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Is This The World’s Most Expensive Cycling Jersey?

It takes a lot to shock us here at Bikesy. We’ve seen a Bugatti Bicycle for £39,000 and we’ve seen a Trek Bikes painted by Damien Hirst sell for half a million dollars but here at Bikesy Towers where the ethos is helping people save money, we think this Rapha jersey takes the biscuit!

“I designed this jersey for @Rapha nearly a decade ago in 2007 when the first stage of the Tour de France was held in London. The first stage – or La Grand Départ – began in central London and ended in Canterbury. It was won by the Australian rider @RobbieMcEwen who crashed badly with less than 20km to go but still managed to fight back to win!” @Paul_Smith What’s your favourite cycling jersey? Let us know below… #PaulSmith #cycling #letour #font
A post shared by Paul Smith (@paulsmithdesign) on May 6, 2016 at 6:37am PDT

Now, let’s be clear here – this isn’t the renowned designer Paul Smith trying to make a fast buck.
Paul originally made this jersey in conjunction with British cycle clothing brand Rapha to celebrate the Tour de France Grand Depart coming to London in 2007.

At the time the merino wool jersey retailed for £175, still a tidy sum and beyond the budget of many a club cyclist but for anyone who could afford one the classic collared designs reflecting the heady days of old showing the dual Tricoleur and Union flag with the words Grand Depart emblazoned across its centre panel it turned out to be a wise investment.

How wise? Well one of these jerseys is currently for sale at £10,000.

Yes, you read that right. Ten grand for a cycle shirt…

Offered as “The mother of all cycling jerseys” this bagged and tagged example in size medium is for sale on eBay by user 19joe80

From the product listing-

The mother of all cycling jerseys.
A collaboration between Paul Smith and Rapha saw this limited edition produced for the 2007 Grand Depart of the Tour de France from London.
Size: Medium
This has been stored in an airtight bag in the dark since it was purchased.
A piece of cycling history.

Helpfully, it comes with free postage and packing.

£10,000 cycling jersey by Rapha and Paul Smith

So, if you’ve got that type of rider in your club with more money than they know how to spend, and they absolutely LOVE bikes and cycling, you know what to tell them to get next!

Featured

British Junior Men’s Road Series winners – the definitive list

As well as the national junior road race championships, contested over one day, the top junior male cyclists in the UK also get to compete in a season long competition that aims to find the most consistent young riders in the UK.

Racing for the prestigious Peter Buckley trophy, named in honour of a promising Manx champion cyclist who died aged only 24, this series sees the best Juniors from around the country competing on anything from 5 to 12 events depending on logistics. In recent years the competitors also do battle over the multi day Junior Tour of Wales, allowing the calibre of the country’s future international stage race winners to shine through.

We’ve gone through our archives to build what proves to be an interesting list of the cream of the UK’s top young riders. We’ve highlighted which ones went on to ride in the Tour de France, which ones became senior world champions, which ones are in cycling families, which ones ended up riding for Team Sky and which ones set world records.

We’ve had some incredible riders break through on the world stage in recent years. We can only wonder what would have happened to more of the youngsters of the 70s and 80s had their been the support their is now.

Anyway, let’s enjoy their achievements and wonder what success the current crop of youngsters will win for GB on the world stage.

YEAR	WINNER	SECOND	THIRD
1971	Tony Davies	Jeff Morris	Mike Heathcock
1972	Stu Morris	Peter Hall	Steve Fleetwood
1973	Dave Penketh	John Harrison	Dave Baronowski
1974	Les Fleetwood	Mike Williams	Alaric Gayfer
1975	Jon Kettell	Glen Mltchell	Jim Parry
1976	Glenn Mitchell	Tony Doyle	John Kettell
1977	Steve Joughin	Shaun Fenwick	Nigel Bloor
1978	Mark Bell	Neil Martin	Simon Thomas
1979	Mike Doyle	John Wainwright	Malcolm Elliott
1980	Darryl Webster	John Wainwright	Craig Stevens
1981	Keith Reynolds	Rob Kennison	Kevin Davis
1982	Chris Walker	Kevin Byers	Rob Kennison
1983	Chris Walker	Deno Davie	Chris Lillywhite
1984	Chris Lillywhite	Simon Cope	Will Mansfield
1985	Stuart Coles	Glen Sword	Paul Brown
1986	Lester Clarke	David Cook	Alex Webster
1987	Simeon Hempsall	Simon Lillistone	Dylan Williams
1988	Matt Stephens	Gareth Gimson	Ian Wright
1989	Mark Dawes	Ian Bryant	Toby Pinn
1990	Victor Slinn	Julian Ramsbottom	Paul Spencer
1991	Mark Dolan	Will Wright	Scott Bennett
1992	Tim Griffin	Richard Bruce	Jeremy Hunt
1993	Danny Axford	Hugh Fairgrieve	Anthony Malarcyzk
1994	James Taylor	Huw Pritchard	Paul Manning
1995	Gavin Sellen	David George	Russell Downing
1996	Charlie Wegelius	Russell Downing	James Griffiths & Graham Hughes
1997	Bradley Wiggins	Martin Lonie	Stephen Joseph
1998	Richard Heath & Jamie Alberts	Joint 1st Place	Sam Collins
1999	Mark Baker	Stephen Cummings & Tom Southam	Joint 2nd Place
2000	Andrew Allan	James Bell	Alex Coutts
2001	Alex Coutts	Chris Penketh	Ross Adams
2002	Adam Illingworth	Andrew Murphy	Christian Varley
2003	Tim Wallis	Ryan Bonser	Matt Brammeier
2004	Geraint Thomas	Ian Field	Andrew Hill
2005	Alex Dowsett	Russell Hampton	Alex Atkins
2006	Andrew Griffrths	Mark McNally	Simon Holt
2007	Peter Kennaugh	Luke Rowe	Mark McNally
2008	Erick Rowsell	Luke Rowe	David Nichols
2009	Joe Perrett	Tim Kennaugh	David Nichols
2010	Simon Yates	Tom Moses	Joshua Edmondson
2011	Alistair Slater	Luke Grivell-Mellor	Brennan Townshend
2012	Alex Peters	Harry Tanfield	Tao Geoghegan Hart
2013	Jake Kelly	Scott Davies	Gabriel Cullaigh
2014	Matthew Gibson	James Shaw	Alexander Braybrooke
2015	Etienne Georgi	Joey Walker	Robert Scott
2016	Charlie Meredith	Robert Scott	Peter Kibble
2017	Oscar Mingay	Harry Hardcastle	Daniel Coombe
2018	Mason Hollyman	Samuel Watson	Lewis Askey

