Prendas Ciclismo launch refreshed Rocket Espresso 2.0 Collection

First introduced in 2014, Prendas Ciclismo and Rocket Espresso have jointly donated over £20,000 to the Dave Rayner Fund. With over hundreds of garments sold, it’s been a highly successful collaboration between Prendas Ciclismo and Rocket Espresso and one that’s now been refreshed for 2017.

Given the popularity of the clothing, introducing a new version was handled with care and consideration. Together with Santini’s head designer Fergus Niland, Prendas Ciclismo carefully selected the materials and cut of the clothing, followed by iterations of the design to ensure it suited a wide range of riders.

Niland explains “The cut of the jersey is more or less a tried and trusted model; whereas the Rocket bib shorts where given a more radical approach by using fewer printed panels and a more compressive dyed lycra. We took the existing colour palette and tweaked the colours – for example introducing navy as an on-trend base colour - bringing the design up to date.”

Joscelin Ryan representing the Dave Rayner Fund said "We are supporting 36 riders in 2017 - many of them are new names this season. The grants are provided for them to primarily pay rent, buy food and to enable them to live, train and race abroad.”

“We are extremely grateful to both Prendas and Rocket for their continued support. We hope to be able to help a similar number of riders in 2018 – I’m hopeful that more female riders will take the plunge.” add Ryan.

Rocket Espresso is a popular brand amongst the pros with Greg Van Avermaet, Andre Greipel, Jakob Fuglsang, Bob Jungels, Sophie De Boer, Tiffany Cromwell and Nino Schurter all proud owners.

Andrew Meo of Rocket Espresso said “The idea was mooted in 2014 that a percentage of the proceeds would go to support the fund and it’s something we are proud to be associated with.”

Mick Tarrant of Prendas Ciclismo said “My own interest in the Dave Rayner Fund goes back to the 1990's when I was the organiser of the annual dinner and prize presentation for my club the Bournemouth Jubilee Wheelers. I always donated the profits made to the Rayner Fund and found that I was able to attract some higher profile guests including Matt Rendell, William Fotheringham, John Deering, Phil Liggett, Kevin Dawson, Tony Doyle and Matt Bottrill by pledging to such a worthy cause."

Tarrant continues "Once Prendas was up and running and we had a small but perfectly formed team on board, so it seemed a good idea to resurrect support for the Fund and we started in a small way by getting some Dave Rayner supporter caps made and we made a donation to the fund from each sale. This gathered pace when we teamed up with Rocket Espresso on a clothing project and both parties contribute a fiver each for each garment sold.

This proved to be highly successful and we were able to further extend the fund raising after Raleigh UK kindly gave us their blessing to replicate the classic Raleigh Banana team kit, which seemed perfect symmetry as Dave Rayner himself rode for the team."

"Cycling has given Prendas Ciclismo much and it seems only fair to put something back in to the sport as a reciprocal gesture. It gives all of us here a great deal of pleasure when we process an order which benefits the Rayner Fund and it's always hugely satisfying to see one of the beneficiaries succeed at amateur or later on at Pro Level." Tarrant added.

The clothing is available to buy now with a £10 donation to the Dave Rayner Fund for every jersey and pair of bib short sold!