If you’ve been watching the Giro d’Italia, which kicked off at the weekend, you might have seen the Liquigas-Cannondale team sporting Sidi’s new limited edition Ergo 3 Carbon Liquigas shoes – you can’t miss them.
This new shoe, limited in its production run, celebrates the long-running partnership between the legendary Italian shoe manufacturer and the Italian-based Liquigas team. The shoes are styled on the distinctive green livery that makes the team, in my opinion, one of the most stylish in the peloton.
So limited is the new shoe that you’ll be asked to pay a £30 premium over the regular Ergo 3 Carbon, itself available in a pleasing array of colours. Easing that price difference though is the knowledge you’ll be in a very select group of people who snap them up. Each pair of shoes has a unique number printed on the inside, a team colour bag to keep your new shoes in and special packaging – but surely the fact so few shoes will be available, and that you’ll be the talk of the clubhouse, is enough reason to pay that little extra?
The finish has a polished veneer, Sidi’s ‘Carbon Vernice Finish’, that is available in eight colourways, if the Liquigas green and white, pictured here on our fresh-out-of-the-box test pair, isn’t to your taste.
In other news, Sidi now offer a Speedplay-specific sole: the new SP Carbon Sole. We’ve been noticing a rise in the popularity of Speedplay pedal systems among both the professional and amateur ranks. A small handful of shoe manufactures are realising this and are bringing out shoes with four-bolt drillings.
As a Speedplay user (after years on Shimano) a sole that is specifically designed for the cleats is preferable to using the plastic shim adaptor required to mount said cleat to a typical three-bolt sole. And the advantage this allows is a drastically reduced stack height, keeping the foot closer to the pedal axle to the tune of 4mm. Sidi also say users will have an extra 6mm of rearward adjustment for setting up cleats, plus there’s a little weight saving of about 60g. The new solo is available on the Ergo 3, the Genius 6.6 and the T.3 triathlon shoes.
Sidi are one of the few truly iconic brands in cycling, with a long history of producing shoes of the highest quality, and they’ve long been the choice of the best road racers in the world. Despite that I’ve never tested Sidi shoes, though I have tested just about every other shoe on the market – so I’m a little excited to see how these perform. Check back soon for a first ride next week once I’ve pedalled a few miles in them.
The Ergo 3 Liquigas shoes are available now costing £330.
