MallRee

When the Gabba first launched in 2013, it basically took over the cycling world. By now, you're likely familiar with its clandestine appearances throughout the peloton, so we'll skip the anecdotal praise and get to the matter at hand: Castelli's replacing it. The new, Men's Perfetto Jersey spells the end of the Gabba era, and--once we got over our initial outrage--we realized that Castelli hasn't lost its collective mind. The long-sleeve Perfetto is, basically, a Gabba-plus, beginning with the same race-fit, weather-resistant features that made the Gabba so damned impressive and pushing those properties to further extremes. It's still based on the platform of GORE's Windstopper X-Lite Plus material, and we'll cover that below, but any time something as iconic as the Gabba gets tweaked, those changes bear analyzing in detail. The biggest change from Gabba to Perfetto is that Castelli claims to have improved the Windstopper X-Lite Plus fabric's water-repellent finish. We write "claims," because it's hard to believe that it gets better than the Gabba. But here we are. The change addresses a relatively minor complaint that many of us have with the Gabba--namely, it does tend to get a bit stifling during race efforts and interval sessions. That's not an issue that most other inclement weather gear needs to address, because most other inclement weather gear isn't cut for racing. Since the Gabba is, we were able to push it to its limits in the most demanding situations. The Perfetto effectively extends those limits; we look forward to testing them in the sodden races of early spring. The Perfetto's improved water-resistance and breathability are only noticeable during hard efforts in questionable conditions, but Castelli also made a few readily apparent changes to how the jersey fits. First, the brand refined the fit, further eliminating unnecessary material at the usual flap-points for an even more streamlined ride. Castelli also revisited the extended rear storm flap, ..