What do the brands share, and what do they bring that is individual and unique?

Lawrence Midwood: In one way, for sure, both brands have a playful spirit. They exist in their respective ‘boxes’ but don’t feel comfortable conforming to that. Both cycling and climbing have a very serious, competitive ‘life and death’ core. That serious and highly competitive nature makes them incredible sports and areas of human achievement, but at the same time, it results in a very strict set of rules for what lifestyle brands can and can’t do. It became clear that both brands shared a love of respectfully playing with those ‘rules’ to create something new and interesting. The sense of rebellion became central to the collaboration.

Rémi Clermont: I’ve always admired how Topologie does things differently, and how it brings its outsider heritage into a fashion context. They don’t do fashion like a fashion brand would, they came with a different approach. Both brands mix their sport with wider influences and bring them into a fashion arena. Café du Cycliste has always been cycling first, but the outdoors above everything, and climbers really share our punk Forever Outsiders spirit.

What were the practical challenges you had to deal with?

RC: When I saw the Topologie range, I thought, wow, this would be perfect on a bike! There's so much connection between the brands that naturally it looks to me like Topologie’s stuff was designed for our world. it came very naturally that there is a natural connection between their product and what we need on the bike. As soon as we saw the Bottle Sacoche we thought if we were able to attach this on the bar, it would be about the best handlebar bag that we could imagine. Does it sound bad to say there weren’t big challenges?! We’ve never done a collaboration that was more fluid. There was kind of an idea ping-pong, and every time the ball was coming back, we were like, wow, this is amazing. So we were just hitting it harder back to them, and they were hitting harder… in the end we were all super happy.

How did you settle on the concept and themes for the collaboration – how did the Ventoux Race scenario come about?

Lawrence Midwood: Rebellion. Pure and simple. From the outset, it was clear this was not a product created for a specific event or athletic competition. But it would be functional and could be used competitively. Rather spontaneously, we hit upon the idea to imagine we were creating products for a rogue cycling race that would never exist. So rules could both be broken and respected at the same time. That imaginary rogue cycling event became central to the spirit of the collaboration and particularly the face and character of the products.

Rémi Clermont: Once we decided the collaboration would live within the cycling world, it was always going to be a race, not commuting – and, you know, Topologie produces a musette, which is a cycling bag with racing heritage. As for the location, Ventoux is iconic, and we have a store there. It’s somewhere I always come back to.

What is it about the 1990s aesthetic that appeals? Is there a nostalgia for this pre-digital time in the cutting edge of gravel racing and urban life?

Lawrence Midwood: I think this theme of rebellion led us to the late ’80s and ’90s graphic styles. It provided a time when people broke the rules of what cycling jerseys should look like. For us, everything merged. Cycling, BMX, Motocross. Graphically, it wasn’t clear what sport the graphics represented. That was very interesting for us, as working under that freedom allowed us to really play with the notion of what a competitive cycling jersey should look like. Both brands were very free with their identity, which also allowed for a lot of experimentation. We feel really happy with the result.

Rémi Clermont: We looked at the golden era of cycling and thought, well, that’s cool, but it’s been done, it’s not interesting anymore. As soon as we looked at the jerseys of the ’90s, we both said yes, that’s what we want. Remember the Z team? Castorama and Mapei? It’s such a creative era that hasn’t really been explored. Also, for someone like me, who’s fifty, the 1990s aren’t that old. The one major difference is that there was no online or digital. It’s a yesterday without the digital, which is quite sexy. Of course, if you’re twenty, it’s super old, but the fashions are definitely relevant.

Neither brand is driven purely by sport. Is this an interesting tension?

Lawrence Midwood: Restrictions and rules are very inspiring things if you are allowed to play or bend them. I think even in professional sports, the rule breakers gain huge confidence from what they achieve through a different approach. Being extremely faithful to a set of rules and competitive criteria for an event that would never actually take place provided a very free and rebellious creative environment. More of an energy than an actual tension. Or an extremely good tension, maybe?

Rémi Clermont: In my view, there's no such thing as sport and non-sport any more. Sport is not just going to the park to play football for two hours and then going back to your life. Sport is part of our customers lifestyles. It’s part of Topologie’s customer's lifestyles. So then, as a brand, it’s natural.

Are there any similarities between climbing and cycling that people might not realise?

LM: Topologie is built around its Wares System. An ever-expanding collection of ‘gear’ that allows people to build whatever product they want. It’s inspired heavily by climbers and their obsession with gear. Selecting what they need for any particular climb on any day. I think we have learned that for many people the gear you select for your ride or competition is a very similar obsession. Technically, what you need to perform, but also represents you and your style. So for us, the unifying element was an obsession with gear.