Santini Gravel Short Sleeve Jersey

Santini hasn't gone for extra pockets on its Gravel Men's Short Sleeve Jersey, focusing instead on a good fit and fabric that's breathable yet tough enough to cope with the odd trek through the brambles. This jersey is top quality, and decent value for money too.

Gravel clothing tends to be about carrying stuff, so we see many brands adding pockets – Endura's GV500 Reiver has seven for instance – but Santini hasn't gone down that route. Intead, it's stuck with the traditional three across the rear.

The Gravel jersey doesn't even have a zipped valuables pocket, which is a bit of an omission in my eyes, what with the nature of the terrain it's aimed at.

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What Santini has created is a close-fitting, high-performance jersey from a tough and durable-feeling main body fabric, and one that's highly breathable too. It's also very soft against the skin.

I've worn it in a range of temperatures from the mid-teens (Celsius) up to the high-twenties without any overheating issues.

This is definitely a jersey for the fast gravel racer, rather than those out on an excursion. It uses Santini's slim cut, which is slightly slacker than their race range, but not massively so.

Some of Santini's recent test kit has come up small in relation to UK sizing, but this slightly more relaxed Gravel jersey lets you get away with your usual sizing (if you want a really close fit) or go up a size (for a bit more freedom of movement).

The arms, side panels and neck are made from a bodyfit fabric, which is lighter than the main body while having plenty of stretch, which keeps everything in place even when you are moving around on the bike. The arms never slid up while riding, and they offer a small amount of compression to protect your muscles on rough ground.

The rear section of the jersey has plenty of drop to provide you with cover when hunkered over the bars, and it's held in place by a silicone strip.

The three pockets are a decent size, easily swallowing a large phone and plenty of snacks.

Overall, the build quality is to a very high level, making the Gravel jersey a pleasure to wear. It has also stood up to plenty of abuse as it fought its way through the overgrown trails on a lot of my local routes.

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Many gravel jerseys seem to come in grey or variations of a green theme, and while this one here is the latter you can also get it in blue with an orange zip and details, or dark grey with yellow detailing.

The Gravel is £80, which is £9.99 cheaper than the GV500 Endura mentioned above, although it's £20 more expensive than the Madison Roam short sleeve jersey.

The Santini is much more race-orientated, true, but the Roam – with it's high merino percentage – works well across a broad range of temperatures.

Conclusion

If you like to ride fast on the gravel and are looking for an aggressively-cut jersey, this Santini is a very good place to start your search. The fabric is great and so is the build quality, making this effectively a good value for money jersey.

Verdict

Lacks the storage of some gravel jerseys, but makes up for that in performance and fit