The third generation of the Rapha Pro Team bib shorts has been redesigned from the ground up, with a new seat pad using denser foam, a new high strength Italian fabric and laser cut leg hems.
There are men’s sizes available from XS to XXL, with four colour choices, and women’s from XXS to XL, with three colours. Rapha has kept the price at £240, the same as the previous version.
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New seat pad
The previous generation Rapha Pro Team bib shorts were launched in 2019, so Rapha has taken its time to refresh them. In the interim, it launched the even more spendy Pro Team Powerweave bib shorts.
Core to Rapha’s new design for the third generation Pro Team bib shorts is an updated proprietary seat pad. Rapha says that it has added extra high density padding that has a reticulated structure to help it stay in place and wick sweat away fast.
It’s held in place by a new Italian performance fabric used for the shorts themselves, which Rapha says has a high strength-to-weight ratio and is compressive and improves thermoregulation.
Rapha has also reduced the number of panels it uses in the shorts, reducing seams. That’s combined with a mesh section at the waist, hemless bib straps and laser-cut leg hems.
Tested by the pros
Rapha says that the new seat pad has already been used for over 400,000km, with pre-launch users including the EF Education pro teams.
That includes Lachlan Morton, who in January wore the Pro Team III shorts to garner a fastest known time between Auckland and Wellington on New Zealand’s North Island. He clocked 18 hours and 28 minutes for the 648km ride, bettering by 91 minutes a record set in 1984 by Brian Lambert, a New Zealand postman, who covered the distance in 19 hours and 59 minutes.
Sizes, colours and prices
As with the previous generation shorts, Rapha will sell the new Pro Team III bib shorts for men and women in a wide range of options, including standard and long leg lengths.
There are four men’s colours available: Black/Black, Black/White, Green/White, and Dark Navy/White, while sizes range from XS to XXL.
For women riders, colours available are Black/White, Green/White, and Dark Navy/White and sizes are XXS to XL.
The Rapha Pro Team III bib shorts are priced at £240 in the UK.
