Gore C7 Race Jersey

The super-lightweight C7 Race Jersey from Gore costs an awful lot per gram but offers great warm-weather performance.

• Pros: Super-stretchy race fit, high-quality performance fabrics
• Cons: Sizes come up small, the price comes up large

If you insist on the best of everything, and you are confident in your body shape, the C7 Race Jersey may well be on your shopping list for this summer's holiday riding.

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Gore describes the C7 Race as, 'for racing, high intensity training, or the biggest ride of your summer'. Gore even corralled the mighty Fabian Cancellara to help with the design. While it's not clear what he contributed, it seems to me that if you're a good enough rider to benefit from Spartacus designing your riding kit for you, you must be taking your riding seriously. Actually, if you are that good, you're probably on a team and wearing whatever the DS throws at you.

Most of my rides, it's fair to say, take place at the kind of intensity where I have plenty of spare wind to say hello to the horses and cows along the way. (I suspect Cancellara hardly ever does this, and certainly never during a time trial.) It's equally true that the vast majority of my rides take place well below the minimum 16°C intended for this top. Given that the C7 turned up for testing here in County Durham in February, my main problem with it is that it just never quite seems to be the right day to wear it.

However, the February heatwave (remember that?) did bring some shorts-and-short-sleeves conditions even to this neck of the woods, and I genuinely was out in full-summer kit on two days of the month. Easter also brought warm conditions when the C7 Race came into its own.

In such conditions, toiling sweatily up Crawleyside Bank out of Weardale, the C7 reveals its qualities. The super-close, stretchy fit makes it a very efficient garment to wear. Nothing flaps or rubs, heat and moisture transfer are excellent. The fabric is so soft and well-fitted, you scarcely notice it.

Because the fit is so slim, I found it better not to wear a baselayer, which would result in uncomfortable and unsightly wrinkling; a close-fitting sleeveless vest might be OK. Even with just the one layer and in spite of Gore rating the C7 as only 1 out of 5 for windproofing, I didn't feel under-dressed on descents, provided the breeze was a mild one. Otherwise, a light windproof fits easily into one of the three very accommodating back pockets. (The middle pocket also has a securely-zipped key pocket riding on it.)

I was a little annoyed at the sizing. 'Our sizes may run a little smaller than you expect,' says Gore on its website, as though this was something beyond the company's control. My Large was too tight for me, particularly under the arms and at the end of a long, stodge-fuelled winter. Guys, here's a tip: all those jerseys labelled 'Large', take the labels out and sew ones in that say Medium. Repeat throughout the range.

While the sizing and particularly the pricing suggest Italian (and the label says 'Engineered in Germany'), the manufacture is Chinese. There's nothing particularly wrong with that, as the quality is good, though I have seen tidier stitching on some of the internal seams.

The fabric is remarkably robust for such a light garment, stretching generously in all directions. Under the arms, a ventilated fabric aids the cooling. The waist grip is a separate strip, broad enough to provide a secure fit.

At the sleeves, there's a stitched-over cuff (again, not the tidiest I've seen) and a half-diameter silicone strip for grip.

Even on my too-small sample the sleeve length was good, reaching almost to the elbow, so there was good coverage for an arm warmer.

A full-length zip, a must-have for any summer top for me, is present and correct and comes complete with a draught-baffle which is good in a top of this light weight. Gore makes a point about the shaped collar at the back of the neck. At first I wasn't too sure about this – it looked like the collar had got accidentally rolled under – but in use it was comfortable and eliminated any tendency for the collar to press at the Adam's apple.

As for value... Without scouring the whole backlog, I'm guessing it's one if not the most expensive jersey we've tested on road.cc. Some have come close: the no-longer-available Louison Bobet, which ticked many of the same boxes as the Gore C7 Race, was £145, and the Nalini AHS Mortirolo £155. But two summers ago I tested the Santini Tono Short Sleeved Jersey which is a similarly summer-centric, lightweight top. While the Gore seems more robust, it's also more than twice the price.

> Buyer's Guide: 17 of the best summer cycling jerseys

So, given the design brief, I thought the C7 Race did the job very well. If you're off to hot climes for your summer holidays, the kind of destination where you get off the plane and realise instantly that everything else you've brought to ride in will be too warm, this is the kind of garment you need. The flip-side is that it necessarily lacks versatility. You can layer it up, as you can with any other jersey, but in that case you might as well wear something considerably cheaper, especially as nobody will be able to see it.

Verdict

Racy fitting, soft and comfortable top for hot weather, ideal for the wealthy pro currently between contracts...