Velocio Alpha Air Jacket review: a different but excellent take on a winter jacket

The name Velocio might not be as familiar to some of you as cycling stalwarts like Castelli and Assos, and the New England brand might have only been around since 2013, but it has made a good name for itself in the premium apparel sector. Named after French cyclist Paul de Vivie, who wrote under the name Velocio, the American brand was acquired by SRAM in 2022, but has remained a largely separate entity in terms of brand image and marketing.

Its comprehensive range covers road, gravel, mountain and lifestyle with a characteristically muted colour palette and designs that concentrate on fit and fabrics rather than buzzwords and over-complication. Velocio is also part of the 1% for the Planet partnership, members of which donate 1% of annual sales to designated environmental groups.

Velocio’s Alpha Air is available in a whopping 8 sizes, from XS to XXXXL for men and XXS to XXXL for women, but Black or Plum Truffle are the only colours for either gender.

Construction

The Alpha Air owes more to outdoor clothing than it does to more traditional cycling apparel. Although Velocio don’t use these terms, the Alpha Air is effectively a combination of a fleece-lined Pertex windshell on the front and a Powerstretch jacket on the back; lined windproof garments have long been a mainstay of walking and mountaineering gear, going right back to the original Buffalo designs. Now though, the lining to the wind-resistant material is Polartec Alpha, a very warm, light and compressible high-loft fleece that is particularly breathable and is a far cry from the basic designs of its distant precursors.

The arms also follow this pattern, and are half Alpha-lined windproof and half jersey-weight fleece (as Velocio calls it). The collar is high and close-fitting with a cosy Alpha lining, and there are three decent-sized rear pockets made from the lightweight windproof material. There is no sign of a zipped security pocket - a pet peeve of mine - but in this instance, I can grant Velocio a little bit of leeway as I imagine that neither material would take a zip very easily.

The full-length front zip is double-ended, useful for toilet breaks, ventilation and if anything is stored in jersey pockets beneath the jacket.

Weight is noticeable by its absence; the Alpha Air in size medium weighs just 254g, compared with, for example, 405g for the Santini Windbloc Thermo Jacket or 353g for Castelli’s Espresso Air.

And frankly, that is about that. It is a fairly simple design that relies heavily on the quality of the fabrics and the fit.

The ride

I’ll confess, I was a little underwhelmed when I first unboxed the Alpha Air; its lack of weight gave it an almost flimsy feel compared with the burliness of something like Castelli’s Espresso Air Jacket or Van Rysel’s RCR-R Pro 4 Season jacket, and I was sceptical about Velocio’s -4°C temperature rating claim.

The medium fitted me very well, and in line with most other brands’ jackets, but it didn’t really look or feel like a particularly protective outer layer, so I was cautious about when to use it to start with. A short ride here, a little gravel loop there, in conditions that weren’t too arctic.

However, it passed every successive test with flying colours and so I eventually committed to a 100km gravel ride with a maximum forecast temperature of -3°C. With just a long-sleeved base layer underneath and the occasional addition of a gilet when stationary, the Alpha air kept me warm from frigid dawn to baltic dusk.

The next cold blast of Arctic air saw me deploy it for a 90km road ride, and again, it performed flawlessly, defying my initial misgivings about it.

The more I ride in different jackets of varying brands, fabrics and purposes, the more I am convinced that breathability is by far and away the key metric that defines a garment's performance. All the insulation and/or weather protection is worthless if your sweat chills you from the inside out; this is the Alpha Air’s pièce de résistance. It is phenomenally breathable.

Those large fleece panels, of course, let plenty of moist air out through them, but so do the front-facing, Alpha-lined sections. In fact, I don’t think that these areas are even 100% windproof, but it doesn’t matter. They block enough breeze that, even in at -6°C (plus windchill), I never felt cold, and my base layer (and skin) remained perfectly dry. After most rides, I strip off my damp layers as soon as I enter the house, but with the Alpha Air, I was perfectly comfortable to make my coffee and poached eggs without feeling an urgent need to disrobe first.

There is no discernible DWR treatment on the outer, and even light mist wets the jacket, but because its breathability is so good, it also makes a perfect mid-layer to wear under a waterproof. Thus, rather than putting off when to put on an extra layer in the wet because you know that the boil-in-a-bag feeling is only minutes away, I was perfectly happy to put my Squall Shell or Shakedry over the Alpha Air.

It’s a versatile piece too, with an aesthetic that is perhaps slightly more gravel than road race and it would work very well for bikepacking, I think. Its warmth and moisture management capabilities make it ideal for cold starts and cool weather days, whilst its low weight means that it would be easy to pack away when not needed, albeit not in a jersey pocket.

Value and conclusion

Truly exceptional performance, versatility and great fit make it pretty simple to give the Alpha Air 5 stars, even at £192 / $259. It is not something to wear on its own when raining, but it is easy to add a waterproof over the top when required.

For high-exertion rides, its breathability and moisture management were simply superb, keeping me warm and, crucially, dry at all times. In damp conditions, you would need to carry a waterproof layer as well, but there aren’t many winter riders when I feel confident enough to leave the house without one anyway.