Pearl Izumi Women's Elite Road IV shoes review

We see how the Pearl Izumi Women's Elite Road IV shoes fit in to the growing market of high-end women's cycling shoes

Cycling Weekly Verdict

The Pearl Izumi Women's Elite Road IV shoes are one of the best women's race shoes currently on the market. Power transfer is excellent and the low profile design means they look good too. The only snag is if you've got narrow feet, when they might be difficult to get tight enough.

Reasons to buy
  • +

    Stiff sole

  • +

    Excellent, efficient power transfer

  • +

    Low profile look

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    Not suited to narrow feet

You can trust Cycling Weekly. Our team of experts put in hard miles testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.

As part of the P.R.O (Performance and Race Optimised) series, the Pearl Izumi Women's Elite Road IV shoes sit at the top of the Pearl Izumi tree, having been designed to be both efficient and aerodynamic.

>>> Buyer's guide to cycling shoes

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Hannah Bussey

Hannah is Cycling Weekly’s longest-serving tech writer, having started with the magazine back in 2011. She has covered all things technical for both print and digital over multiple seasons representing CW at spring Classics, and Grand Tours and all races in between.


Hannah was a successful road and track racer herself, competing in UCI races all over Europe as well as in China, Pakistan and New Zealand.


For fun, she's ridden LEJOG unaided, a lap of Majorca in a day, won a 24-hour mountain bike race and tackled famous mountain passes in the French Alps, Pyrenees, Dolomites and Himalayas. 


She lives just outside the Peak District National Park near Manchester UK with her partner, daughter and a small but beautifully formed bike collection.