Velobici cycle wear designed and made in the UK - for those fast and slow days in the saddle

Velobici, a British-made brand of cycle clothing

The growth of cycling over the last five years has been breathtaking. The quiet country lanes that I knew so well are nowadays crowded with earnest Lycra-clad athletes in bright team jerseys on bikes that probably cost more than a small car. I love it. The more cyclists there are on the roads, the safer we are from those drivers who find it hard to see us.

Velobici merino Bordeaux classic jersey

But we don't have to follow the herd and wear Lycra. The professionals of thirty or more years ago wore woollen cycling jerseys. I'm not nostalgic about this - wool is not the best material for a high speed ride on a warm day, but for those gentler rides there's nothing like recapturing those days when we would load up our Carradice saddle bags with sandwiches and lemonade and potter down to the woods for a picnic (did that ever happen?).

Velobici designs and makes all their cycle wear in the UK. There are lovely-looking technical jerseys for those days when you want to burn tarmac and beautiful merino for those when you don't.

Velobici Bordeaux merino jersey

I own one of the merino jerseys (pictured above) and can report that it's beautifully-made, comfortable and actually quite good as a technical jersey, even though Velobici don't claim it to be. Combining classic looks with excellent design, it comes in different colours and is a stylish jersey for wear on or off the bike.

Velobici's technical jerseys, like the Guilder below, combine water resistance, stretchiness and a thermal soft loop pile to make them ideal for three season use by club racer or hardcore amateur rider alike. Even here there's a nod to the retro, with the beautifully-stitched orange letters, VB.

For more information on all their beautiful products, see Velobici's website here.

Velobici also make technical cycle wear - Guilder high performance jersey