When I heard I had won a merino cycling top from the Travelling Two website I was pretty excited. I have been a big fan of merino for the last few years, but tended to stick to thermals for skiing and using it in sports where I wouldn’t get too sweaty, so I was intrigued to see what a cycling top would be like. The parcel soon arrived and inside was an Icebreaker SS Halo Jersey. On first impressions the fabric seemed quite thick (200 weight) so I thought it would be good for winter riding – I was living in the Austrian Alps at that point. But then I wimped out of doing much <0 deg.C riding so the testing never quite got going…
Since mid May 2011 I have been doing a bike tour around the western part of the USA; going from desert and temperatures above 30 deg. C in southern Utah, to mountain passes over 3,700m and with snow banks 5m high in Colorado. The merino cycling top has performed brilliantly in all places – it does what Icebreaker says it will: it keeps me cool in the heat and warm in the cold. I have two short sleeve riding tops with me on this tour and I reckon I wear the merino top five days a week. Normally I try and rinse it out at the end of the day, but I have gone five days without it seeing a drop of clean water and it hardly smelt.
I am really pleased with this top and I think having this one, in combination with a lighter weight (and quicker drying) top, is perfect for me. If I was doing a trip with just one cycling top this Icebreaker SS Halo top would be the one for me.
- Helena, Icebreaker Fan
