Coming in at just under £700, the Eurus wheelset is a really good example of how Campag produce quality that doesn’t cost the Earth. We’ve got the standard clinchers here, which cost £667.99 (shop around and you’ll find them for considerably less) but they’re also available in ‘2-way fit’ for £697.99, which means they can accept either standard clinchers or tubeless tyres.

• Specification

• Price: £667.99
  Weight: 1,423g
  Website: Campagnolo
  UK distributor: Chicken Cycle Kit

Now Campag claim a set of Eurus clinchers should weigh in at 1,465g, but our test set came in at an impressive 1,423g for a saving of 42g. It’s unusual because, more often than not, wheels come in over their claimed weights rather than below. Not that the 42g will make a huge amount of difference when you’re out on the road, but it’s definitely nice to see a set of wheels that are lighter than the marketing blurb claims.

Another point that’s definitely worth noting is that these are available with both the Campagnolo compatible freehub (as you’d expect), and a Shimano/SRAM compatible version. The days of Campag wheels being wedded solely to their own groupsets are long gone.

I was hugely impressed riding the Eurus. I own a set of Campag’s more expensive Shamal Ultras (£824.99), and in pure performance terms the differences between the two are almost indistinguishable.

And in the weight stakes, you wouldn’t save that much even if you opted for the top end Bora Ultra 35 clinchers which weigh in at a claimed 1,370g.

The Eurus are a perfect choice if you’re riding hills, with wheel weight being one of those things you’ll notice makes a difference, especially when the gradient gets really steep.

They climb very nicely, whether spinning or out of the saddle and even with closely set brake pads I had no issues with brake rub either out of the saddle or sprinting.

On the flat, you’re obviously going to get no aerodynamic benefit from the classically-shaped shallow rims, but then you don’t buy a set of light alloy clinchers for time trialling, do you?

They handle poor road surfaces well, too. There’s a surety to them that means even on the worst sections of road I was happy to hit a couple of potholes (not out of choice) safe in the knowledge that they could take a few hits without failing on me. And that was the case throughout testing. No matter what I threw at them, the Eurus’ stayed true and they didn’t require any maintenance which is exactly what you’re looking for in an alloy clincher.

Campag attribute the reason for the rigidity and strength of the rear wheel down to the use of their Mega G3 spoke pattern. In a nutshell, the pattern is designed to make up for the fact that the cassette is on the right hand side of the wheel, and the spokes there are placed closer to the hub so, as such, have to be under higher tension to keep the rim in the centre. On their rear wheels, Campag use twice as many spokes on the right as on the left to aid this, and claim that the wheels have better lateral rigidity as a result.