We took a ‘first look‘ at clothing from Nalini, Italian supplier to several of the UCI WorldTour teams through their subsidiary, MOA, during our month of Giro-inspired content in May.

With several weeks of riding in the three garments – the Camedrio jersey, the Rusco bib-short, and Talco gilet – we can offer a verdict on each.

We’ll start with the Talco gilet, the lightest of its type we’ve encountered, and one that tipped our Park digital desk scale at just 69 grams.

It’s not a garment we’d anticipate reaching for often in the generally miserable climate of the UK, but in the few sun-blessed days we’ve enjoyed since taking delivery of the kit from Nalini’s UK distributor, Chicken Cycles, its fair to say the Talco gilet has performed admirably.

We wore it in 17 degrees and glorious sunshine on our final test run, over the Camedrio jersey and a lightweight, synthetic base layer, and found it just the ticket.

Unconvinced that it was offering any protection, such is its lightness, we performed the simplest of tests by simply unzipping it. The effect was immediately notable. We can’t claim to have been cold, but the wind had certainly become a feature of the ride.

Emboldened, we removed it completely to check how easily it might be stowed. The answer was very easily. The lightness of the fabric allows it to be folded to a size easily contained by a jersey pocket (the middle of the Nalini Camedrio’s three pockets in this case).

The fabric is the lightest of any we’ve experience, exactly like a net curtain in the back panel, which has been left ‘open’. The chest and shoulder panels are laminated, however, presumably to provide a degree of weather proofing, though this is hardly the gilet you’d reach for with even the slightest suspicion of rain.

While a gilet for warm weather riding might seem counter intuitive, it isn’t often that conditions are so clement that only shorts and jersey are required.

Lightweight base layers are a typical sight in the WorldTour peloton, even in July, and increasing numbers of manufacturers are producing arm screens to offer protection from UV rays on summer rides.

The Talco gilet would fit nicely into such a wardrobe, though in a climate as dismal as the UK’s, its unlikely to be used with any great frequency.

The Talco gilet is available in six sizes from S to XXXL and costs £37.99.

Website: Nalini
UK distributor: Chicken Cycles