This week, Cam and NJ meet with Jordan Addison, the founder of the G!RO cafe. In the Eshers episode, we hear about Jordan’s love of cycling, how the cafe became a cycling hot spot, and how the cafe navigated through the instability of the 2020 pandemic. Finally, we touch down with some classic Q&A and find out if white bibs will be sold within the cafe.
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Spin Cycle
Spin Cycle is a podcast that celebrates the rich, diverse culture of the London (and further afield) cycling scene, chatting with the incredible people, groups and brands that make it a wonderful place to be a cyclist.
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Hello everybody Welcome to the the spin cycle podcast podcast talking to the personalities the groups and the brands that make London and the UK an incredible place to be a cyclist today we’ve got maybe a fan favorite and certainly my favorite place to go for coffee uh it’s Joc cycles and it’s
Jordan Jordan welcome to the podcast hello thank you very much for having me so hopefully people are pretty excited about this one as we said uh before the podcast start to Jordan This is most people or everybody’s kind of play favorite place to go and we’ll run
The podcast that we usually do obious we’ll do section one getting into know Jordan maybe how we got into cycling section two you know the the origin of of jro just said or back in October celebrated 10 years open which is is an incredible feat and then the third part
Will do you know the the important stuff white bib shorts do people actually enjoy cycling on cobblestones etc etc so um Jordan Maybe to start us off you can tell us who you are and maybe how you got into cycling really um so how did I get into cycling so I
Um probably got into Road cycling about 15 years ago like as in quite seriously but that kind of really started with uh I used to mountain bike quite a lot and uh after I finished University I was basically commuting to work on my mountain bike and one of the guy I was
Living guys I was living with at the time had this really old road bike called a barracuda Sil silver and I said to him just off the off I said could I borrow your bike it’d be interesting to see uh what it’s like the first time really riding a road bike
This is probably maybe 17 yeah 17 years ago or so and it was just so fast and I was like oh this is this is amazing so I bought it off him for 25 quid nice nice his name’s Dave rasma shout out Dave out Dave and uh and that was it really and
Then just I think through commutes and and just started to meet some people didn’t really get involved in clubs I kind of dabbled a bit but I found clubs quite challenging for honest I found you know at the time not very kind of inviting um and uh then just through a couple people
That I sort of liveed close to really got into the cycling scene um guy called Neil who I actually founded the business with he kind of took me under his wing and and he’d been cying for a long time he worked in the cycling industry so
That was kind of my entry into sort quite high level sort of cycling um you know shaved legs you know taking I think that’s the kind of like the metric of how serious are you is when you kind of shave your oh yeah and and yeah I mean and
That was it so yeah i’ probably say about 15 years seriously um and then yeah five years after that threw around some ideas and and we got the keys to this place inisha and and here we are amazing so is it so from going did you primarily start with commuting and
Then jump on the bike did you say you were racing as well at one point no no I’ve never really raced that’s never really floated my boat I don’t think I’m competitive enough to race um but um yeah it was just I mean I I kind of grew up mountain biking around
Our local Trails here um and then yeah just it was much nicer to kind of commute to work on that I’d put some like road tires on on my kesis that I built up and uh then yeah then transferred over to to Road do you Ste
Mountain bike now I do I do I do mountain bike now um I actually just sold my mountain bike last year I’m starting to regret but uh yeah so I mean all that means I just have an opportunity to buy another one I suppose um yeah I mean truthfully I don’t know
If if you’ve if you’ve spoken to other people who were sort of in the industry or in Hospitality don’t really get as as much time to ride as possible so when I was looking at my quiver of bikes I realized there was a few collecting dust
So maybe go to a better home so I’ve got my road bike and I’ve got my gravel bike and that’s it at the minute actually I think NJ and I are going to ask the same question which is I know that you sell curve bikes in your in jro which are
Beautiful maybe show notes or Flash on my screen are you riding a curve or have you have you done like I think you might know in Mark odonahue have you got the One bank to rule them all which is sort of road wheels on the gravel bike switch
Them out perfect bike to go no so I don’t I I don’t buy into that um just because I mean that’s kind of my that I mean the bikes is probably the main part of what I do now so I’m I’m probably behind the cafe maybe one or two days a
Week most of it is is you know you know we partner with c they’re really great retail partner of ours and we we’ve done really well with them so for us it’s a real Joy just getting people on bikes we do get ask that question a lot is there
A bike that can do it all and I mean of course there is there’s loads of options out there but I do believe that you you’ll compromise one way or the other and I think if a bike’s really well engineered to be on the road then why
Compromise it by you know trying to take it on gravel the nice thing about the curve bikes is that they’re titanium so you can take it down a gravel path should you choose to um and the frame’s going to sort of hold up but when it come comes to like geometry and that
Type of stuff you know you know these bikes are really engineered to serve a purpose so yeah I I have a road bike and I have a gravel bike and the gravel bike’s are beast the gravel bike’s like an absolute monster quite happy we did this we did this ride around um sorry
I’ve got police out the the door um I did we did we went out to we joined curve last year in South Africa and um there were some of these roads that it absolutely should have been on a mountain bike but this bike just at up
Absolute absolute Joy of a bike I’ve got a theory about gravel and oh tell me you did it on I’ve got a theory that gravel in the UK isn’t gravel gravel in the UK is mountain biking mountain biking on road bikes because yeah it’s not the
Gravel of uh I don’t know Norway Sierra Nevada or jro or or or Jona sorry grael in the UK is hey let’s all um let’s nip on the train down to woking let’s ride out to uh The Sur Hills and uh let’s do mountain bike trails on our road bikes
And we’ve now just invented a genre and people and I’ve said that before and I’m willing to die on that Hill okay I I I tell you the one thing that I’m definitely feeling at the minute is it’s very very very challenging to call it gravel with the amount of mud that we
Are going through the amount of mud that we’re picking up it really really really is a fine fine balance calling it gravel riding because it’s just not it’s like you’re carrying around like five kilos of mud around your Bott bracket just yeah can’t wait to get back on the with the
Hose so you find there’s much difference between gravel and mountain biking I mean I do I mean I think there’s quite a lot when I think about gravel I mean I think and it’s the way that I kind of look at riding to be honest I don’t really look at it from
Like a racing perspective or chasing sort of segments but it’s really the adventure um and and also a big part of writing is people who you’re doing it with and I think that’s been the nice thing about gravel it’s it’s opened up a new you know Britain’s got such a
Beautiful Heritage of bridal ways across the country and it’s actually kind of accessing those and just getting from one part of the country to another on which he wouldn’t have been able to do on a road bike and doing on a gravel bike maybe you know got the bike loaded
Up uh with you know all sort sorts of paraphernalia and and uh yeah ready for an adventure I think that’s kind of where I when I think about gravel writing that’s certainly where I where I see it yeah I I was reading um I don’t
Know if I was reading or I was listening to podcasts and they were saying that the the thing that gravel does is it does slightly open up Road cycling to people that don’t want to cycle on the road with cars yeah if you came into it
