Van Rysel Road Cycling Jersey Racer

The Men's Short-Sleeved Road Cycling Summer Jersey Racer is a light, highly breathable race jersey designed with an aero fit. It also has many of the characteristics of jerseys costing twice as much – it's a bit of a bargain, and definitely up there with the best summer cycling jerseys around.

Van Rysel is French superstore Decathlon's flagship cycling range, yet that doesn't mean premium prices – surprising really, when you look at the quality and attention to detail.

The Racer jersey is tailored, as its name suggests, for racy types with minimal body fat and of a lean persuasion. Bear that in mind when it comes to sizing as you may well want to go up a size or two.

Get the fit right and there is very little to pick fault with. The material used for the bulk of the panels has loads of stretch to aid the fit, and it is breathable too.

I wore this jersey through the last heatwave, and it did a decent job of letting the air flow through to keep me as cool as possible and dry (for the side panels the Racer uses a lightweight mesh). Should the whole thing get overwhelmed with sweat after a hard effort or climb, it dries fast as well.

The arms are reasonably lengthy, but stay in place thanks to the compression in the cuffs. They also provide a smooth transition between skin and jersey for an added bit of aeroness.

The rear is heavily dropped for riding in the drops, and the front sits nice and high to stop the material bunching up. It prevents the zip from damaging your shorts too, thought thoughtfully Van Rysel has added a zip garage at the bottom anyway.

You get a zip garage at the top of the full zip as well, though as the neck sits quite low it's not that necessary.

Pocket wise there are three in the traditional layout, with the right hand side overlayed with a zipped valuables one. Either side of the main three you find a small extra pocket on the side panel, and these are ideal for energy gels, route instructions or anything else you need easy access to.

Finally you get a smattering of subtle reflectives – as I said, the attention to detail is good.

For colour options, there are six available. This fluoro yellow is easily the most eye-catching, although should you get caught on wet roads, make sure to wash it straight away. Dirty spray will stain the fabric if not dealt with fast. That's true of many light-coloured jerseys, though, and not just restricted to the Van Rysel. The other options are Black, Denim Blue, a rather retro looking Team White, Navy Blue and the current Cofidis team jersey.

Value

At a penny shy of forty-five quid, I reckon this represents good value for money. Scott's lightweight RC Premium jersey is a similar sort of design and comes in at £99.99, although many deals can be had now as we batter towards winter.

Endura's Pro SL Lite short sleeve jersey is again of a similar ilk. It lacks details like zip garages, and there is no zipped pocket – a must in my opinion – so its £82.99 price tag doesn't look quite as appealing to me.

Overall

The Van Rysel Racer is a high-performance jersey for not a lot of money, and it looks and feels as though nothing has been sacrificed to get there. It lacks some of the green credentials and technical fabrics of some offerings, but if you want bang for your buck (or pops for your pound, maybe), then look no further.

Verdict

Simple and effective, this is a light, highly breathable race jersey with excellent attention to detail