Club cycling’s entering a new era where no longer do you need to sign up to a 100+ member club to feel part of a club. Those with the drive and the want are in a better position than ever to create their own union. For over a year I hatched a plan, invited some friends and launched OCTÄVE in late 2017.

The name, inspired by the French professional cyclist Octave Lapize—three times winner of Paris-Roubaix, three times French national champion and one-time winner of the Tour de France before his enrolment in the French air force in WWI lead to him being shot down and killed over France. His first name— transformed into something we could own with the simple use an umlaut about the a—was always intended to just be a name, and not an homage to a great cyclist. For us it represented more, some of us with a musical background focused on that, those with a more Germanic background focused on umlaut whilst other with a more cyclocross background took inspiration from the legend of Octave Lapize being the first person to shoulder a bike and run with it, but ultimately we just wanted it to be a name, with no background and no sotry, something we could own.

I worked closely with our kit manufactures on finalising the kit, with each garment having a hidden detail specific to each rider and detail to represent the first every batch of team kit. We’ve been fortunate also to work with Stayer on some team issue wheels designed to represent the best of Stayer and OCTÄVE visually and a one-off prototype team issue bike that was raced at the European Single Speed Champs 2018.

Featuring photography by David Morgan & Calvin Chung.