Vittoria Open Corsa Evo CX tyre

Vittoria's Open Corsa is a cracking road tyre with a supple feel and good all-round grip. It's not the hardiest through a thorny winter but it's definitely one to consider for your good bike.

Given that the RRP for these beauties is £50 a pop you'd expect them to be packing some tech to justify that price tag, and they are. The carcass of the Open Corsa is as close to that of a tubular as you'll find in a clincher tyre.

When it comes to a supple ride and the ability to deform over a rough surface to give the best possible grip, the most important number is the TPI (threads per inch) of the casing. Tyre casings are generally made from nylon and the thread count is usually between 60 and 150, with some going as high as 220. The Open Corsa uses the same cotton/polymer mix as the Corsa tubular tyre, at 320TPI. That allows for the same strength at lighter weight (215g each for this pair) and means that the casing is more flexible.

Out on the road the Open Corsa does give an excellent ride feel, with 100psi in the tube feeling more like 90 in a standard tyre. They're rated to 145psi and the recommended pressure is 115psi to the maximum, I ran them at my usual 100/110psi and they felt great. The amount of grip they afford from the diamond pattern centre tread and ribbed side sections is very good too. Colour-wise it's the centre tread that changes (black, white, red, blue and yellow are available) with the edge tread remaining black. While that does mean that light colours can get mucky-looking, it also means that the black rubber - which affords the best grip - is underneath you when you're leaning into a corner. Vittoria claim that the Kevlar/Silicon dioxide compound gives reduced rolling resistance and better wet weather grip. I couldn't tell you how much the compound contributed to the rolling of the tyre compared to the high-TPI carcass, but they're fast alright. In the damp the grip is predictable and gives way gradually, so it's always easy to gauge how fast you can take the corners.

The Open Corsa has a latex rubber band under the tread which Vittoria say increases the tyres suppleness and adds puncture protection, and it's somewhere in the middle of the pack when it comes to shrugging off punctures. I've put a couple of thousand kilometres into these tyres over some questionable surfaces and only had a handful of thorns intrude, which isn't bad at all for what's really more of a racing tyre. I also had the pleasure of using Open Corsas at the Di2 launch in Aigle, and they're a super tyre for carving down alpine passes, offering masses of predictable cornering grip and never feeling harsh, despite being fitted to a Giant TCR that's possibly the stiffest road bike I've ever piloted.

Verdict

One of our favourites – a lot of money buys you a lot of tyre