Guest Post: Rudy Melo - The 5th Floor

For a year now, we've been a partner of The 5th Floor; an amateur cycling team with branches in both London and New York - in fact, you may well have seen them congregating of a morning outside our Marylebone or Fitzrovia stores.

The team is comprised of multi disciplined riders, bound together through common interests and sense of brotherhood who race and achieve results in road, track and cyclocross; all the while documenting their experiences. Alongside working full time jobs they go on some amazing rides, so we've invited their London kingpin, Rudy, to blog about one of them here. - Tim. 

This Sunday, four members of The 5th Floor team (Rudy, Matt, Russ and Leo) will be doing the Rapha 'Manchester to London' challenge. 

It's 220 long and arduous miles, straight down the back bone of England, starting at the Manchester velodrome and finishing at the Olympic Park in East London. It will be a very hard ride, but I know it will be an unique and exciting experience. While the distance will constitute both a physical and mental challenge it'll surely be worth the effort; the purpose of the event is to help raise funds for Ambitious About Autism.

Ambitious About Autism is a charity that provides enormous support to kids affected by autism, and to their families, working to improve services, awareness and understanding of the condition.

We are very much looking forward to this event, and contributing what we can. While it's not a race we will be timed to see how we got on. Over 12 hours in the saddle with mates and team mates alongside should prove to be a great day out.

We'll be honest -- we haven't planned how we are riding. There is no strategy. The only tactic is to take it easy and slow(ish) to save our legs and energy, so we can actually enjoy the ride and experience. Riding together will make things easier for all of us and we can help and motivate each other until the end.

We will be updating our site with a report after the event so stay tuned for that.

But before then, please head over to our pages on JustGiving and make a contribution to Ambitious about Autism: we're aiming to hit £750, but we need your help.

Rudy: https://www.justgiving.com/RudyMelo
Matt: https://www.justgiving.com/sir-mattoo-stanbury1

We would love to thank everyone who have supported us so far.

- Rudy

Where To Drink It: Rapha Cycle Club

We are pleased to announce that as of next week Rapha Cycle Club will be serving our Cult of Done Espresso as its house espresso. Situated in the heart of Soho, on the site of the old Regent Palace Hotel, Rapha’s flagship cycling club has become well known for showcasing quality coffee from a diverse range of international roasters since July 2012.

Regulars of Rapha will know that it’s regular race screenings and the offer of guided group rides has made it a hub for London’s vibrant cycling community. However, far from focusing solely on cycling, Rapha Cycle Club has become an important part of London’s coffee scene.

Alongside our Cult of Done Espresso, in coming weeks you will be able to try out a number of our single origin filters on Kalita, AeroPress and batch brew at Rapha Cycle Club.

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Rapha Cycle Club

Address
85 Brewer Street, London W1F 9ZN

Phone
020 7494 9831

Email
londoncycleclub@rapha.cc

Hours
Mon to Fri – 7.30am to 9pm
Sat – 8.30am to 7pm
Sunday and Bank Holidays – 10am to 6.30pm