Key:

has cycling family Strong cycling family

became a world champion Became a senior world champion

Won Olympic medals

set world record Set a UCI World Record

rode Tour de France Rode the Tour de France

You might have noticed some surprising names missing from the list. No Robert Millar, Chris Boardman, Mark Cavendish, Mark Walsham, Ed Clancy, Rob Hayles, Roger Hammond or Dean Downing.
Some developed their endurance later on, others concentrated on track or time trialling and for some travelling the length of the country as a teenager just wasn’t viable. But that’s a feature for another day.
Want more old school cycling knowledge? Check out our pages on the legendary cycling commentator David Duffield

Every Day Cycling

London’s Bank Junction closed to cars and open to people

Today saw a major transport shift in the City of London as Bank Junction was finally closed to motorised traffic.

Bought in by the City of London Corporation the ban, between 7am to 7pm, Monday to Friday, only cyclists and buses will be allowed into the junction for a trial period which will last 18 months.

Authorities brought in the changes following a series of traffic collisions in the area which injured and killed pedestrians and cyclists.

Cycling safety campaigners Stop Killing Cyclists were there to celebrate the changes, commenting that it was their first ‘Live In’ demonstration, compared to the number of ‘Die Ins’ that the group is known for

Bikesy were also there celebrating this change in transport thinking in the financial heart of the UK

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You won’t believe how much this 1980s carbon bike is selling for

You probably won’t ever see one of these for sale again.

This is a genuine Pesenti Modulare Uno from 1987 and it’s as rare as hen’s teeth.

Pisenti Modular Uno Front View
The price for someone who wants to own such a unique, radical, iconic design? A cool £15,500 ($20,0000 USD).

Equipped with Campagnolo’s Croce d’Aune groupset with Delta brakes and some of the first Cinelli disc wheels this bike was first unveiled to the world at the Milan Bike Show in 1987 by its designer Andrea Pesenti.

Pesenti was the driving force behind the classic Cinelli Laser design of bikes, during an era when cycle design could be as bold as the materials would allow, unhindered by overly stringent regulations. The Modular Uno is his carbon follow up design, nne of the first bikes manufactured in carbon fiber monocoque. Featuring a distinctive aerodynamic fork shape and a one piece handlebar it was already being dreamt up by Pesenti in the early 80s.

“In 1983 I started to design it” – Andrea Pesenti has confirmed – “but it was still a sketch on a piece of paper”.

“It wasn’t easy to make a fork like that back then – still – that was one of the first that did not break!”

The Modular Uno design also featured swapable rear drop outs meaning the bike could be ridden on the track or on the road.

Sadly, whoever buys this bike won’t be able to race it as this bike has a crack in the bottom bracket shell, a common flaw in early prototype carbon frames from the 80s, so will have to take pride of place mounted on a wall or in a museum. But whoever gets it will know they’ve got a fantastic example of a bike made at the height of futuristic cycle design.

Want to make an offer? It’s available on eBay here

Pisenti Modular Uno Bike rear view Pisenti Modular Uno Bike drivetrain Pisenti Modular Uno Bike with Cinelli Volate saddle Pisenti Modular Uno Bike signed handlebars Pisenti Modular Uno Bike original designs Pisenti Modular Uno Bike at Milan Bike Show