Irontwit

The toughest laboratory is the field and the toughest field is Ironman racing. When thinking about what to wear for my UK Ironman race I knew I needed some new clothes. I had always worn one piece trisuits but my current race suit has no pockets making it fine for sprints and Olympic distance races, but not so good for longer distance ones. I also wanted flexibility to add or remove layers, making a split short and singlet more attractive. After some cursory research I decided on the Craft Performance Tri Sleeveless Top and Shorts. Craft are a Swedish company and I’d seen plenty of athletes wearing their kit so although I’d never owned anything by them before I thought I’d give it a go. Added to that, Wiggle had them on offer at an unbeatable price (£28 for the top, and £26.25 for the shorts – they’ve got a few left). Boy am I glad I did.

The first thing you notice about the kit is the quality of the fabric. It’s heavier than the the really light lycra on most suits and feels really nice, as well as being not at all shiny. All the seams are well finished, flatlocked, and the zip on the top is protected to avoid chafing. The top has three well cut pockets for cereal bars and spares. The silicone leg grippers on the shorts are also excellent, and the short also has a small zipped key pocket. The look is also quite understated without loads of “shouty” logos all over it.

Craft Performance Sleeveless Top

Craft Performance Tri Short

The best bit about the top and shorts combo, however is the pad in the shorts – it’s brilliant. My original thought on approaching the Ironman was to wear a standard pair of fully padded cycling shorts and changing to run shorts in transition – 112 miles is a long time in the saddle and most tri shorts are simply not up to the job (unless you’ve got a cast-iron arse, that is). Incredibly, given that the pad is so thin, these shorts are almost as comfortable as normal cycling shorts. In training I wore them for rides up to 70 miles in length with no issues and so decided to go for it in the race. Although tired, I was still happy wearing the shorts after 112 miles on the bike and the transition to running was no problem. I finished the race without any chafing of any note at all, and now that the kit has been washed it’s good as new. Sizing seems sensible, I wear medium cycling kit and the fit is generous, I could possible have dropped a size down – these Scandinavian types are built big.

Quite simply, this is the best tri specific kit that I’ve ever worn, and given the price when compared to some of the premium established tri brands, this represents amazing value for money. I can’t recommend this suit highly enough.