In recent years Rapha has been one of the most innovative, aspirational and disruptive businesses in cycling and Simon Mottram is the mastermind behind the brand. He took the company from a single idea, with the premise of how he felt about road cycling and how he wanted it portrayed. From a single jersey that wasn’t even ready in time for the company launch during in 2004, he build Rapha into the darling child of cycling brands that inspired an entirely new market of ‘micro apparel brands’ and showed many others of the cycling industry the power of storytelling and looking at the sport differently.

This is Simon’s remarkable story of how he built Rapha.

Indoor training has been around for longer than I can remember, but when Zwift came along in 2014 it changed the market forever. The company came into the world with bold ambitions, reimagined the space and what it could become, and has grown the market to a size that nobody could have imagined.

Some of the earliest pioneers in the indoor virtual world space were the likes of Computrainer and Tacx back in the late 90s, early 2000s. But they never really delivered on the promise of making indoor training much more enjoyable. They can’t be blamed for lack of vision or not trying – the technology wasn’t even there at the time. Social networks didn’t exist, multi player online games weren’t around, broadband speeds were slow and wireless protocols such as ANT+ and BTLE hadn’t been invented yet.

But, in 2010 when a gaming software developer in Southern California named Jon Mayfield began tinkering with his kinetic trainer and finding ways for it to communicate with a virtual world he built, he had no idea how big this would become.

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To most of us it would seem inconceivable to build one of the biggest bike brands in the world from absolutely nothing. Think of the capital it would require, the global distribution network, complex supply chains, logistics, manufacturing, sales, design … It’s a daunting endeavour and hard to imagine where you’d even begin.

Well, it didn’t start with all of those elements in mind. Roman Arnold, Canyon's founder, simply started cycling as a way of competing for recognition and approval from his father over his three brothers. His father sold bike parts at his weekend races to help pay for the hobby. And the rest is history.

He started from humble beginnings, got his hands dirty, educated himself, and grew Canyon to be one of the largest cycling brands on the planet through baby steps, hard work, diligent spending and most of all, a true passion for cycling.

For a brand that feels so young and progressive, some might mistake it for an overnight success. But as you’ve now learned it’s been over 45 years in the making, one small step at a time with the resources that Mr Arnold has had right in front of him.

This is Roman’s remarkable story of how he build Canyon Bicycles.