Rapha and EF Pro Cycling have announced they are parting ways after seven years, bringing one of cycling’s most distinctive partnerships to an end.
Since 2019, the collaboration has ‘disrupted’ the world of cycling, with the alternative racing calendar and headline-grabbing jerseys, including the famous duck.
Rapha’s CEO Fran Millar said that ending the partnership with EF Pro Cycling was one of the early decisions she made after joining the company last year.
“As a customer and fan of the sport I felt that relationship had gotten tired,” Millar said at a press event today.
Millar said Rapha will aim to get back to the “forefront of the sport” and that she doesn’t believe the WorldTour is the only way to do that, especially with the growth of multidisciplinary cycling.
“For Rapha we have to be doing things that are disruptive, we have to be doing things that are different. We have to be challenging and pioneering again. Doing what everyone does, in a way that everyone does it, has never been what Rapha was built on,” added Millar.
EF Pro Cycling founder and CEO Jonathan Vaughters said: “We made some noise, and brought new people into our sport along the way. To me, that is the hallmark of a successful partnership.”
Beyond the WorldTour
Rapha and EF Pro Cycling moved beyond the typical WorldTour events, with the team's athletes taking on races such as Unbound Gravel and the Leadville Trail 100 MTB.
Much of the partnership's success outside WorldTour races is down to one athlete in particular, Lachlan Morton.
The Australian has taken on many challenges since the partnership began, which were captured in the Gone Racing documentary series between 2019 and 2022.
One of Morton’s biggest challenges was the Alt Tour, which saw him cycle the 2021 Tour de France route unsupported, beating the peloton to Paris by five days.
This year, Morton set a new record from Auckland to Wellington in New Zealand. The feat was documented in a film that Rapha later issued an apology over because it neglected to mention one of the previous record holders.
Kit collaborations
The partnership made EF Pro Cycling one of the sport’s most recognisable teams through its bold kit designs, particularly at the Giro d’Italia, where the team had to ride in special kit so its typical pink didn’t clash with the leader’s jersey.
While there were often interesting designs for the Giro d’Italia – including a kit that used excess fabric and another one that celebrated people from different nations – the most eye-catching was the 2020 kit designed in collaboration with the skateboarding brand Palace.
The kit grabbed people’s attention thanks to its psychedelic patterns and one cap-wearing duck, which also informed the design of the team’s time-trial helmets.
Rapha and EF Pro Cycling also collaborated for the 2022 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift to mark the return of the women's race after 30 years.
Racing success
Although EF Pro Cycling and Rapha made a name for themselves through off-beat challenges and loud kit, the partnership has still seen success in professional road races.
The team has secured stage victories at all three Grand Tours, as well as wins at the Tour of Flanders and Paris–Roubaix Femmes.
EF Pro Cycling has had notable success in 2025. Magdeleine Vallieres recently won the women's world championships road race in Kigali, Rwanda, while Ben Healy finished third in the men’s race.
This year, Healy became the first Irishman to wear the yellow jersey at the Tour de France since Stephen Roche in 1987, and finished the race in ninth position overall.
So what’s next for Rapha and EF Pro Cycling?
The end of the partnership means Rapha is leaving the WorldTour for the time being, according to the brand’s CEO, Fran Millar.
“EF Pro Cycling has a unique spirit which we will always respect and champion. But we have made the decision to broaden our horizons and increase our impact across other, progressive areas of elite and participation cycling. This does not mark the end of our support for the world’s most talented and charismatic riders. The next chapter begins now,” says Millar.
Vaughters says: “It’s an exciting time to be at EF Pro Cycling and we can’t wait to keep building on one of our most successful seasons to date.”
EF Pro cycling is yet to confirm who its next kit sponsor will be, and the team had not responded to BikeRadar’s request for comment at the time of publishing.
One final limited-edition collection
In keeping with their partnership, Rapha and EF Pro Cycling haven’t missed the opportunity to release a limited-edition kit collection to mark their parting of ways.
Available to Rapha RCC members from Thursday 9 October and to the general public from Friday 10 October, there will be three designs available.
The Crashed the Party kit uses the signature pink colour and is described as a fusion of the “best-loved” Rapha and EF Pro Cycling kit designs.
The Changed the Game jersey marks some of the team’s biggest victories, and the Back to Blackout design “closes the loop on the partnership, echoing the original blackout jersey worn by the first Rapha and EF Pro Cycling team in Australia, 2019”.