During Co um the barrier to entry was not that high because was Gareth up saying it the barrier to entry is not that high because there wasn’t that many cars on the road if you go and do gravel you can still have that environment or have that
Experience yeah I mean I I couldn’t agree with you more I mean we we um we do this ride well it’s like a do the series in every spring like late spring early summer called the development series it’s basically a three or four you know Saturdays where we get a bunch
Of our kind of like regular Riders to and we take a bunch of relative beginners to cycling or they might be experienced Cycles just not used to riding in groups not used to riding on the road and we just kind of try and break down that barrier but the reality
Is is actually siing on the road can be really intimidating and you know especially in the last few years we’ve we’ve heard too often stories of people getting you know knocked off or or you know kind of getting into you know some some situations and gravel whilst it
Doesn’t remove the you know possibility of crashing um we’ve got a few people who’ve done a pretty good job of crashing on gravel regularly um but uh I won’t mention any names um but you know I I do believe that it does kind of take away some of
That stress and so it does really make a uh accessing you know the roads or accessing the gravel Trails a lot easier and then also with the Advent of ebikes I think ebikes for a lot of people is a really great way of getting out and exploring um so yeah we should
Definitely be championing that how was um so when I I’m in the process of getting a new bike as we speak but one of the things that I didn’t actually see your email I didn’t I didn’t see your email come through so I don’t know if this I don’t
Know if this is working um one of the thing one one of the things that NJ and I actually spoke about at rouer with another titanium cycling brand was that you can go away and spend 12 a half Grand on an S works that came out of an
Open source mold in the Far East or you go titanium and get a bespoke bike and you’re you may even be coming under that same price point for something that’s truly kind of made for you or or is more ding better how are you finding it selling titanium bikes to people is it
Is it more of a specific customer that’s coming in and bit more informed what does that kind of look like I think I think it’s a really good point I mean I definitely think there is there is a um a lot of the customers that we’re getting have done their research and
Maybe some of them’ been writing for quite a long time we have a demo Fleet here of bikes of both gravel and road bikes because for us we really want to get people on them to break down any misinformation or myths around what what riding titanium is like um I mean I’ve
Been riding titanium now for eight years seven years and I and I and I can say I won’t go back I I don’t have a problem with carbon I think carbon bikes absolutely have their place and you know to your point around the spending 12
Grand on a on a s works I mean for people who are like racing you know I can definitely see and understand the you know the the Merit of it for sure but I think for the majority of people and of course I’m biased in in saying
This because you know I try and make a living out selling these things sure but but I I really truly believe it and I’m quite passionate about it for the majority of people once they get on a bike that fits them well and once they get on a bike that
Gives them a really comfortable yet kind of performance orientated ride I don’t think you’ll go back and I re I really for both Road and and gravel I think metal is absolutely The Way Forward um you know I’m not going to sit here and pooo carbon because you know the
Majority of people that come to the cafe are our carbon bikes and having a great time but if if the majority of people who bought a comike actually went out and rode a titanium bike I’d probably say 90 % would come back and say yes please take my money cool with with that
In mind maybe we head to section two and learn about the origins of grro thank You welcome back everyone so Jordan how did you start the jro cafe so obviously as I mentioned before like you know been Keen Keen cyclists kind of really started to get to know the Sur Hills you know well and and it was becoming definitely becoming busier and busier
You know and we could see it you know as like from like a so we open in 2013 and everyone seems to think the the the cycling boom happened after the Olympics and whilst that definitely did have a big impact if you remember like the year
Before so in 2 I think it was 2010 Mark Cavendish won the British sports Personality of the year you know which is a really big thing for a cyclist at that standpoint at that time that point in time um and the year before so where
The caf’s bases in n and this was used for the the Olympic route both the time trial and the road race but in 2011 they had a test event and it called the S classic yeah and it you know it wasn’t it was I think it was in countries I
Think it was in countries it might be in teams I’m not sure yeah it was like Olympic test wasn’t it yeah that’s it and and Mark Cavendish had he was he had just won the Green Jersey the tour of France so he was he came through Isa and
You can see his green helmet and but the ISA was at a standstill um you know everybody was out there watching it was really exciting obviously we’re in the lead up to the Olympics yeah obviously 2012 we saw a really big boom you know the success of the Olympics of but of
Course Brad Wiggins winning the tour to France um but then you saw I mean you know a lot of the guys that I had known for a number of years like you know that Sigma sport Sigma sport was becoming a very very big shot you know and it was
Growing and growing and growing you know and and there was a lot of momentum around cycling at the time um so but one of the things that we realize is we would often meet up up here on the like Crossroads and there was carlucho was an each and that was where we would
Go but the crossroads was a great place to meet because it’s a it’s it’s it’s you’ve got if you’re going out to the Sur Hills or to Box Hill no matter which area you’re coming from you basically actually come through Isa or it’s easy to come through Isa so it doesn’t matter
Where you live you know kind of Isa is a bit of a a crossroad my my I had an idea which was it would be great if there was like a a a coffee shop that was open up early but it was really specifically for cyclists um and we didn’t really think
Too much more beyond that it was you know essentially a place that was open up 700 in the morning and Riders could park the bikes feel comfortable in lra um and funny prior to so opposite where we are now is a Costa Coffee yes and that was
Actually that was actually one of the first Costa coffees in the country oh wow and it’s I would say it’s probably been there for I’m fortunately it’s not there anymore it closed last last year because rent increases but I reckon it’s probably there for 25 years and I
Remember going there with friends and I remember there was one day where and this was before I was you know kind of into Road cycling and sat there and a group of cyclists came in and they’re wearing you know like and but at that time when we’re talking about Kit it
Wasn’t stylish back then no it was it was European covered in logos um and you know these guys walked in and they’ve got their silly shoes on legs and me and a couple friends you know we didn’t laugh at them but it it we definitely it it was striking to see
These people walking in and it was just like oh they look really Place fast forward 25 years or 15 years and I’m opening up oppos that Costa but it’s specifically for people with silly shoes and lra who would who would have thought it um but yeah I mean so
We ran up past Neil who was my sort of founding business partner yeah he’s been involved in cycling from a retail perspective for a long time he managed a couple of Brands and I ran the idea pass him we were out on a ride and a couple
Days later he found me up and he goes I think that’s a really good idea let’s let’s let’s kind of see see where it goes so we put together I mean a I when I say we put together a business plan we didn’t know we really really believed in the
Potential of this thing and we believed you know that it did have sort of Merit and he and I weren’t 100% aligned on whether it be more of a bike shop or more of a coffee shop I was really clear it has to be more of a coffee shop
Because we want locals to come in we want locals to you know non cyclist to to become a part of it and it be high-end coffee nice fresh food um and then he went to on one of his work trips he was up in Edinburgh and visited Ronda Ronda was so let’s see
