Cafe du Cycliste Adele Cobalt Blue Thermal Bib Shorts

Café du Cycliste's Adèle thermal bib shorts are warm and comfortable with an excellent Elastic Interface seatpad, but they're very expensive.

• Pros: Warm, high-quality seatpad
• Cons: High price

These shorts are made from a thermal fleece fabric (49% polyamide, 35% polyester, 16% elastomer) that provides plenty of warmth in cold conditions. Worn with leg warmers, these will do the job right down to the point where you need to switch to something with windproof panels (that's about 4 or 5°C, although you might be entirely different). The material is breathable and stretchy but you don't get as many panels as with some options out there. On the plus side, that means there are few seams to affect comfort, but it also means the shaping and fit aren't exceptional.

> Buy these online here

The fabric has a DWR (durable water repellent) treatment that, for reasons best known to itself, Café du Cycliste doesn't advertise. I'm just back from a ride where the roads were wet and 'orrible and there was some mist in the air, but it wasn't actually raining. The water sprayed up from the road didn't soak through, it just beaded up and rolled off. Proper rain will get in, but you get a useful amount of water repellency here.

The legs are cut long, reaching down to just above my knees, so those hard working muscles are completely covered. The elasticated grippers are fairly narrow, the idea being not to compromise the shorts' thermal qualities, with a grippy silicone band inside to help them stick, and they work very well either on your skin or leg warmers.

The CyTech Elastic Interface seatpad puts in a great performance. Both the depth and density vary between different sections to give you effective cushioning without too much bulk, along with lots of flexibility and breathability. It kept me perfectly comfortable throughout even very long rides.

The lightweight mesh bib section is highly breathable too, and the straps hold everything in place without you ever really noticing them, which is exactly what you want.

Reflective tabs on the side of each leg flash brightly in car headlights while the Café du Cycliste branding is far less obvious, limited to just one logo printed on the front of the right leg.

As well as this cobalt blue version, the Adele shorts are available in khaki and dark aubergine.

> Buyer's Guide: The best waterproof cycling clothing

Although these shorts have a lot going for them, I can't get on board with the price. Santini's Eureka thermal bib shorts have an RRP of £119.99, Castelli's Omloop thermal bib shorts are £120 and Lusso's 2-Zero thermal bib shorts are £69.99. Granted, Rapha's Classic thermal bib shorts are nearly as pricey at £170.

The Adèle shorts put in a good, solid performance and they feature a high-quality seatpad, but they don't do enough to convince me to pay £175.

Verdict

Warm and stretchy winter shorts with added water repellency, but they don't do enough to justify the high price