper fit (i.e. I cannot see correctly) unless the glass are directly against my head. I have heard this statement made so many times but I am afraid I cannot live up to it in my case.

Stewart Dawson

21st January 2010 07:52pm

A nice variation on an old cyclingtips post:

http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2009/11/how-to-dress-pro/

Ben Brown

22nd January 2010 09:56am

Well, we did originally publish a variation of these rules in Bicycling in 08!

Tim Norman

22nd January 2010 10:37am

On the sartorial subject (sort of), I have to confess that the snowy conditions resulted in my removing my Look Keo road pedals and putting them on my son's mountain bike in order to cycle the 13 miles to the station … undeterred by the 4" of snow, drifts and blizzard conditions (and falling off 6 times), I must add I remained a picture of sartorial elegance and proved that the Rapha Classic Softshell is not just a beautiful garment, but is perfection when faced with hideous inclement weather conditions. Err, word of warning, though … Look Keos and standing in snowdrifts = :-( eventually. Great fun, though !

brettok

23rd January 2010 10:16am

See here for The Rules c/o the Velominati…

http://www.velominati.com/blog/the-rules/

Chris Myers

25th January 2010 02:08pm

Brettok,

Thanks for the post on the rules as I found them to be very entertaining. I'm wondering how many of us break rule 21 in regards to wearing cycling caps when not riding.

Graeme Moir

16th February 2010 09:03pm

Rapha, I fancy your clothes and appreciate the vintage style that is uniquely yours, but rule #1 (which your catalogue models consistently break) should be always wear a helmet, and yes, with sunglass arms OVER the straps.

PJ Canale

16th February 2010 10:22pm

These are good groundrules, but real class is breaking the rules with panache, not following.
There's schadenfreude when a gloveless dude on steel blazes up a mountain past the group of racers on the carbon/Powertap machines, who are too busy staring at a screen and carefully measuring their effort. They have other fish to fry, but it still must sting.

szegerely szegerely

17th February 2010 08:57pm

style cannot be learnt by reading rules. You either have it or you don't.

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