When we were open there was I might be wrong but I think there was maybe only two or three other cycle cafes that we knew of that we knew of okay one was look M no hands and we knew those guys from the sigma days unfortunately it’s
Not there anymore which is an absolute tragedy because they were in my opinion they were the you know they were the Kings they were the Godfathers and another one was Ronda up in Edinburgh uh and Ronda was this in a really cool part of Edinburgh and it was like two units
Next to each other and the cafe side used to be like a bercher shop and it had these all the original tiles on the back and it was just this really cool Vibe they used to host rides but there was like one half Cafe and one half bike
Shop so it was two very clear businesses so Neil phones me up and he’s like I’m in this place in Edinburgh I get it the coffee shop I totally get it I totally get it and then that was kind of like the momentum of like well let’s do it
And so the next question was where but we knew it had to be issue it’s just that gut feeling but this was long before straa had released heat Maps straa was around but it wasn’t as obviously it’s nowhere near as what it as big as now people still using people
Still using Mt my ride the Under Armour app do you remember that yeah yeah yeah yeah never worked well the nice thing about stra is you could use it on your phone and it worked it worked well so if you if if people didn’t have like a cycle computer or didn’t have because
Back then you had like srms which are power meters but they didn’t really have GPS so it was it was now obviously the bike computers are incredible but back then they they were very very primitive or you’d have like the cat ey heart rate monitors you know it was it it wasn’t
Really the GPS thing little magnet on your your spoke yeah yeah the cycling was so crap wasn’t it oh man I mean the heart rate monitors were like wow this is incredible like the amount of training you can do and then Neil actually had this this SRM he was one of
The first guys to get it and he had he had had this software called H something something leopard and it was just pure data pure data and then obviously completely different to what it is now um so we would park up on a Saturday and a Sunday and I’ve still got this like
Clicker you know this clicker that like Barman have or like super security have Dorman have yeah yeah and we would just spend an hour and just count cyclists and on a Sunday morning when it was busy it was like in the hundreds like in an hour it was incredible absolutely
Incredible and it just for us it just confirmed like we need to be in EA there was a couple of other places that we’d Loosely looked at but it needs to be in Asia so that was 2012 or the end of 2012 um and we were just waiting for the
Right location um and we this place was available but it was under offer after about four months the agent phoned us up and said uh the offer fallen through do you guys want it and we said yes and it was a men’s clothes shop so it was not a
Cafe yeah and we were like yeah let’s do it and and again we we get the keys this we got the keys in July of 2013 like that there you go and it was like oh [Â __Â ] like let’s we got to do this and so we we put some
Designs together we’ve got some friends who are in the trades uh like a carpenter brilliant Carpenter who kind of got involved from day one and then a plumber and he was just like where are your water mans and where’s the waste and we were like oh because it be a men’s clothes
Shop you know we had we hadn’t thought about it it was like uh don’t know and so we kind of I mean we the the wall sort of behind the bar is a wall that we basically had to put in um to hide all the all the all the pipes the water
Facility of pipes and um yeah I mean look we just we just figured it out it was great those days were brilliant like we you know it was exciting it was terrifying and then we decided on a date and then was like a month away and so we
Put we put like posters up on the windows you know because of our friends at Sigma and look M no hands like you know work got out pretty quickly what we’re doing we’ve been pretty pretty it was old school so it was pretty like religious handing out flyers yeah of
Course and yeah we were doing all the work ourselves and I remember we had a conversation with um Ian who’s who’s the sort of founder of Sigma and he goes I remember when we opened our new shop you know like minutes before we opened I was still vacuuming
And I remember thinking we we’re going to be so much more organized never yeah oh oh my God that was so people were outside waiting to come in and my my cousin was putting up like putting up uh like like like bits of floor upstairs as
In it it was so crazy and chaotic um but we did it and and we had this brilliant opening party no October 17th 2013 and the place was packed there’s some on our website there’s some photos from that night the place was packed we had lot of prco and then 7:00 the next
Day we were open and amazing and it was terrifying uh we just like oh you know now we’ve got to have we’ got to wait for customers to come in and um yeah so and that’s kind of it really that that was how it started yeah what were
You what what was I guess your career before you became like I guess in the hospitality sort of well so my first ever job when I was 14 was was ironically in a cafe full circle mate I know it’s so it’s so horrible that thought that it’s
Full circle you kind of always en you kind of go you go on and on and on but it is it’s absolutely yeah it’s really it’s quite tragic actually uh no I’m kidding um but so I I studied music um at University um music performance and realized pretty quick quickly I didn’t
Really want to go down music as a career yeah I just didn’t really have the drive for it and I I love music to a point where I it was the mo the more that I started working in it I I just it just wasn’t for me and so I ended up getting
A job doing video production and it was like video production and animation and so that’s that was basically where I spent the next five years and then started using that and I was actually doing some youth work um a few years and but I you know that was a
Really really good time but I was you know I just knew when when I threw the idea past Neil I was like this we’ve got to do this and um yeah I think that’s that you know we’ve just been figuring out ever since really 10 years 10 years
Later basically learning on the job yeah so that so yeah so congrats on 10 years by the way I mean what’s I was kind of watching a far and I think I was flicking you DMS but um what’s it been like in the past 10
Years I know you said at the start not only is it got to be a cafe for cyclists when it gets to 9 o’ and all the cyclists are in at work or they’re not cycling he needs to have a an influx of civies essentially what you will what’s
That been like for the last 10 years obiously you had two and a half years of CO as well maybe for any budding Cafe potentially opener what’s it been like about 10 years since you kind of first flown the doors open so I mean we were
You know before we opened you know we knew pretty clearly that we it wasn’t it wasn’t just the bike shop and it wasn’t just for cyclists you know like we you I certainly was a bit of a well still am a bit of a coffee snob so I knew the the
You know the standard that we wanted to set with coffee and and we felt and also with our regards to we didn’t want to do the prepackaged food or pre-bought food we wanted it to be as fresh as possible um and you know just for that quality
And standard to for for people to be drawn to we also didn’t advertise apart from the few flyers before we open we we didn’t go down the advertising route of like magazines or we really wanted Word of Mouth to be king yeah but I think asides from the all the coffee and the
Bikes the the bit that probably I was the most passionate about was and it’s in the 10 years that we’ve been open it’s the one thing that hasn’t and it’s the one thing that has been our kind of you know our our reason really it’s the
Re it’s the why behind what we do and it’s the person that walks through the door is more valuable than the money that they’re going to spend with you and we’ve always put the emphasis on the individual and obviously if can from a business standpoint if we put the money
On the individual hopefully they’ll continue to spend money with you regularly but we didn’t it we didn’t want it to be transactional we wanted it to be relational and that’s really been you know from we even to this day that’s how we train our staff you know it’s
