Giro Espada E70 women's road shoes

I've tested past incarnations of Giro's Espada road shoes and loved them, so I was interested to see how things had developed three years down the line.

Find Giro Espada E70 women's road shoes here
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There are many more women's high end road shoes available now than there were then, so the new Espada E70s are up against some stiff – ahem - competition.

Straight out of the box, my first impressions weren't that favourable, with the matt white colour not really being to my personal taste and giving the shoe quite a blocky look.

The shoe is available in black/silver and also hi viz yellow, but neither of these is available in the UK apparently.

Colour aside, these are well-featured shoes, clearly aimed at demanding riders looking for high performance.

The uppers are perforated microfibre for breathability and fasten with two Velcro straps and a ratchet. The footbeds are well-shaped and they come with additional arch support for fine tuning of fit. The outsole is made from Easton EC70 carbon with replaceable heel pads, and they are extremely light.

Having worn the 2012 Espadas for pretty much every demanding ride I've done, on the grounds that I found them superbly comfortable, I was slightly dismayed to find that although the main body of the shoe felt very similar – wrapping around the foot like a glove without squeezing or gaps - the rear heel cup on the E70s felt broader. Even cinched right in with the ratchet, there was movement at the heel for me.

Fit is an incredibly personal thing, but the relatively low down position of the ratchet makes it quite tricky to secure the heel easily without reducing circulation and squeezing the tendons at the front of the foot.

They were light and stiff on the bike, with excellent power transfer into the pedal strokes, while remaining comfortable for long periods of time, particularly the insoles even without fine-tuning, but I did find my heel prone to lifting.

The sizing is a shade on the small side, but half sizes are available if you shop around, which is useful.

At this price, the Espada E70s are competing with the higher end of performance women's road shoes, and as such come out as an accessible and effective choice, but don't necessarily compare as favourably as they once would have.

There's a lot more choice out there now and these are looking a little uninspired in style and that heel lift issue isn't ideal.

Verdict

Lightweight, stiff, well-performing shoes but visually uninspiring & somewhat tricky to stop heel lift