Raleigh Criterium Sport review

New for 2016, the Raleigh Criterium Sport is a £750 aluminium framed bike which comes equipped with the latest incarnation of Shimano Tiagra

raleigh criterium sport
Cycling Weekly Verdict

For a bike retailing at £750 the Criterium Sport is impressive. It’s a comfortable long-distance ride and rolls well on its 25mm tyres. The frame feels solid but not leaden and the relatively upright riding position takes pressure off the neck and shoulders, reducing upper body fatigue. The new Tiagra groupset is definitely a huge step up from its predecessor. It shifts smoothly and precisely front and rear. Apart from the lack of an 11th gear ratio, there’s not much to distinguish it from Shimano’s next-up 105 groupset. The new chainset looks the part too, the four-arm design looking much more businesslike than its predecessor. Raleigh has definitely produced a bike which is spot-on in value and ride quality. For the aspiring rider looking to put a toe into recreational and sportive road cycling, without incurring too much expense, or as a winter bike, it’s a great option

Reasons to buy
  • +

    Quality frame is easy to live with

  • +

    Tiagra groupset provides quality shifting

  • +

    Good wheels and tyres

  • +

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    Saddle is not the most comfortable

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.

Raleigh’s Criterium range stretches to five bikes which are targeted at endurance riders, but with the capability to be raced, with a spread of prices between £1500 and £475. The top three bikes have carbon frames, whereas the £750 Criterium Sport and the £475 Criterium are aluminium.

The standard Criterium comes with Shimano Claris, but the talking point with the Raleigh Criterium Sport is its full Shimano Tiagra 4700 groupset.

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Paul Norman

Paul started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2015, covering cycling tech, new bikes and product testing. Since then, he’s reviewed hundreds of bikes and thousands of other pieces of cycling equipment for the magazine and the Cycling Weekly website.

He’s been cycling for a lot longer than that though and his travels by bike have taken him all around Europe and to California. He’s been riding gravel since before gravel bikes existed too, riding a cyclocross bike through the Chilterns and along the South Downs.