Review: Rapha’s 2021 A Day in Hell Collection
(2021) Today was supposed to be one of the most anticipated events on the road cycling’s spring calendar - Paris-Roubaix. Today we were supposed to wake up early in the Eastern Time Zone, flip on the waffle iron, brew some Italian roast, and set the coverage to a low volume for the rest of the sleeping house. But for the second year in a row the event will not take place on its original April date. Rising cases in numerous French provinces in the north prompted shutdowns and event cancelations, scooping up the prestigious event many rub their palms together for. This year was supposed to be a return to normalcy; this year was to be the first year for a women’s Roubiax. With the new date in the fall, riders will hammer the cobbles not during seed sowing season but harvest.
The Paris-Roubaix is a bike race like no other. With nineteen cobbled sectors, riders and machines are tested. Bikes have failed, crashes have happened, one year a team car tore the oil pan off in a cobbled sector. All hell ensued. Roubaix invites a multitude of participants, too. There are specific road racers but be on the lookout for cyclocross names, track racers, and sometimes a mountain biker or two. Throw all this diversity together, plus a good day, and that still does not guarantee a hoisting of a cobble trophy.
It even decided to sprinkle some precipitation during this photo to reiterate the loss of the Paris-Roubaix from today’s coverage.
Each year Rapha commemorates Roubaix with a small collection titled A Day in Hell, based off of Roubaix’s alternate name Hell of the North. This year Rapha offers a cap, a jersey, and socks to mark the spring classic. As it turns out, we managed to get our hands on the small collection only to learn there wouldn’t be a Roubaix on April 11th. It’s also usually the same day as Kermesse Sports’ Hell of Hunterdon, also postponed on account of Covid regulations. It seems the Rapha A Day in Hell cap and socks we managed to score will wander around our drawers, looking for an identity to grab onto. Maybe there will be a cobbled Grand Tour stage somewhere to unveil the designs.
With small batch runs, Rapha plays a conservative card to the collection. As of this writing nearly everything in the collection is sold out. Meanwhile our gear still has the tags on them. Perhaps there are others out there with a similar approach, that to wear it, the 2021 Paris-Roubaix must first actually happen. Maybe we can throw in an asterisk to the first time the cap and socks are worn. A dusty week may be the perfect time to baptize the gear, introducing the socks and cap to the ever-popular Hell of Hunterdon route in central New Jersey. At least then we could feel a sense of normalcy by looking in the mirror and seeing caked dust, powdered jersey shoulders, and maybe even jagged lines from the eyes where tears began to flow for various reasons.