It’s it’s it’s the number one of our core values is relational not transactional and I think when you you know do genuinely value individuals and people and Community doesn’t really matter where you’ve come from if you’re wearing ler or not if you’re on a bike or not people will come back and also
People will tell others and of course even now you know we we’re next to where we are located Anisha we’re next to Sandown Park which is a huge race course also B Conference Center it’s got a lot of many events and conferences throughout the year and so this last uh
Weekend it was like a arts and crafts fair okay so we a lot of knitted jumpers coming through and you know even now 10 years later that you know individuals joke you’re like you know are you allowed to come in here if you’re not wearing Lyra and you know because you know especially
On a busy weekend you know and there’s a lot of bikes you know parked outside the front it can feel you know like oh is it just for Lyra but I mean it’s not and I probably I’d say split is on the weekend probably 70 80% cyclist 20 30% non and
On the week it’s probably 90% non- cyclist 10% cyclist um you know we’re very proud proud to be an independent coffee shop on the High Street um competing with competing with big big chains so maybe we can talk about this and then I think we’re going to get onto
The one of the most important things is us a cafe which is coffee chat but I’ve seen that you you do a lot of the the group rides as well right so there’s a I use jro with uh my friend cam Canadian cam another one Shout Out
Canadian cam we meet there because it’s the Midway point between where I live in s and where he lives in in in wwth but perfect maybe if there are people listening to this podcast that live in where I live and there’s not a group to
Go out with you could talk about some of the groups that jro has right yeah yeah yeah I mean so from we from day one we we we really didn’t want we didn’t want to start a club yeah um and we wanted it to be as exclusive as possible so um and
That includes clubs coming here and using us as a base um I mean we’re quite close to a few clubs like as in geographically so it’s never really kind of hit home because it’s sometimes a bit just too close but we do get a lot of clubs through but we also we really
Wanted to make our rides as accessible as possible yeah and that’s definitely been a bit of a journey because I think preco I was certainly starting to be aware and if I’m really honest a bit frustrated because we have a really wonderful community of riders around us
But I realized it was becoming a bit of a click and it was becoming um you know it’s and which is becomes just by its very nature very difficult to sort of get into now it’s not impossible but I think it does take a certain personality type to kind of
You know have the confidence to sort of go through um I mean I tell I tell one story of this guy um I won’t I won’t say his name but he used to come in on Sunday afternoons uh not riding but he started to come in every Sunday and I started
Chatting with him and he was always a little bit you know shy a little bit sort of defensive and you know he mentioned that he rides and I said oh you should come and join us he goes yeah I’ve seen you guys you know sort of advertise your rides um just not sure
And like most people say I don’t think I’m going to be fast enough and so I say well look that’s not you don’t need to worry about that because that’s not what we do all our rides are like a non drop and if people are up for going fast and
We’ll just split the groups because back then we did it really organically where whoever just rocked up we just sort of went out and and did it so he on the sun one Sunday morning he plucks up the courage to come and I’m like Dan great to see you I
Said look I’m not I’m working today but these are the guys um and I sort of pointed out there they’re just about to leave now unfortunately there’s also a group of riders that come through who are ex-pros and he a couple of them were wearing zero kit
So of them and got dropped by cbum which for anyone who doesn’t know is about 5k down the road I mean literally they just tore his legs off because they thought he was some you know whatever just hanging on and uh you know sort of saying hello and he thought Dan thought
That they were our group so anyway our group comes back and I was like where’s Dan they said oh he went off with with with the other guys and I was like and I in my mind I was like well we’ve just lost him I’ve spent
All this time telling him not to worry it’s not fast come along it’s super chill and he’s just done 50k an hour to C yeah real legs but then thankfully the next week he did come he came back and we laughed about it and he figured out okay they weren’t the actual they
Weren’t the the guys and ended up getting really really involved and it kind of the community actually ended up sort of changing his or having a really big impact in his life he was going through a very difficult time yeah and just being around people and forming some really good friendships got them
Out of what was what turned out to be a really dark place which is which is I mean those are the reasons why we do what we do it’s you know it’s Community it’s people and and that’s it um so yeah you know I realized it was becoming quite clicky
Um obviously covid was a very difficult time but what it did do is it could have stop we had to stop doing our weekly rides so then when we did start them were they’re in the same format that we have now in that we basically use our
Rides as a way for new people to come in and to meet others and we also do a thing on Thursday night called bikes and beers which is it’s all it’s all about social so you know if you’re wanting a chain gang to to get your legs ripped
Off that’s not what we do that’s just not what we’re about there other places that do it but for here we just made the decision that’s not really what we do so we do one organized Road ride a month the first Sunday of every month
And then we do a gravel the third Sunday of every month we do three Paces fast medium and chill we have to say chill they didn’t like us calling them slow so we said chill so fast medium and chill and then um and then uh yeah but we we have a big
WhatsApp group with you like a couple hundred people on there and we basically want to use those rides for new people to come along to meet new people and hopefully you know find some friends that they can meet with regularly and go out and ride um we kind of
Didn’t we we realize that it it’s not the right attitude of us to feel that we need to kind of hold everybody’s hands and kind of get them introduced but you have to let it happen organically and Thursday nights bikes and beers run runs from March through to October uh um
That’s one of those things that anybody can rock up it doesn’t matter what you’re wearing it doesn’t matter how fast you are you’ll find a group to fit in with and it just breaks down that that first barrier but it does take it does take a first step it does take the
Step to come along um but hopefully if they come like have we got it right all the time no we haven’t but we really try hard and hopefully if you come you know if somebody comes along they’ll they’ll meet somebody that’s a little likeminded and and they can ride with a bit more
Regularly yeah that sounds really good I was going to ask you how big the community is but it sounds like it’s it’s massive uh is good well I mean it’s difficult to measure because we don’t you know we we you know we it’s we you know we have limited spaces on our
Signups but we know there’s obviously a lot more people that frequent the place regularly um you know you mentioned you know we have Kit we do have Kit but it’s not a club kit it’s not race team kit anybody can buy it because they they
Just want to be wearing it um you know and that’s really you know you know that’s the nice thing about it is is because you’re wearing it it doesn’t mean that you’re a part of a club it just means you like the kit um and you can you can rock out wearing anything
Really nice nice um how did how did you I guess decide that you wanted to call this shop jro compared to I guess another T or Welter yeah yeah so I mean it is it is it is absolutely taken from the jir Italia um not gyro I want to
Make that very clear to all listeners out there after 10 years of having very nice polite people call it gyro starts to wear a bit thin the yeah the uh that was that was Neil who was my sort of founding business partner he’s not actually involved in
