Castelli Pro Mesh sleeveless base layer review

With the hot weather, a lightweight sleeveless base layer like the Castelli Pro Mesh provides wicking without extra insulation to stop airflow through the fabric. It’s made of a very airy mesh, with the spots being almost transparent, so it adds little to heat build-up as you ride. It’s very soft too and with flatlocked seams you won’t find it uncomfortable – of even notice it’s there most of the time.

As a change from the usual white, the Castelli Pro Mesh base layer comes in a range of four printed oblique dash patterns. The orange is particularly bright and redolent of warm rides – it cheered me up just getting it out of the drawer. As well as lime green and light blue, there’s a grey option so you can tone it down if you want to.

There’s plenty of stretch in the fabric, with 7% elastane and the rest polyester. So the Castelli Pro Mesh base layer is comfortable and close-fitting under a range of jerseys. There’s plenty of length too, with a dropped tail making sure that you’ve got good coverage when bent over the bars. Castelli makes the Castelii Pro Mesh base layer in sizes from XS up to XXL, so along with its stretch, there shouldn’t be a problem finding one which will fit.

Wicking is exceptionally good and the Castelli Pro Mesh base layer copes well with faster rides and hot climbs even on the most balmy of days. Since there are no sleeves, the bas leayer doesn’t tend to get whiffy, despite its synthetic fabric composition.

>>> Base layer and thermals reviews

At 50 grams in size medium, the Castelli Pro Mesh base layer is one of the lightest weight base layers out there. But it is expensive and you could buy a couple of the excellent and equally lightweight Craft Cool Mesh base layers, which we’ve recently reviewed, for the same price.