Craft Active Extreme X Round Neck Long Sleeve Women’s Baselayer

£45.00

The fit is intended to be snug and sizing comes up true to the chart. There is ample length in both the sleeves and the body, with no riding up when you tuck the vest into tights or shorts, so the lower back stays well protected. There's a chance that some women may find the sleeve and/or body length too generous but a bit too much length is always better in our experience.

While the vest really hugs the figure, the fabric is silky smooth with loads of give; it moves with the body well while riding and will accommodate all body shapes. It's so soft and supple that you are not even really aware that you are wearing it.

There is a subtle but effective female cut in the panelling. Yes, there are seams here, but they are all flatlock and you really don't sense any of them.

While Craft gives this a temperature range of -5ºC to +10ºC, our testing ranged from 3ºC to 12ºC but that is still a great amount of versatility for the average British winter. The base layer has been toasty warm with zero moisture build-up and has been consistently bone dry at the end of rides.

All of this performance is coming from a good percentage of recycled, eco-friendly fabrics. The 39% Coolmax content is doing a lot of the quick-drying work, supported by 40% Seaqual, a polyester made from recycled, marine plastics. Craft claims that the remaining polyester is also recycled. The three fabrics combine to give a ribbed, waffle-like knit.

This base layer is genuinely difficult to fault.