Galibier Mistral Foul Weather Jacket

Galibier's Mistral foul weather jacket will cover off nearly all of your winter rides if you like to work up a sweat. It's windproof, waterproof, breathable, close fitting and exceptional value. For me, only the pockets let it down.

• Pros: Warm, windproof, waterproof, works well on faster rides, good visibility
• Cons: Pockets are high

Fully black winter jackets aren't always that visible on murky days, and if you wear full neon and it's sunny some enterprising defence lawyer will probably claim your jacket was camouflage. So the best bet is probably a mixture of the two; the Mistral has plenty of neon on the back and the arms, as well as a substantial reflective panel on the pockets. The zip piping on the front is fluorescent yellow too, but other than that and the embroidered logo, the front is black.

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It's a decent-looking top, all told. The fit is for road riding: tight sleeves, short front, dropped back. It's excellent on the bike, with very little flapping even at high downhill speeds, and plenty of length in the arms even for an ape like me.

The Mistral has a three-layer membrane with a waterproof rating of 8,000mm and a breathability rating of 10,000gr/m2/day. That's both more breathable and more waterproof than the previous version, and it's also treated with a Durable Water Repellent (DWR) coating to help it shed water. The seams aren't taped, and it's not as waterproof as a full hardshell, but it's plenty waterproof to be a good choice on rides where you know you're going to get wet, especially if it's cold and showery and you don't want to be pulling a rain cape on and off. On a long ride some water will make it inside, normally around the shoulders. But not much.

The material is an excellent windblock too. It's not especially thick – although it's thicker than Castelli's Gabba and other full-race softshells – but it is very warm. I wore it with a Nalini long sleeve baselayer and that was enough clothes for temperatures down to not far off zero, if I was doing a bit of work on the bike. With a thick winter baselayer I could probably ride until it really wasn't safe to do so any more, well below freezing.

If it warms up later in the ride then the Mistral is okay if you get a bit sweaty, doing a decent job of not getting too clammy. You can open the full length zip for a bit of ventilation too. Galibier claims it'll be comfortable up to 15°C which I'd say is probably a bit high if it was sunny, although on a rainy day at that kind of temperature it'd be ideal.

If there's a downside to the Mistral, for me it's the pockets. They're nice and deep, and they have mesh bottoms to drain water if it's torrential out. However, they're a full 15cm from the bottom of the jacket. Some of that's the dropped tail, but they're still about 7cm above the seam that would be the bottom of the jacket without the tail. That and the deep design means I found it difficult to access them. It wasn't impossible, and my flexibility isn't the best after breaking one shoulder and freezing the other, but it was noticeably harder than other winter tops. On the plus side, they're nice and stretchy and you can fit a ton of stuff in them.

Overall, though, the performance is excellent. If you like to go out in the winter and ride hard, this jacket is ideal: it'll cover off 90 per cent of the rides you do. If you're out at a more leisurely pace when it's cold, it's still a good choice for dry rides, although you might want something a bit warmer if it's raining and you're not generating a lot of heat.

> Buyer's Guide: 14 of the best winter cycling jackets

So, if the Galibier was competing on an even playing field with the likes of Castelli's Gabba and Sportful's Fiandre Extreme then it'd certainly be worth a look. You can have three of these for the price of one Fiandre, though, and still have change for cake and coffee. So in terms of value, it's a steal. The only thing that really comes close is dhb's Aeron Hybrid Softshell which is less waterproof.

For the performance, at this price, you can't really go wrong. Fix the pockets and it's full marks next time.

Verdict

Top performance from a great winter jacket that's fantastic value