The business anymore um but uh you know it was his it was his uh idea he go what about calling it jro and I said well let’s turn the eye upside down and make it an exclamation mark and that’s become that’s become our thing amazing amazing amazing uh you
Touched on I guess the pandemic in Co how was like a coffee shop did you maneuver through that those troubling times I mean that was um that was a really tough time like it and it wasn’t once we kind of knew what was going on then it but I remember that period in
March um funny enough I had some I had some like photos come from my phone you know your photo apps will give you like memories yeah and was it was actually from that those couple of weeks and like March I don’t know why it shown to me in
January but I I I really lost a lot of weight and my face was really gaunt um and I I didn’t actually realize just how stressful it was because it was just we had to figure out something what to do but when there was this pressure to
Start closing doors it was before any any um any help for businesses was announced and you know was facing that reality of like [Â __Â ] this thing might close yeah um and and that was that was that was pretty brutal um but then once we kind of figured out what was going on
We really wanted to open as soon as we can as soon as we could and the the really important thing to stress there is it’s not we didn’t want to open um to make money you know like the the government I know it was different in different countries but the
Government was very very supportive of of hospitality in particular on High Street we had a really good Furlow scheme that kept a lot of our you know sort of Staff you know employed um so you know we’re obviously really grateful for that but the important bit was our our community it
Was our our local the you know for us we just serve coffee but the coffee is actually the secondary part of what we do the primary bit is just a space and it can be either a space to have a to meet up with friends or a space to meet up with you
Know some Pals to go riding or it can be a business meeting or it can just be a break it can just be a break from the norm and just 15 minutes away in a in a place that you feel safe and comfortable and having you know like a nice cup of
Coffee and you know some cake or yeah and we really really wanted to be that just to be that source for people um as soon as we could so we as soon as we could we were able to do takeaway and I think TimeWise I think that was like May
Or June can’t remember exactly and then um yeah that was Monday to Friday only and then we started to do weekends but you know as as with anything you know everyone’s got different opinions of what was going on at that time and we had a lot of people congregating outside
The cafe which was like really against the rules yeah and so we we were serving them everybody with a coffee and then politely telling everybody to please leave and it was really uncomfortable so we actually kind of pulled back our outs a bit because we didn’t want to be the bad
Guys and or just told people just to go around the corner um and was such a messy time back then it was it was you know and we were really trying to figure out what business looked like and it was definitely tough I mean even coming out
Of it you know there’s you know there’s still the Lots from a financial standpoint and a economy standpoint that’s still recovering from it and then in the middle and in the middle of it was brexit as well which was a real you know it just for for anything
Anything to do with the High Street and supplies it just became really challenging um but we’ve got a you know with all of that said as the person sort of running the business it was challenging but we’re also really Blown Away by the support of not only local
Customers but just the community they were you know really wanted to to see us and other businesses like us succeed yeah I think uh having having those I guess loyal customers and sort of advocacy kind of I guess cements how great a place that jro is for I guess
The local area and for the cycling Community yeah uh and you you touched on the important thing just then coffee coffee how uh how yeah how did you I guess sauce your beans uh do you think about I guess do I do do I think about coffee
When I wake up yes yes I guess is it more than just the bean taste or is there like other other factors when you’re thinking about buying beans uh well okay yeah so we um we now work with Workshop coffee been working with them for about six years shout out
Workshop Mega coffee yeah just a phenomenal roaster and just good people too like really really good people um I mean look there are some really fantastic roers around for us we were looking we we originally opened with a a local roaster called Bean B yeah um
And he was Guy Edward who ran it was such a huge support when we first opened um he he really taught me how to make coffee um and that was kind of definitely you know a bit of a trial by fire and he was a huge support but we were looking
For more of a partnership and not just a supplier and you know Richard in particular shout out Richard at Workshop is just one of one of one of you know just one of the good guys he um all around good human we just struck up a bit of a friendship and started having
A conversation we were looking at a couple of other Roasters but it was actually just I think the working relationship that we were really looking forward to plus they make or they roast just Sensational coffee um so yeah I mean my my personal coffee of choices I I always
Have filter coffee or a pourover I don’t really personally get too excited about coffee with milk um so it’s very rare you’ll see me with like a flat white or a latte or anything I just like good pour over coffee that’s kind of my uh my thing there well both our guilty placers
Are O flat whites yeah yeah yeah take the oat flatties please mate because because we’re PE we’re Millennials from the Internet is that your most what is your most ordered coffee yeah yeah what what is the coffee choice of the cyclist what what do you think it is
Well in London everyone yeah in London it’s definitely O flat white I hait like yeah I mean so we we had a we had our Christmas party here in December and and we had like a bit of a quiz and one of the questions was how many coffees have
We sold over the year and what was the most popular and so the most popular one was was absolutely flat white um by quite a long quite a long way um and it is funny like we get a lot we get a lot of it it is a stereotypical London
Cyclist thing because on the weekend they come flocking down and they walk through the door and it’s a oat flat white guarantee it guaranteed and the old school Rider the rider that the riders that I kind of grew up riding with is either an espresso or a macchiato that’s it nothing
Else do you um yeah we we we actually just got given uh I should well I shouldn’t really say this we got given some diff I’m not going to get into Brands here but we got given um some different oat milk about a month ago um
By a company that said be great to if we were in there here some to try and I’ve never experienced anything like it people were bringing their coffee back saying you’ve changed the oat milk we know we know you’ve changed the oat milk and so we now we’re trying to run this
Down we now have two Brands and and our regulars will say I’d like this type of oat milk please I mean what is going on with oat milk guys let’s let just take let’s just take a breath my wife is a pser my wife is Patisserie Chef French Peery chef
And uh she specializes in vegan and sells courses online how how to make vegan C on things that anyway um she she can do things like there’ll be like a row of oat milks in a supermarket and she’ll be like that one actually separates if you get it above 90 degrees
That one doesn’t work in coffee you can’t use that one that one does that one doesn’t taste right and we bought one that someone told us about this is this is proper coffee chat now but we bought one oat milk that when we first put it in the coffee we were like this
Is brilliant and it really enhances the taste of the coffee and you know I got some coffee from E sleep cycle in Gera we were using that and I I put it in the grinder and I I do c and we were drinking this milk so much
That after a while we realized actually we weren’t drinking the coffee we were just drinking the milk and then every time you put it in food or cereal it just everything tasted the same so it completely like ruined our taste buds and I’m never getting yeah
Oh I mean it is amazing I mean the I mean when we first opened you know alternative milks it was not a thing it was it was people who used to order skimmed milk now order uh o o or usually oat milk we don’t do soy
