With an excellent aero-fit, minimal bulk and exemplary warm weather performance the Climber's 3.0 jersey is an ideal high summer long distance jersey. Equally it would make an excellent race jersey for those all-out efforts.
Reasons to buy
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Excellent form fit
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Pocket stability
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Aesthetics
Reasons to avoid
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See-through material across the front puts everything underneath on show!
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The Castelli Climber's 3.0 Jersey was selected for an Editor's Choice award in 2020. This year's list contains 78 items which scored a 9 or 10/10 with our tech team - this gear is the best of the best, and has received the Cycling Weekly stamp of approval.
Castelli's Climber's 3.0 jersey has been designed as the perfect warm weather jersey and has a 'barely there' feel that excels in the heat.
High performance is the name of the game for the Climber's 3.0 with Castelli rating it as its most race fit, lightweight and breathable jersey in its current range. As to being it's most 'race fit' jersey, I can attest to that fact - this is absolutely form fitting and leaves nothing to the imagination. In fact it's so snug that I've had to go up a size over other Castelli jerseys; where I'm normally a medium I've had to go to large, so this is certainly a jersey to try on first.
The airy, mesh-like construction extends around the main front and side panels and channels all available air across the torso pretty effectively. Castelli mix this up with some of the best fitting sleeve panels I have encountered, these are made from a more densely weaved AirMesh fabric.
Finishing the jersey off is a back panel constructed from another denser material called StradaPro 3D. This is used thanks to a better UV protection level, something all of us who have ever used mesh jerseys in strong sunshine are thankful for in preventing unwanted sunburn.
The StradaPro 3D back panel also has less stretch that the other panels so aids in reinforcing the pocket placement and ensures that even when stuffed with the essentials the pockets stay in place. As Castelli has tried to keep Climber's 3.0 jersey as light as possible additional features are kept to a minimum, so pocket space is limited to just three standard style pockets - no zipped or additional pockets are present.
In use the Climber's 3.0 is incredibly comfortable and really does feel like you're just riding in a base layer. Over the last few weeks as the temperature has soared it has proved its worth on several rides. The fit is perfect at the arms and shoulders, hugging the body to create a very aero profile. There is also minimal bunching when down in a tuck position, something that other jerseys can suffer from.
In fact the only thing I can fault the Climber's 3.0 for is the fact the front panels are pretty revealing and show up what you have on underneath as well as the fact that the skin tight nature means you can only really wear a thin sleeveless base layer underneath. But then it is pretty much designed for just that.
Four different colour choices bring a bit of variety to the mix and in comparison to some other similar jerseys, the Climber's 3.0 is relatively good value.
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James Bracey's career has seen him move from geography teacher, to MBR writer, to Cycling Weekly's senior tech writer and video presenter. He possesses an in-depth knowledge of bicycle mechanics, as well as bike fit and coaching qualifications. Bracey enjoys all manner of cycling, from road to gravel and mountain biking.
