At Kalas we serve a diverse variety of customer types, who have at least one thing in common - they all love cycling and want to create their own custom designed cycle clothing. These include individuals, small groups of friends, clubs, teams, companies, charities, and events. In our series Customer Stories, some of them tell us how we helped them achieve their objectives and highlight the aspects of Kalas’ service that they benefitted from the most.
If you listen to Iain Hastings’ life story, you can hardly imagine the Scotsman is only 35 years old. Coming from a family of bakers he first chose a career in engineering in the oil industry, then followed his passion for hospitality and gastronomy to climb the ranks of the culinary world, to completing several IronMans, to now hosting guests in the winter and summer time in the French Alps. TreacleVelo is Iain’s brainchild where he combines his own interest in endurance sports with taking care of guests in sports, hospitality and of course, gastronomy.
“I did well in school but found it very boring,” he goes back in time. “I started working in kitchens when I was in school but went in another direction with a traineeship in the oil industry. My parents weren’t too thrilled that I would become a chef, but engineering also wasn’t my thing. I like languages, cultures, travelling and meeting people. I left the oil industry and travelled the world consulting in kitchens: from the 3* Frantzèn in Stockholm to Monterrey in Mexico. That way I could combine all my favourite things.”
After achieving those feats in his early 30s there was more change coming. To find more balance after the demanding life in the kitchen, Hastings made another radical change.
“I achieved everything I wanted but it was an unhealthy environment where I smoked 40 cigarettes a day, drank a lot and was overweight. Via a YouTube rabbit hole, I got to know the PatagonMan, one of the hardest Ironman triathlons in the world. There was never an epiphany that I would do triathlons. It was all so alien to anything I had ever done before. It’s actually silly because I don’t necessarily love running, swimming or cycling but it gives me structure in life, and it results in tangible progress.”
This was in February of 2023. He told himself he would try to get into the PatagonMan but since only a very limited number of participants are allowed to start, there is a draw. Never did he expect he would get in the first try but that was exactly what happened.
“When I received the email, I threw my cigarettes in the bin the same day. I had to teach myself how to swim, hadn’t ridden a bike since I was a kid and I couldn’t even run. My first running and riding outside was in May of that year. As preparation I ran six marathons in six weeks in six countries and did a few IronMans, including the one in Wales which is one of the hardest. There is probably some ADHD in me plus an addictive-prone personality,” he laughs.
In December 2023 he travelled to Chile. Freezing water, riding through the Andes mountains and only a few hundred people who ever finished it. He did finish PatagonMan. Hastings doesn’t know what it is he found there but it scratched an itch. It gave him something.
“I was keen to share the feeling triathlons and endurance sports gave me,” he explains. “In the winter we already ran a successful ski company where I trained young chefs in our hospitality business. I thought we could also do something good in the summer in Morzine-Avoriaz and that’s how Treacle came about. We wanted to offer small scale catered holidays with cycling, running and good swimming facilities in an Olympic pool or a lake.”
They never rushed into it. It was never meant as a big operation because the sport is expensive enough, the Scotsman added. The first year, in 2023, they invited some friends.
“We wanted to work with some good companies, with good bikes and cycling kit but nothing too big. We don’t want world domination. Quality over quantity because the winter is already busy enough for us. The first summer we got some good feedback on what triathletes and cyclists need because we only knew skiing up to that moment. Hospitality is the same but there are tweaks because the sport is different. The next winter we created a website, did some marketing and in 2024 it was time for the real paying customers instead of the test group with friends and journalists the year before.”
The 2025 season was the first fully operational summer for TreacleVelo. They operate from Sunday to Sunday and help the clients with everything: from their transfer from Geneva airport, to on the road assistance to lots of good food of course. There is yoga, hot tubs and cold plunge plus a big communal room for dinner and team meetings. Hastings is back in the kitchen training young chefs, but he is also training for his next big triathlon in Wales which was on September 21.
“We have training groups who arrive together, but we also auction off rooms for charity. That resulted in a mixed group one week. They all liked it so much that they booked again for next year. They didn’t even know each other before,” he smiles. “Thats why I like here. It’s all about doing nice things together, supporting our guests on their rides but also provide good food from all the places I worked in my life.”
Treacle supports their own team of athletes and for those athletes they needed to provide cycling and triathlon clothing. Kalas came onto their radar.
“Our Treacle athletes, and I, wear the Kalas cycling kit and trisuits. We gave Josh at Kalas UK our company style sheet and he came up with some designs. We tweaked and refined it. The turnaround was very fast, and the quality is great. It was a very human interaction. They showed genuine interest in our business, and the outcome was great. That familiar interaction and ready-to-help-mentality won us over because that’s how we operate too. In the future we also want to offer our guests our custom clothing, but we take it all step by step.” Hastings adds.
TreacleVelo is a young business. The growth is organic with training groups or individuals enjoying the personal service and good food, sharing the experience with friends, and then come back for next year.
“We want to take care of people because that is what we do best. We do not want to be Scrooge McDuck swimming in money. We want to meet nice people, give them good, nutritional food and a good time. We also want to help the community here with our support for events like the Montriond-Morzine-Avoriaz triathlon or helping charities with free packages. We want to work with partners who share the same vision and just create something good together. That’s the way forward for us and it feels the right path in all aspects,” Hastings concludes.
