Le Col Cycling Gear Review: Mid level products, it’s a far cry from the premium experience touted

Late winter I was on the hunt for some new cycling togs, as my multi year rotation of kit was showing signs of aging or maybe just bolstering. This feeling may have been enhanced by the time spent riding inside on the turbo with “your old stuff”, that mental trickery that says you ride inside in your old gear..

I had bumped into a Le Col sporting chap in River City Bicycles (Portland Oregon) and had a brief conversation about what he was wearing. Intrigued by the branding, when I asked him about his Le Col I only got good feedback, but saying it did take 2-3 weeks to get his gear. Jumping online I can see the brand is Europe based and heavily into marketing promotions, 20, 30, 40% off kinda “e commerce / web feeling” company.

The Le Col website does a visually strong job at delineating their products, and group things into popular categories and terminologies like Race and Endurance, Gravel, Road etc, with marketing descriptions to narrow your options down. I knew roughly where I wanted to be Pro Collection or Hors Categorie based on my riding and style. The brand feels a lot more lifestyle and light on technical info when compared to some technical brand like Pearl Izumi or Q36.5 that give you all the details and more. So for me, LeCol was a little jump of faith, as generally I like to verge on more tech info to try and judge what works, rather than less.

As we all know, good kit is expensive, it takes more effort to make (research and design) , uses costlier materials and generally those higher end brands have high touch customer service should you need help if if anything is not right, which is expensive to the company.
I purchased from the higher priced gear on the website, A bib short from Hors Categorie $280 and a long sleeve top from Pro Collection $125.
3 weeks later, I received my products, shipped from Europe and nicely packed in a slim minimally marked box. Straight out of the box the garments felt higher end, silky and soft. The high elastaine content used in the materials gives garments a good in the hand feel, this is true of any brand.

“Designed for fast rides and high tempo training sessions the Pro Long Sleeve Jersey is one to reach for on cool fresh mornings or in between seasons. Eliminating the need for arm warmers it delivers lightweight protection and a streamlined fit.” – From the Le Col Website

Style & Size

I’m 6ft 3 and 165, so yes on the skinny side. I chose a medium in size by using the sizing guide. The Long sleeve top fits well, snug trim fit as seen in the pictures. It has reflective heat transfer logos on the collarbone area, upper arms and back with a large reflective stripe. From the front it feels pretty plain and no garish graphics, I would describe it as Northern European tasteful. On the lower hem jersey grippers, Ride Further. Ride Faster logos embellish.
The sleeve design is a high Set-In style as opposed to a more forgiving Raglan style, Set-In gives you a trimmer look. The arm holes are positioned quite high, giving you a clean fit, but if you are not used to this, it may feel strange.

Material

The jersey is made in Romania from 77% Polymide (Nylon), and 23% Elastane (elastic) material has a nice hand feel, the material is high in (elastic) so super stretchy, seams were of very high quality flat locked and the panels seemed to be designed well to fit the body. The zipper was impressive, a chunky boy 4.5mm plastic zipper from YKK that felt reliable, smooth and durable. The stitching and general quality was high, with nicely finshed seams and aa general feeling that this was not a cheaply produced product. Downsides : The zipper is not lined, so the base of the zipper (the retainer box) will dig in your bib shorts and cause a wear mark.

Function and Performance

It’s a pretty simple piece, a functional long sleeve, not designed for gargantuan insulation, but more an extension of a short sleeve mid weight jersey. The rear pockets are well done, reachable and deep. There is a small zippered key / credit card pocket which is nice. This is the type of jersey where you would wear a base layer underneath, but not another jersey underneath, if that makes sense for some. As for performance, not a ton of notes here, it works well, its a mid weight fabric and it wicks swat and breathes well just like most cycling fabrics, nothing bad, nothing exceptional.

“The Hors Categorie Bib Shorts have been expertly crafted to deliver the support you need to take on your greatest, longest exploits. They’re supremely soft and comfortable, constructed using our most luxurious performance fabrics..” – from Le Col website

Style and Size

With a 32″ waist and 38″ Hips, I chose a medium , I probably could have gone with a Small, but it would have been on the very upper limit, ie very very tight. Note here that sizing for Bib shorts depends on the style you choose, so a “Pro” or “Sport” style will have different parameters, and worth looking into.
The shorts are pretty minimal looking with one embroidered logo at the base of the back, just above your bum, plus a couple of reflective tabs sewn into the right and left legs. There are also Le Col logos on the leg grippers, but they are very subtle. And of course logos on the internal straps. Also note, this is a style with no pockets.

Material

The bib shorts are made in Romania from 62% Polymide (Nylon), and 38% Elastane (elastic) material has a nice hand feel, the material is high in (elastic) so stretchy and I would rate this as a low – medium compression, seams were of very high quality flat locked and the panels seemed to be designed well to fit the body. The stitching and general quality was high, I had no qualms there. The chamois is unbranded and I would say on the larger side of things, it’s pretty thick and this was my main gripe, see function and performance.

Function and Performance

Straps were a great length as I have often experience very short straps having a large torso. The leg grippers worked well and kept the short in place. * My main issue was with the size and thickness of the seat pad / chamois. Too bulky for me and proved to be an minor irritation at the front of the pad, which is strange to me when their marketing position is about long haul rides. Could the relative size of the pad be too large?

The image below of the Long Distance Chamois doesn’t really give you an idea of how large or thick it is. Something to take into account when thinking different le col product or category.

From the website:

Follow Up

Curious about the chamois pad and poor fit, I contacted customer service to ask about the Bib Shorts and if I had the right sizing etc. They said I would probably be better with a Pro Collection Bib Short due to a thinner chamois. They did offer a 50% discount for me to buy another pair. The CS agent also recommended me moving up to a size large which seems highly suspect given I was at the bottom of the sizing range for the medium. A larger would would probably cause more irritation by excess material bunching up. Maybe they read my size weight metrics wrongly. Better overall and customer service can be had from other Brands with $280 bib shorts, such as Rapha, Castelli, Sportful, Assos.

As far as product descriptions, The Hors Categorie descriptions and copy could have been better, to describe the chamois and experience better, or in hindsight maybe a few e mails to customer service to tease out specific details like a larger thicker pad, which I probably wouldn’t have purchased. Everybody is slightly different in fit, and for me, maybe im not right for Le Col and their garment grading on bibs (size scaling) is not right for me, but maybe fine for others. We all have those brands where we are not quite one size or the next up.

Summary

The headline says it all, a kinda fake premium, Sold as premium, but it’s really kinda Mid. If you were expecting premium and excited by the discounts, then LeCol will disappoint, because you end up with a mid level product. If you expected mid level then with the discounts (from premium prices) you will be fine, and really you just paid for mid, there was no bargain here. To be fair, it’s a great corporate money making strategy.

LECOL – BUY but with large caution.
Their gear seems genuinely in the space of “good”. LeCol’s return policy is very poor, and fit can be an issue as I found. So do a bit more snooping and e mailing to customer service to ensure you get a spot on product, as the website is misleading. This really matters when delivery times are 3 weeks, plus a very poor return policy. My advice would be to approach with caution and ask a lot of questions first. This company is not great on the service front for a company thats classing themselves as a premium brand, even if your flaw is demonstrable, you cannot return it for an exchange.

If you look at the pricing without any discount, ie $300 bib shorts, $200 jerseys – then they clearly try and position themselves as Premium, but where this falls short is that small details in the product are missing and customer support is mid level at best.

Overall – Buy Le Col when its 50% off, otherwise Higher End Castelli and Rapha offer better better balance of features, quality and fit and. value for money.

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