Rollapaluza History
Origins
In the winter of 1999 / 2000 London courier Caspar Hughes and colleagues struck upon a unique way of entertaining themselves that did not involve the cold, wind or rain....racing bikes in a pub!
Caspar and friends setup their first event at the Horseshoe pub in Clerkenwell, it was an instant hit with the courier community and became an annual event for the next seven years, raising funds for both the London Bike Messenger Association and The Bicycle Messenger Emergency Fund.
Rollapaluza still hold an annual event to support the community from which they were born. We spent the next few years developing the equipment and experimenting with the event format trying DJs, live bands and other features. Though at this stage Rollapaluza events were held only annually each one grew in stature and reputation.
Going formal
Rollapaluza was formalised as a company in 2007 after we realised that the Rollapaluza concept may well be enjoyed outside the circle of friends and associates. Over the next few years that was proved right, there are now more than 300 Rollapaluza events annually in the UK!
Rollapaluza were lucky enough to secure a university tour for a corporate client as one of their first bookings alongside events for the London Cycling Campaign and then fledgling cycle clothing brand Rapha.
As well as client work Rollapaluza also promoted "club style" events, open to the public with live DJs and competition, the most sucessful of these were the Kingspin events selling out many times over with "road-block" queues outside venues. We also promote our "National Series" an unofficial Rollapaluza National Championship which sees us visit towns up and down the UK, qualifying riders for a "Grand Finale" in London. These became so well known that Mark Cavendish, one of the UK's most successful cyclists slipped in to one of the heats to see what all the fuss was about!
This early period involved a huge amount of development including our current digital timing system and complete overhaul, redesign and upgrade of all equipment. We were very proud to also gain the sponsorship of Condor Cycles, London's famous independent bike brand who have ever since supplied Rollapaluza with specific bikes for all their rigs in both adult and children's sizes.
At the end of 2008 we were booked to attend the Salford Nocturne, the main feature (for us) was that Chris Hoy would be competing! Chris had been on a two week whirlwind publicity tour after winning gold in at the Beijing Olympics and this was literally the first bike race he competed in since his return! It was a huge event, Chris was great and the TV footage and photos were beamed worldwide, suddenly everyone knew about Rollapaluza!