Podia Club Colours Short Sleeve Jersey

Polish boutique cycling brand Podia has produced a stormer of a performance jersey here with its Club Colours. It's superb quality, keeps you cool in the heat, fits beautifully and looks great. It's not the cheapest jersey out there, but I'd say it's well worth the money.

• Pros: Great performance fit, stylish finish, premium quality
• Cons: It's not cheap; white sleeves show the dirt

At its core is a race-ready but rider-conscious fit, put together using highly breathable mid-weight fabrics. If you want to go lightweight for the hottest days, Podia's Dust Super Light jersey is apparently the one to opt for, while the Club Colours jersey comes in at 187g.

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On the face of it, it does seem relatively bulky, but to wear it doesn't feel anything of the sort. In fact, thanks to the technical Lycra-polyester blend main body panels and mesh-like underarm and flank panels, it's a jersey that still feels very cool to wear. On an early morning ride when temperatures were at around the 13°C mark, I still found myself reaching for my gilet before heading out.

This cool performance extends to the heat of the day, where I'm convinced that the white shoulders and sleeves help reflect heat. The body stays well regulated too, even with the bold colour scheme.

The mid-length sleeves – complete with ungrippered hems – and collared neck offer some protection from the sun, while offering an air of luxury to the jersey. It feels like a jersey that you'd be happy to use on a warm long-distance audax, rather than primarily as an out-and-out racer's or climber's jersey.

The quality mid-weight YKK 4VS zip is testament to this – no super-fine lightweight-type thing here that can be difficult to seat and operate on the move – as are the useful-sized cargo pockets on the rear. There's enough space for food and spares, and they're especially easy to reach into too.

That's because the back is ever so slightly on the long side – underpinned by an elasticated waistline with bobble-effect silicone texture – compared to other medium-sized jerseys I've tried recently, including the Giro Chrono Pro, so the openings are a just a smidge lower too. They're pretty standard otherwise, with an elasticated cuff to keep things inside.

On the underside of the right pocket there's a zipped security slot, albeit not sweat-lined, so anything needing protection from dampness will probably need to be kept in a cover.

In terms of washing, I found that the white sleeves can collect grime if you have a habit of wiping your face and brow when stopping (as I do), so you need to stick it on a 40 degree setting to get it looking shiny white again. Happily, Podia recommends washing on this setting, and I found it came back unaffected – aside from being cleaner than when it went in, obviously.

It fits much like the luxurious Le Col HC jersey I reviewed a couple of months ago, while it boasts the performance levels – as far as I can tell – of Giant's very good Elevate jersey and Giro's aforementioned Chrono Pro.

> Buyer's Guide: 20 of the best summer cycling jerseys

With that in mind, the €110 price tag (at time of writing, the Polish company's website only deals in European wonga), which works out at around £100, looks to be (relatively speaking) good value. Certainly, I'd choose this over the Giant-branded £100 Elevate jersey all day long, while it's a 50 per cent reduction on the HC price, and a touch lower than the excellent Chrono Pro.

It looks the pick of the bunch too, in my opinion, and stands out in a crowd even against such apparel icons as Rapha and Castelli. Only, it's cooler because your Podia kit is that much less common...

Verdict

It doesn't come cheap, but you're getting what you pay for here – an excellent jersey and a real winner