Um we used to do soy but Soy like curdles and I just SE it never it never sits sits right in coffee so we just stopped doing it but um yeah I mean we now use not very much skin milk at all and it’s mainly you know the oat milk
And I’d probably say I mean I’m taking a guess here but I’d probably say maybe 40% of our coffees are who people who already milk coffees it’s going to be alternative and that’s and that’s not going to people who don’t drink dairy or don’t eat dairy it just it’s just by
Choice now do you um I’ve got a question about something else as well so I know you’ve got you’ve got videt beer J as well right yeah did is is that also part of your mix as well do you also decide which beer goes in because it’s that’s
Quite a it’s a bit of a Belgium beer right that you typically watch when you’re it’s like a cycling beer that you see advertising during the classics Bel Belgium Belgium is in my blood there is there is something welcome to the podcast Jordan something about that place if I could I would
Have 10 Belgian beers on tap all with their own glass where it’s you know so videt videt was like a nice sort of you know it’s a really good Belgian pilsner we’ve only got two Taps here so we have that pilsner which is always here and then the other one will
Swap out with local local pales usually we do have duel in in in um in Bottle um but we can’t really make a habit of selling like 9% triples and all that yeah you can’t be you can’t be doing delirium tremens and then trying to clip
Out the speed play at the lights it’s not going to happen is it so I mean up until up until covid we Pro it’s probably 10 years on the bounce that we go out to gent to watch fanders to Bel flers stay in Gent and
Then we did the sport e once but it’s it’s just an absolute mess it’s just too many people so we always go out on the Saturday have a really good night out again really enjoy the beers and the food and then Sunday we watch the race
On Quant and then on Monday we ride Monday night um but yeah Belgium Belgium beer I mean it’s it’s it’s just the best and it has to be served in the right glasswar if it’s not serving the right glass where you don’t drink it well I
Think that is an excellent segue to the Q&A welcome back everybody Section 3 Q&A do that we’ll Ratt through this with Jordan and he can give us our spicy takes so Jordan maybe start us off what would you consider more Pro or what are you doing most is it Richmond or or regions Park what do you think think if
I was uh you seen that you seen that show on Channel 4 24 hours in police custody yeah yeah well they give they give a no comment answer yeah I feel as I feel as though not to not to incriminate myself I need to I
Need to a comment if I was in America I plead the fifth so look so what’s more Pro Richmond or Regents um I will say it’s more Pro to I okay I can’t stand either like can’t stand them but I totally understand that for people who live near
Or don’t have I mean I live in Sur so I can get out to the Sur Hills very easily so it is a treat but for people who live in the city I totally get the um you know the benefit of having Richmond or Regents very close I mean Regent Park is
Absolutely beautiful there’s no two ways around it but for riding a bike and especially when it’s busy no thank you and I and and a big part of it is and I hope people who who ride in Richmond Park people are really rude just if you see someone else waving which is usually
Me give him a wave back don’t give him some like filthy work and pretend that you’re all better like no no no come on like we’re all in we’re all here for a good time bit of a smile bit of a wave goes a long way I heard the story sorry
Car on I interrupted you I heard the story garant Thomas said somewhere who’s riding in Wales on a jet black pinell wearing jet black kit and he was waving to people saying hi to them in the morning no one waved back and he was like oh okay whatever
Said he got to a cycling Cafe he said the same people that ignored him swamped him bought him like 30 coffees desperate to talk to him and he was like you know what don’t wave no interested I I mean it’s it’s I know it’s such a it feels like such a petty
Thing but it’s actually not it’s like it’s just if you’ve been riding for a long time as well it’s just what you do like you see other people are you just acknowledge and I find that in Richmond Park there is that the L and also I’m not a very competitive person like I
Know that by Nature so I’m not there to set times yeah and it can bring out the comptitive side in people and I just find it a little bit just bit rude and you know but I’m spoiled because I can get out to the S Hills quick quickly
From here um so what’s more Pro I think if you live in London if you’re really Pro you go out and and do the S Hills and make a day of it that’s what I think so where are you um where where would you go you and I live near each other
Where are you going when you’re going around sorry what’s the kind of loop that you would you you could recommend someone how about that yeah easy so I mean all depends on time um we H we actually have a a page on our website called local Loops where people can go
And find Road and gravel Loops at different varying lengths at start and finish here but I don’t live too far from where you are cam so I mean my if I’ve got like an hour or an hour and a half it’s probably like a Staples Lane
Uh through to peas Lake Loop and back and then come back up Kum um yes or if I’ve got like an hour it will be up Shear Road pass a Lotus garriage up that climb and then loop back to rip so slight uphill drag and then a you know
Challenging climb and then loot back but if I’ve got more time it’s just nicer going and get lost around the Sur Hills really you can kind of Traverse the Downs pretty well and either have a long one or a short one do you have a favorite Hill in
S oh that’s a good question do I have a favorite Hill in Su um yeah shop House Lane in the in the summer it’s great it’s just this long climb out from sort of like auy side of Shar and it basically goes up to the top of
Um top of pitch Hill and yeah I I love that it’s really quiet it’s beautifully got these like a tunnel of trees it’s green it’s Lush yeah I love it absolutely love it yeah I don’t know if I’ve done it or not I have to it come it
Comes out at the top of bar hatch Lane which is the real bastard oh yeah you can’t of I think it’s on my list of yeah Barn hatch is on my list of sorry Hills to do because I grew up in farum in like
West so I used to go I guess more around into like Hampshire way um so there’s a there’s a well it took me 10 minutes it took like Rory towns in like five minutes to do but it’s I think it’s about two miles long and it’s like uh
It’s like basically a heal up to the devil’s punch balll which is quite nice it’s like a nice nice long climb very like irregular which is quite good but what I found was when I was cycling s around that area like R FR everyone waves the closer to Guilford you are the
Less waving there is I think there’s like a dead zone of waves in Guilford and the closer to London as well like it’s you know just just just give people a just give people a little wave I appreciate if you’re doing an effort around I mean yeah even going up
You know don’t expect waving if you’re at the top of a climb or something because you’re probably you know trying to hang on to the bike and breathing out your ass but um yeah it’s it’s worth worth you know giving people away if you can or just a lovely nod yeah I’d say
I’d say I don’t yeah I don’t know if this is just the situation that I was in but I feel like Box Hill could be the most Pro but also not the most Pro Hill in Sur mainly because I’ve seen like kids with their dads on ebikes pacing
Them up it I was like and then you just get like lots of people just like tourists and Walkers everywhere so it’s kind of like just the weirdest tail is probably is it the biggest segment in like the world yeah it’s the most most active yeah um the I mean I don’t know
If it’s still the case but a couple years ago the road here Port Road was the third most cycled Road in the world uh which is bloody Bonkers still is definitely a uh definitely a hot spot um yeah the thing about boxill Box Hill is for a climb I
Think it’s a really good climb it’s you know it’s it’s a decent length you can it’s short enough to put in like a really good effort you just have to pick the time to go on a weekend on a sunny day no thank you but but but during the
Week I think it’s great or in morning like kind of doing hups we’ve got a couple of people um guy well one of our older customers a guy called Paulo he Everest did it a few years back and he he didn’t tell anybody and then about
