Classics and Giro, best testing ground
The racing season is well and truly underway. For many the sun has arrived, the weather’s improving (even here in north of England where I’m sat writing this). We’ve had the classics, the Tour of California, and now the Giro d’Italia is in full swing.
I like a huge amount of cyclists out there, will be balancing work, getting out on the bike and catching the racing on TV. You may be running a sly second tab on your work computer streaming the latest stage of the Giro or Tour of Norway, in awe of the pros ripping each other apart in some of the best cycling locations across the globe.
This viewing gets me excited, keen to hit the road and to get more miles in my legs and to top up that cyclist tan. The aim may be to replicate the actions of the professional, or at least try to. For me its nice to be finally able to pack away the winter kit (hopefully for the rest of the year) and dig out last years summer kit.
The winter kits seen loads of action, in some grim weather. Now its time for my Castelli Bodypaint shorts to yet again get used, admittedly with the addition of the excellent nano flex knee and arm warmers at the moment, it’s not that sunny yet to discard them. It’s products like this that put the so called cherry on top of a good ride out, comfortable performance apparel. It adds to the pleasure of just being able to focus on the ride.
Sure my shorts are now nearly two seasons old, but they’re still looking as close to new as can be expected and working just as good as day one. Like many amateur riders out there I like to look after my kit, especially my high end stuff like the Bodypaint shorts. I also like to keep an eye on whats new, what is in development and what trends are up and coming, and the first few months of the professional season is always a treat to see what could be coming the way of an amateur at some point in the near future.
For anyone who is a little eagled eyed or has their ear close to the ground they will know that the spring Classics and the Giro d’Italia are races where new kit gets its first airing, where sponsors test prototypes and get feedback, riders will be asked to hammer it across cobbles, the dusty roads in Italy or the sun drenched roads of California to see if prototypes live up to and exceed the previous models.
Castelli are no different in this, clothing needs testing by the best before being put in to production. Kinks need to be ironed out so us as a consumer can get the most out of kit that we spend our hard earned cash on. Garmin-Sharp and Castelli’s new partners in testing kit MTN-Qhubeka have been seen in a few new pieces in the early season. You have to be sharped eyed to catch this, that or a massive fan much like myself.
One such product is the all new Gabba. At the recent wet stages of the Giro, basically most of the first week, Garmin were spotted in a new bright blue Gabba, previously only black and fluro yellow were available. You could see it had a slightly new cut to it too. I’d heard rumours for a couple of months about a new version in the pipe line, I’d followed the right people on Instagram and had the sneak peeks of it via this media source, plus a few Facebook posts here and there had let on of other new pieces in development. As a fan of Castelli these little mini previews always fire the imagination, wondering what the guys at Castelli HQ are working on.
But the question is: how much stuff is actually in development at any one time at the Castelli offices in Italy. I was lucky enough to catch up with Steve Smith at the start of Paris-Roubaix, watch video at the top of this article, and pick his brains a little on what was coming and what Castelli have to do to help the guys tackle a race like Roubaix. I’ll admit he was a bit cagey with information, not letting on much but surface to say we can expect some exciting developments come the Tour De France by the sound of things.