Rapha Crit racers don oil slick inspired, reflective Technicolor dreamsuit & jerseys

Written by Cory Benson Jun 05, 2018 1:21 p.m. ET

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Rapha jumps into the chaotic late night criterium racing crowd with their oil-slick inspired Crit Collection. Besides the obvious iridescent fabric (seriously dyed to resemble an oil slick), the Crit collection builds in features like reflective dots & logos, transparent race number pockets, and a close fitting aero cut across the skinsuit, shorts & jerseys range for men & women.

Rapha Crit criterium Pro Team racing kit

The new Crit Collection gets a number of features that Rapha says tailor it for racing around on tight urban circuits, often under the cover of night. The kit range includes a men’s aero skinsuit, standard & Flyweight jerseys, and Pro Team bib shorts, plus a women’s Flyweight jersey.

Tech Details

One of the core ‘race-ready’ features of the tops is a layer of lightweight transparent mesh over top of the main three jersey, split into left & right compartments for racers to slide in their race numbers without having to pin them on. If officials don’t like the slightly obscured number, it at least offers a fabric to pin to without damaging the body fabric, especially helpful on the skinsuit.

The legs of the Pro Team Crit Bib Shorts and the Crit Aerosuit are also cut longer, and get simplified stitching, both for a more aero profile. The Flyweight jerseys are among the most ventilated race jerseys Rapha makes, designed for racing in hot urban heat island conditions.

Pricing & Availability

The Crit Aerosuit is the premier of the flashy new collection and will set you back $315/270€ with the same shorts fabric and dual-density chamois pad as Rapha’s recent Pro Team Bib Shorts II update.

Again the same light fabric & pad, the Crit Pro Team Bib Shorts sell for $235/200 with their extended leg, single seam around the leg, raw cut grippers, and matching oil slick mesh bibs.

The standard Crit Pro Team Jersey is $165/145€ and includes the race number mesh overlay like the skinsuit, while both men’s & women’s Crit Flyweight Jerseys are $135/120€ without the mesh overlay, but all getting three pockets out back.

Worth remembering is Rapha’s user-friendly free repair service. This iridescent kit is meant to be raced, and crit racing means crashing as far as it seems from the outside. Rest assured that your fancy, shiny Aerosuit will get patched up for free and be as good as new not long after you slide through the city streets one night racing in it.

Rapha.cc

Cory Benson

4,164 articles

Cory Benson is the EU Tech Editor of Bikerumor.com.

Cory has been writing about mountain bikes, enduro, cyclocross, all-road, gravel bikes & bikepacking for over 25 years, even before the industry created some of these names. Prior to Bikerumor, Cory was a practicing Architect specializing in environmental sustainability, has designed bike shops & bike components, and worked as a bike shop mechanic.

Based in the Czech Republic for 15+ years, he is a technical mountain biker, adventurous gravel rider, and short & medium-haul bikepacker. Cory travels extensively across Europe riding bikes, meeting with key European product developers, industry experts & tastemakers for an in-depth review of what’s new, and what’s coming next.

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Mike

5 years ago

Maybe I’m an old, but often there’s 2 numbers, no? So a butt number sleeve would be good too. Regardless, I would love to not have to “pin up” before races. LOVE IT. That’s the thing I hate most about the pre-race ritual.

Gillis

5 years ago

Reply to Mike

Every road or cx race in my experience (going back to ’96) has only had a single number for the lower back as shown. To me, sleeve numbers would be too small to be effective and the extra cost not worth it to race promoters.

Mike

5 years ago

Reply to Gillis

Must be a regional thing. I raced in the northeast and there was usually two for road (side and lower pockets). CX in my experience has been just one across the country, but I usually try quickly to forget the experience of pinning since I hate it.

I don’t mean numbers ON sleeves. Agreed that’s silly. I mean a sleeve into which you would slip the number (like the Rapha one).

Crash Bandicoot

5 years ago

Reply to Mike

Here in Texas we seem to often have two numbers one on the pockets and one on the left/right side of the back. Agreed on the annoyance, I absolutely hate pinning numbers and wish we could just do the adhesive ones the guys in the TDF use or at least the euro style numbers where you only have to pin to the pockets.

I want to hate this

5 years ago

We have side numbers in PA/OH/WV mostly. Pinning them sucks but thrashing your $300 Rapha skin suit in a crit sucks even worse.

Collin S

5 years ago

@Crash, with some 3m Super 77 adhesive spray, you can make any number into a sticker. Just spray it on, let it dry for about a minute, then stick it on.

For Michigan racing, occasionally they will give 2 numbers, one for your side/back, one for your pocket. The problem are they are huge and some of the refs are sticklers for not modifying your number. If you fold them to remove all the extra white space, they make you re pin them.

Crash Bandicoot

5 years ago

Reply to Collin S

Thanks for the tip, Super 77 has always been recommended to me and I think I’m going to actually use it this year, especially since the team kit I use for racing is a little worn and has been crashed in so I’m not super concerned about damaging it any further. We get 2 marathon running sized numbers here, they are huge! even for state TT they made us do a number on our back so your .6 of a watt savings wearing shoecovers gets negated by the windsail on your back. I really don’t get why they cant just use smaller #’s most of the races are chip timed and have a photo/video back up for the finish line anyways. Super annoying pinning a number then throwing on the jersey and hearing a ripping or popping sound when you actually go into a riding position.