Five about six p.m the night before he goes hey guys I’m gonna Everest Box Hill tomorrow I’m starting I’m starting I’m starting at 4 AM if anybody wants to come and join and what was nice is loaded people went and kind of joined them for a bit um actually actually uh
Jo out there and and I made some coffee for him we got out the burners and sort of like boiled up some water and and Brew him a coffee which is quite nice oh that’s nice outside of uh outside of your own Cafe uh is there any other cycl
Cafes that you you enjoy it’ be quite nice I guess from a a cafe owner why you enjoy them as well because for us we’re just like we like the coffee but for you you probably have a a deeper a deeper I guess understanding of what makes a
Coffee up great yeah I mean um I think it’s difficult to sort of say I mean there’s definitely we I mean certainly I try and as best possible to keep in contact with other cycle cafes yeah um some are you know like sort of more more open than others but I think
In terms of a cycle Cafe I don’t think I’ll kind of name a favorite but um because I think they’re all great and we’re all doing a really hard job like it’s not running wait for that police thing you know running uh running any business on on any High Street is is
Really hard work and especially in the hospitality industry it’s it’s a real Challenge and so I I think you know I think it’s important for customers to remember that as well because you can walk into a busy Cafe and think it’s kind of all successful but the amount of work that goes on
Behind the scenes um you know it you know we we we do a lot to you know to you know and I say we I’m talking about all all of us as cycle cafes we really kind of you know make a lot of sacrifice
To to be a part of somebody’s ride um I think the ones that really stand out are the ones that really make you feel welcome smile on your face doesn’t really matter what you’re wearing it’s not exclusive and so I mean I think the ones that just offer like really good
Like quite hearty food um I think that’s it and also of course coffee coffee’s got to got to stand out I I can’t can’t have have a have a cycle Cafe with with below average coffee yeah or or any s cafe that has a Belgium beer so you know that’s that’s another that’s
Another winner for me yeah there those are the metrics uh I’m gon go a slight tangent off tangent but I feel like why do you think that cycling and coffee shops are a thing whereas like no other sport is like there’s no like running cafes or there’s no like tennis cafes
What do you think it’s just cycling that seems have like these proper I guess cafes where it’s like everything’s Ste and dedicated yeah it’s an interesting one I mean you know before obviously this kind of you know the cycle cafes have become a thing you just meet in coffee shops
Anyway um I think it’s just I think there’s a number of reasons for it but I think first and foremost cycling as a sport even if you’re training at a high level it’s still very social so anywhere that you can you know know kind of start that kind of
Conversation and start that you know uh introduction to one another or just you know meeting up I think it’s a really great place I think coffee just seems to be you know probably the caffeine element and the bit of a Kickstart is is the way to go and espresso and a bit of
Food before you go and then also I mean the we realized pretty quickly that we had like healthy options for when people came back when we first open people don’t want healthy options they’ve done the work they want sugar they want the treat you know they they’ve worked hard
For that there’s a guy called will that we used to ride with in on the back of his um winter bike that had uh you know mug guards on it had I do this for the cake and it’s so true it’s it’s a you want your reward you know so I think
That’s that’s probably also where it sort of you know play plays into uh plays into the the cyclist you know getting around a coffee shop do you have any dislikes about cycling at all they can be anything big or small Richmond Park and region Park no I’m just kidding clip
That um do I have any dislikes um do you know not really you know I think some of the some of the behavior that we you know kind of discussed earlier with you know people not waving and you know not kind of it’s a small
Thing I think a lot of it comes down to people just maybe necessarily don’t know and it can be quite I mean if you’re walking down the street and someone else walking just waves at you can be a little bit offputting so really think there’s too much I just
Like about cycling I think um I think when especially out on um I tell you okay I do have one I really hate I really really hate when I see cyclist go through red lights like that really really drives me M for for for lots of reasons first of all it’s you’re
A road user you’re not a cyclist it’s a car like the car is not a car it’s a road user just like you’re a road user so you have to follow the same rules but it’s we’re living in a world where there is this conversation going on between cyclists and cars and
Motorists and the reality is when I see cyclist going through a red light my immediate feeling is you’re part of the problem because you shouldn’t be doing that first and foremost it’s not safe those red lights are there for a reason I don’t care how much you’ve been riding
For you know I I just that’s something that really irks me but that’s you know down to individual choices um and it’s not down to cycling as a whole but I I I suppose that’s that’s one thing that does upset me as opposed to what I I
Dislike um because I don’t think it helps well maybe talking about things that might not upset you we are a white bib short free space here I’m an advocate or maybe this podcast is an advocate nj’s on the fence Define advocate Ally ship is what
I you love them I love them NJ is an ally I love that where do you sit on on the white bibs you you said about your you know maybe our mutual love of Belgian cycling you know it takes a lot of um Suess and
Finesse to pull off a pair of white bibs where do you sit on the white bib short chat so when it comes to Kit I definitely do have standards so Kit’s got to be matching so now I now these are the stands that I set myself I wouldn’t dream of enforcing it on
Anybody else but I do judge no I’m kidding um you know like I If if you’re wearing a a one brand Jersey I think the bibs should match and ideally the Saka m match as well yeah agree if you’re wearing white bibs as long as the Jersey
Matching as long as the socks are matching hey all for it like why not I uh the one as the one bit of apparel that I really kind of get funny about is when people wear World Championship bands that’s like a that is a that is a
Badge of honor that that only the world champion can wear and you shouldn’t be wearing agree but yeah no that’s um yeah white bibs hey why not if you can if you can pull it off and you got a ni nice enough ass then go for it
So so you’re so cam when you say you’re an advocate is this is that all you wear or do you wear other bibs as well so interesting interesting question because I feel like I’ve painted myself into um a corner on this so I own one pair of
White bibs yourself into a white Corner yeah I I own one pair of white bibs and I I fundamentally do think they look great um we’re actually going to get rust Downing on our podcast Russ who we’ve got a photo of him wearing national champs jersey with white bibs
On in a TT I mean I like it who was I mean obviously m match vandero was wearing him when he was well champed um I think the guy before well not the guy prev remco’s overrated I don’t care for Remco Philip I think he’s the last one I
Can remember wearing white bibs um to husoft to hush yeah that’s it’s NJ and I kind of vintage um yeah and so we’re going to be doing actually maybe we can you know we’ll advertise it again maybe this has already come out but we’re
Going to be doing a ride on April the 1 called pints and pave so we’re going to be doing the all of the pav uh PVE Streets of London and then we’re probably going to be going for pintes afterwards so we need to decide where we’re going to go for pintes probably D
Tail right Belgian beers probably the Dov tail because we can get the bike space there at llander there’s not enough space we don’t think it’s right on it’s like c garden where like I guess Bank holay Monday and Fring is a bit different yeah so um but one of the
Things we’ve talked about is that that might be [Â __Â ] weather and I might have to turn up in white bib shorts I mean it’s bold I mean I mean if you look if you if you rock up so I’ve got I’ve also got a a really sort of
