June 06, 2019 (Montréal, QC) – As the cycling season gets underway MV Canada, the distributor of Castelli, Sportful and Karpos, along with other partners, kicked things off with a fun event, On Prend Larue, and the launch of their new showroom at the new Montréal Café LaRue et Fils with complimentary food, refreshments and a live DJ to keep the good times rolling.

The event also served as an opportunity for brands to showcase their latest products with Castelli, Sportful and Karpos present at the event with an amazing showroom, Spark Sports Nutrition providing free samples of the newest innovations in sports nutrition and 3T, Rotor and Enve presenting their newest bikes and tech to attendees.

The event kicked off with a test ride of 3T’s gravel performance machine, the Exploro, and Sportful’s new SuperGirara collection for gravel enthusiasts. The route took our hearty group up and around Montréal’s famous Mont Royal and then we returned for a meet-and-greet at the cafe where 100+ guests shared a glass and celebrated the start of the cycling season.

The Exploro is essentially three bikes in one, depending on your tire/wheel selection. When equipped with road wheels and tires, it serves as a fast aero road bike but when fitted with up to 2.1” mountain bike tires, the bike can handle the roughest of off-road terrain. With a medium goldilocks tire, the bike is perfect for rides containing tarmac and gravel alike.

The secret to the Exploro’s versatility for adventure and performance may also lie in its Squaero tube technology. The science behind the square shape is an aero downtube that is wide enough to catch the airflow coming off the big front tire in conventional dimensions (i.e round) would have to be 150-200mm deep, causing far too much surface drag. Hence, the tubes have been squared off to keep aero performance with a 50x75mm cross section that is also close to perfect for strength and stiffness. Put to the test in the wind tunnel, a muddy Exploro with 40mm knobby gravel tires and 2 water bottles was found to be faster than the equivalent clean round tube bike is with 28mm slick road tires and without bottles.

After riding the bike for an hour, the claims were confirmed. The bike was extremely rewarding while powering up gravel sections and also quite forgiving when the road ahead became less so. On the roads ridden to and from Mont Royal, the bike’s aerodynamic design was fully felt as once up to speed, the bike cut through the wind with relative ease, even with large 47mm tires on it.

The test ride also provided the perfect opportunity to check out Sportful’s new SuperGirara, part of its gravel collection. The jersey and bibs both feature an ergonomic pattern and compression fabrics ensure a close fit and no wasted watts while also keeping comfort in mind for long days behind bars. The jersey is designed with ultralight mesh laser cut sleeves to eliminate seaming and the bibs contain anatomic mesh lie flat bib straps for all day comfort. A personal favourite was the mesh pockets on the side and back of the SuperGirara bibsorts, giving just that extra bit of storage on days jersey pockets alone just won’t cut it.

On the ride, the SuperGiara kit was extremely comfortable. A personal peeve of mine are bib shorts that ride up after only riding for a few minutes but the SuperGiara shorts snuggly fit and stayed in place for the duration of the ride. The DMS chamois was especially great for sections of single track, as it perfectly suited the position a rider is in while riding trail. The straps of the bib shorts were comfortable, didn’t rub and breathed quite well underneath the jersey. The kit’s pockets were super handy too as between the three jeresy pockets and the pockets in the bib shorts, everything needed for the ride was easily carried.

After the conclusion of the ride, the event got underway and guests got the chance to check out what the attending brands had to present while enjoying delicious food and drinks provided by Siboire or a freshly brewed coffee from Café LaRue et Fils.

Included in the festivities was a “your favourite custom jersey contest” where guests had to pick their favourite kit from a board of 100 custom Castelli kits for a chance to win a gift bag of Castelli clothing. The night wrapped up with a toast from brand rep, Marc-Andre Diagle, before everyone parted for the evening. In the end, On Prend LaRue was a welcoming success and we are extremely happy to have been a part of it.