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Headwear
Le Col Cycling CapLe Col Cycling Cap

Le Col Cycling Cap

7
by VecchioJo
UPDATED Thu, Oct 15, 2015 04:24

First Published Aug 11, 2014

1
£12.99

VERDICT:

7
10
Better quality and better made than your common or garden cap
Weight: 
36g
Contact: 
lecol.net
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Established by professional cyclist Yanto Barker - currently riding for Team Raleigh - Le Col produces a range of clothing that is firmly aimed at the performance end of the scale. It's unapologetically high-end kit but thankfully their cycling cap is one of their more affordable items in their wardrobe, beaten to their lowest priced piece of clothing only by their socks, by £2.

The Le Col cap is pretty much your standard issue cycling cap: cotton, with a four panel construction, elasticated rear and a peak. You know what a cycling cap is don't you? However the Le Col cap is made of a heavier cotton than your normal cheapo item, and it's also far better made. After quite some heavy ride rotation it hasn't started to dishevel like some other, more 'pocket-money' caps in the collection.

Like most cycling caps it only comes in the one size but unlike a lot of caps it hasn't shrunk a size or two after several washes to crush a brow and leave a café-embarrassing red line across the forehead. The elastic section out the back hasn't lost its grip either, which can happen on a more cursory cap.

Your Le Col cap colour options are in the cliché of Henry Ford, mostly black, but you do get to choose the colour of the stripe down the centre from blue, red, white or yellow. When it comes to further decoration the Le Col logo adorns each side of the cap and the underside of the peak.

Whatever reason you wear a cycling cap '' to keep the sweat, sun or rain out your eyes or just to look what you think is stylish '' then the Le Col cap does all of those. There's a price premium over a normal cap but it's a sturdier cotton, far better made and so holds its shape, looks and usefulness for considerably longer.

Verdict

Better quality and better made than your common or garden cap

road.cc test report

Make and model: Le Col Cycling Cap

Size tested: 2 caps sent in red and blue

Tell us what the product is for, and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?

Le Col say their cycling cap keeps the sun out your eyes on those brighter days whilst also keeping the rain off your eyes or glasses during the wetter days.

It's a cycling cap, it does all that. You might like the design and the available colours might match.

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?

100% cotton, one size, fitted.

Rate the product for quality of construction:
 
9/10

It's a tough, well made cap.

Rate the product for performance:
 
7/10

It does everything a cycling cap needs to do, but a little bit nicer.

Rate the product for durability:
 
9/10

Sturdier cotton and construction mean the Le Col cap is still keeping its good looks.

Rate the product for weight, if applicable:
 
5/10

The heavier weight cotton makes it heftier than some other caps, in a good way.

Rate the product for comfort, if applicable:
 
8/10

Well fitted and didn't shrink or lose elasticity.

Rate the product for value:
 
6/10

Almost double what some people charge for a cotton cap but it will last longer.

Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose

It's a cycling cap, it kept sweat off, sun out and provided somewhere for rain drops to collect.

Tell us what you particularly liked about the product

It was comfortable, it didn't shrink.

Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product

Nothing. That stripe down the middle thing might be getting a little tired now, to be deliberately picky, and the blue one looks particularly Sky.

Did you enjoy using the product? Yes.

Would you consider buying the product? Yes. But then I do have a bit of a thing for cycling caps.

Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes.

Overall rating: 7/10

About the tester

Age: 47  Height: 180cm  Weight: 73kg

I usually ride: It varies as to the season.  My best bike is: The one I\'m on at the time

I've been riding for: Over 20 years  I ride: Most days  I would class myself as: Experienced

I regularly do the following types of riding: road racing, cyclo cross, general fitness riding, fixed/singlespeed, mtb, Fun

 

Le Col Cycling Cap
Le Col 2014
Le Col
VecchioJo

Jo Burt has spent the majority of his life riding bikes, drawing bikes and writing about bikes. When he's not scribbling pictures for the whole gamut of cycling media he writes words about them for road.cc and when he's not doing either of those he's pedaling. Then in whatever spare minutes there are in between he's agonizing over getting his socks, cycling cap and bar-tape to coordinate just so. And is quietly disappointed that yours don't He rides and races road bikes a bit, cyclo-cross bikes a lot and mountainbikes a fair bit too. Would rather be up a mountain.

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1 comments

Avatar
KirinChris | 10 years ago
0 likes

I'm also a cap aficionado, partly by virtue of not being a helmet wearer.

Have you tried the Chapeau caps? How would you say this compares to them particularly in terms of size and grip?

I get what you mean about the slightly flimsier, lighter caps that are a lot cheaper. It's usually the elastic that loses grip and then the cap feels like it's about to come off on a descent. That's the usual reason I have to retire caps.

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