Funny thing with kit in that once once it’s cold enough not to wear gloves the gloves go away until next winter now that’s really bitten me in the ass a couple times because there’s been a few rides where just freezing cold but I have the same approach to overshoes so
Once that it’s too cold so even if it’s pouring down with rain I wear white shoes and white socks and I don’t I don’t compromise yes which is doesn’t make any sense because the white socks get ruined because they’re covered in dirty dirty water so if you’re bold
Enough to rock up to a wet cobbly ride in white bib shorts make fair play I’m I’m all for it what what what what bib shorts are they you wait for this undisclosed oh what was was that that brand um panal released it’s not thatas last not quality it’s certain
It’s certainly not Bal okay think uh Chinese eBay okay gotcha yeah the the QC is not quite there yet you know so the the see through factor is going to be pretty high I presume as in as in when they’re on and if you sat behind you there’s
Going to be a lot that we can we can s more of like a wrestler grade from the 90s than a cycl bib short yeah I’ll be on the Doom I’ll be on the Doom line at the back um I did see a pair that I did see a pair that
Map do but they look more fog they’re yeah called fog they’re more flesh colored than white this just call a spade a spade oh dear okay yeah that’s a that’s a ball move reminds me of that Colombian cycling team that got that had their K back remember that at the Red Top yeah
Yeah yeah brilliant absolutely brilliant as we’re talking about bibs Jordan are you more of a I guess traditionalist and only wear black or are you into the new like Olive and red colors and green colors that are coming out oh no look I’ll I’ll I’ll definitely dabble dabble
With anything I mean the kit that we’ve got at the minute is blue the last couple kits that we’ve done have been blue bibs um so yeah I mean I I definitely I used to you know we we’ve got a very close relationship with the Tacko so they’re known for their pretty
Loud and vibrant kits so um I definitely embrace the the color it’s only the last kind of few years that the the panel M and Universal colors of this world have brought this pastel color scheme in but I love it I’m I’m all for it I think
It’s great as long as that it matches that’s that’s all I ask I don’t ask for much that’s all I ask so did you get talking of attacka I can see you wearing the the cap a top does that mean you got you got the full Suite yes absolutely I’m pretty I’m
Pretty close with those guys so it’s um I think I mean as far as collabs go I think that was one of the best collabs that’s come out in a long time on the bike and off the bike I think they really nailed it what was your favorite
I guess com combo that they they because they brought out a couple of different colors do you have like a favorite color out of all of them I mean I’ve got a bit of a thing for olive green so olive green was that that checkered one was really
Nice yeah I like I we talking about um and Joe and I were talking about another cycling apparel brand that that’s just we can it will remain nameless but the collaborations they’ve done are potentially not at the same caliber as the attacker Kappa One okay yeah
Yeah yeah I mean it definitely kind of got uh the collab things is I mean you know I I love cycling apparel and and sort of the fashion side of it and uh the the collab thing is definitely it’s definitely kicked kicked on the last few years and it kind of I
Think it Waters it down if I’m really honest but I have to say the Kappa One was a bit of a breath of fresh air it wasn’t done for the sake of it it was really well thought through the entire collection was was great they had you
Know they the football side of it was was was was was brilliant so yeah it fun yeah it was it was really good I like the way they marketed it as well and I think like what you say if you do too many collabs it kind of wats down your
Brand but like kapper have never really been in the cycling space so it makes quite a lot of sense for them to do it and because they pushed the like football agenda yeah quite a lot of cyclists love football in this country so kind of hit hit Nostalgia and sort of
Like mixed Sports of like my my two loves kind of thing have come together talking of other two loves uh to to round out the show we usually ask gu do do you prefer watching Cobble races or high mountain races and what would you prefer riding so watching
Cobbles all day long oh man like I get so excited like I’m counting down the days like because it’s it’s January obviously we’ve had the tore down under on the TV but soon February we start to get the Belgium going on and then it’s and then it’s the classics and oh it’s
Just it’s the best time of year I love it I genuin it sounds really silly but I genuinely get a bit sad when they’re over it’s like oh yeah all we’ve got to look forward to is like the yearo where it’s I just I get such a such a buzz
About it um I do like s cobbles it’s [Â __Â ] hard excuse my language I don’t know if I can swear or not it’s very very very hard there no there’s no easy way to cycle Belgian cobbles or or North French cobbles um but I think riding I prefer mountains there’s a
There’s a freedom in the mountains there’s a you know um there’s a a and just time as well it just takes time and you can just sit sit and enjoy it yeah do you have like a favorite cobbled race oh Flanders like R Ronda van flandin without a doubt yeah without a doubt
Love it yeah same same here I think I think it’s same for you as and I think for for people who don’t get it like if if anybody gets the opportunity to go out there you have to understand like cycling in Belgium is bigger than football yeah so it’s just it’s
Ingrained in the culture and especially in that part of Belgium so it’s not like it’s just a race the whole whole country stops to watch this race so it feels like a festival it feels like the World Cup final and it’s such it’s just such a
Buzz um I mean we’re going and watch it on the Quant which is it goes up it’s the climb it goes up three times and there’s I don’t know I’m guessing here but feels like a 100,000 people all packing like you know and there’s they’ve got screens up they’ve
Got food you know definitely a bit of a festival feel but it’s just so exciting to watch yeah I mean it’s brilliant it’s absolutely when was the last time you were there yeah so 2019 um yeah that was Betty all yeah and I mean things have
Been so busy just I haven’t had a chance to get out uh this year if we do go it’ll be a bit of a last minute thing um but uh yeah yeah it’s great but So for anybody listening if you haven’t been go because you you you don’t pick it up on
The TV just what a unbelievable spectacle it is I think we’re doing rub Bay this year oh amazing yeah the 7th of April is my daughter’s birthday so she’ll be turning two and we’ve got friends that live they’ve got friends that live in liil so we I’ve got a place
To stay we can go there and then we’re going to see what happens afterwards my M was only supposed to be running a half marathon on the 6th and I was like oh it’s okay that it’s okay we won’t go to Flanders we won’t go to rub we try go to
Flanders and I asked her like last week um hey what’s the crack with this marathon on the 6th and she’s like how done any training I’m not doing the marathon I like okay cool can I can I go to fonders please please please I mean I haven’t done it we had
Some I mean a lot few of our guys go out every year and they go out on back in a day and they get to see like a fair bit of the race actually um but now you guys run on podcast you might be able to get some media
Passes who knows the dream the dream we’ll be there yeah well I’ll be yeah I don’t really drink beer but I imagine I’ll be I’ll be heavy shoulders was that weekend as cams deep in in the quad the CL he’ll be like the uh elant don’t he does the any shellfish it’ll be
Fine well look Jordan we’re not going to keep you much longer but thank you so much for being on our podcast like it’s been a you’re a firm favorite of most of the people that NJ and I know and have had the privilege to have on our podcast
Maybe it’d be good to tell us where can people find your great Cafe and um yeah well I mean firstly thank you very much for for having me on it’s been obviously great to spend a bit of time with you guys and just quite fun and um I’m G to
Go and buy a pair of white bib shorts I think um so where can you find us uh so we’re based in Isa two High Street Isa kt10 nrt or you can find us online Joc cycles.com or on Instagram at Z Cycles great well look um thank everybody for listening and we’ll see
You next time bye bye all Right
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