Bicycle Line Monza women's short sleeve jersey

Bicycle Line's Women's Short Sleeved Monza Jersey is a good addition to any summer wardrobe. It offers decent breathability, exceptional comfort and nice styling for a palatable price.

• Pros: Lightweight and breathable
• Cons: Will swing round if pockets are unevenly weighted; can be awkward to get stuff out of pockets

The Monza is seriously lightweight, clearly intended for hot weather. The front and side panels are made of MITI Full Moon fabric, a micro perforated material that is highly breathable. There's a strip of it on the rear too. It goes a long way to ensuring that heat can escape and air can flow through to assist cooling.

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With temperatures struggling to break 20 degrees during the testing period, I am not convinced I've used it in its best environment – more often than not I had an undervest on. Even with this, though, I never noted moisture build up at the front.

There is also a strip of mesh above the base hem at the rear, which works well to stop overheating that can happen if you have a long tail baselayer covering the lower back.

The lateral rear panels are not quite so effective with moisture management; they tend to retain moisture. Without a baselayer, this creates a clinginess that not everyone will be happy with. It isn't as noticeable as with the Ninfea that I recently tested – it's a much smaller proportion of the entire jersey that is not performing as well as the rest.

The Monza certainly scores full marks on the comfort front. It has a 'barely there' property; the fabric is exceptionally soft and stretchy. It's a great feel, but I think it's at the expense of longevity; the non-MITI elements of the jersey are already looking more transparent than they did four weeks ago. For anyone who read my review of the Ninfea, I apologise for repeating myself. While the fabric is showing no signs of pilling or bobbling, the rear lateral panels have definitely 'thinned' since the start of testing. Since much of this jersey is transparent, it's of less consequence than it was with the Ninfea. However, signs of thinning after only five weeks isn't ideal.

The most substantial material used to make the jersey appears on the sleeves. Despite this fabric being thicker and slightly less stretchy than the other panels, there's no sensation of excessive compression around the upper arm. When you take the jersey off it doesn't leave any impression. The sleeve cuffs are clean cut and lined with silicone dimples. They grip sufficiently well to both skin and arm warmers without dragging to the extent of not wanting to budge. They are noticeably longer than most, purposefully to improve aerodynamics. The sleeves are not showing the wear that I mention above.

The elasticated baseline hem is lined at the rear with a rather ineffective strip of silicone. If you put anything substantial in the side pockets without consideration to balancing the weight, the jersey will swing round.

Although the pockets themselves are generous, I had an issue with the narrow elastic that sits along their top line. It's the same as that on the Ninfea – things get trapped under it easily and extracting items from the pocket is not as easy as you might want it to be while riding.

Bicycle Line claims that the fabric offers 30+ UPF protection and I didn't get burnt while wearing it, but then I haven't been abroad in the recent weeks to test it...

Other features all tick the relevant boxes: effective reflective strips, a sturdy zip, a low collar perfect for hot weather and some reinforcing tabs at pocket joints to prevent premature wear on the main body of the jersey.

As well as black, the Monza is available in pink (Fuchsia) and green (Militar Green). While the stripes on the front and down the rear are pretty common in terms of aesthetics, the quirky sleeve design is quite unusual.

The Monza is not the cheapest jersey on the market. I feel that I will keep on harping back to Funkier's two offerings under £45 this year – the Prima Pro and the Mataro Pro. Neither really boast the race fit or aerodynamic features of the Monza, though.

> Read more road.cc reviews of women's cycling jerseys here

The Castelli Anima that Sarah reviewed recently is similarly specced and a little cheaper than the Monza. However, it's quite a bit less than the Alé PRR Strada Jersey, which Ashia tested last year – that's now £110 at rrp.

Overall, the Monza is an exceptionally comfortable jersey that will help keep you cool on the hottest of days. While there are cheaper options out there, and it does have a couple of minor niggles, I'd say it's not overpriced.

Verdict

Stylish, comfortable and does a decent job of keeping you cool on the hottest of days