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café du cycliste claudette long sleeve jersey

cafe du cycliste claudette long-sleeve jersey

it has been said many times "sleeves maketh the man", though i do not deny that it was me that said it. the onset of autumn into winter is to be welcomed with open, long-sleeved arms, ready and willing to embrace the chill, whether those sleeves originated in the cote d'azur or not. there is nothing but logic behind this contention, for if we're brutally honest, why is it those of us adherent to pelotonic tradition continue to shave our legs, but enter the fray bearing hairy arms? is it not right and proper in this day and age of aero road framesets, that we play our own small part in progress?

cafe du cycliste claudette long-sleeve jersey

midst the guffaws of incredulity i can hear from the back of the room, might i point out that using the above as reasoning rather than an excuse is purely for superficial purposes. however, it seems quite likely. to me at least, that the civilian population will be sucked in by this confusion of pseudo science, leading them not to aggressively quote rule #5 in our face(s) when we depart from the bikeshed with arms shielded right down to the cuffs. one can never be over-prepared when it comes to pro-actively defending our status as hard men and women of the parish.

cafe du cycliste claudette long-sleeve jersey

but truthfully, long-sleeves are to be welcomed on the grounds that they are not armwarmers. the latter have been well employed over what has laughingly been referred to as summer. i cannot deny that, even on the long and winding road to paris, my arms were screened from the elements by just such accessorising of my short-sleeved jerseys. though the portent is that, when suitably up to operating temperature, the armwarmers will be summarily discarded or possibly worn in devil-may-care fashion scrunched up at the wrists, in point of fact they remained as they were at time of a chilly morning's departure.

cafe du cycliste claudette long-sleeve jersey

with the turn of the seasons, wearing a long-sleeved jersey no longer brands one as being of wimpish stature. i cannot be the only one to have seen even johann museeuw with sleeves that cossetted the wrist bones on occasion. but it is written that those long sleeves ought to form part of a jersey imbued with sartorial elegance as defined by velocipedinal virtue, the very epitome of which can be seen in the jersey that is claudette.

the cote d'azur's café du cycliste has a renowned reputation for attaching distinctly female apellations to its male designated cycling apparel of which claudette is no exception. try to think of it as a feature, not a bug, though i cannot deny a certain frisson to proceedings on telling mrs washingmachinepost that i was off out to spend a couple of hours with claudette, this would likely explain why i have been sleeping in the spare room.

cafe du cycliste claudette long-sleeve jersey

the long-sleeved claudette jersey is fashioned from a polyester and merino wool blend with a smattering of silk to give it that edge of luxury. it looks and feels nothing like any of the sportwool variants i have come across, but then neither does it seem to suffer from the iniquities of a predominantly polyester construction. it is the ideal garment for those chilly autumnal rides, though when push came to nudge, i cannot deny having concealed at least a portion of its hooped wonder 'neath a lucette tweed gilet. to be blunt, its cosiness does not extend to cold winter days without some reinforcement and it certainly need a waterproof covering on my first, persistently damp, outing.

cafe du cycliste claudette long-sleeve jersey

it's nice to see that even on the cote d'azur, there is room for a fourth, zipped security pocket in alliance to the obligatory threesome, one of which eccentrically features a buttoned closure. to move onto the front, a full-length zip that ends in a zip-garage could also be described not only as desirable but de rigeur, to continue the french theme. if i'm allowed a solitary criticism of claudette's personality, it is with the length of those sleeves. i'm aware that i have longer arms than the average velocipedinist, a fact manifesting itself in the frequent need for a 130mm stem on some of my bicycles. however, the majority of long-sleeve cycle jerseys seem to cater most amenably, but i found the cuffs on the medium-sized claudette to be about half a centimetre short of their target.

this minor misdemeanour could hardly be described as a deal-breaker, unless your arms are even longer than mine. when wearing long-fingered gloves, there was no chill-inducing gap to be seen, so no doubt me doth think i protest too much. the jersey is also available in white, but the in my agriculturally inclined abode, i thought it highly unlikely it would have remained that colour for long. that's unlikely to be a consideration in the south of france. i note that in café du cycliste's online lookbook, featuring their autumn/winter range photographed in rural scotland, there is no white garmentage to be seen.

the café du cycliste claudette long-sleeve jersey is available either in white or chilli red (as reviewed) in sizes xs to xxl retailing at £165.

café du cycliste claudette long-sleeve jersey

saturday 21 october 2017

twmp ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................