DZ Nuts Chamois Cream £11.99.

“Proper maintenance of the perineal area is essential during high level training and racing. Nothing can ruin stage race success faster than an infected saddle sore.”

Those are Dave Zabriskie’s words, and you’ll find them printed on the packaging for DZ Nuts, a new high viscosity chamois cream being exclusively distributed by online retailers Wiggle.

The cream has been formulated by a pharmaceutical scientist for Dave Zabriskie to reduce and relieve chafing and irritation, and to protect the skin from bacterial infections. The naturally sourced Fair Trade ingredients include healthy sounding things like Tea Tree oil, Evodia and masterwort. It’s fragrance free.

The packaging is very sleek with the toothpaste-style tube making for easier application than from a pot. Just squirt and go. The side of the box even features a wonderfully funny description of how to apply the cream (step 3 says: “Be a champion and enjoy the long, comfortable ride…”) , it’s all very tongue in cheek – which we suppose is to be expected from Zabriskie given his alleged sense of humour.

The cream is white in colour and we found, for best comfort results that applying a generous amount of the stuff directly to the undercarriage the way forward. [No, we didn’t; you managed to keep the stuff to yourself – ed.]It seems to stay in place well on longer rides, with an initial tingling sensation when first applied – the more you put on, the tinglier it is.

If you’ve never used chamois cream before, you might be wondering what the point of this stuff is. Even though modern chamois are far superior to those around 10 or 20 years ago, it’s not uncommon to suffer from a bit of chafing on long rides. It’s here that DZ Nuts makes a difference, and it has been noticeable on several sportives and longer road races during which I have been testing the product. It’s a small price to pay for a big investment in comfort.