Giro Espada Women's Road Shoes

At this price, Giro's Espadas outstrip the majority of road shoes available designed specifically for women. Sadly though that doesn't addd up to very many shoes - because there simply aren't enough high end women's road shoes on the market but that's certainly no reflection on the quality of the Espadas themselves. However you judge them - these are good shoes.

Aimed at the more serious female rider, these Giro shoes compete with a scant handful of shoes from other specialists such as Sidi, Shimano, Pearl Izumi and Lake rather than the large number of men's models available at an equivalent standard.

The Espadas are an undeniably attractive looking shoe, available in a black or white option, each with sporty silver flashes and are impressively light when you first pick them up, thanks to the Easton EC70 composite outsole and lightweight upper. Suitable for use with road pedals only (not mtb style SPDs or egg beaters), they feel light on even with cleats mounted. The fastening is two Velcro straps and a ratcheted strap for fine tuning on the fly.

In wear, they were amazingly comfortable right from the word go. There was just the right amount of room for my medium width feet to stay happy, without too much toe box volume to allow foot movement when riding. Even on a long ride, they stayed snug and secure, but without any loss of circulation to the toes. The footbed also performed well, supporting my foot with none of the hotspots that some road shoes can produce. There was also little in the way of road buzz. The straps kept the feet secure enough, and the outsole was rigid enough for pedaling to feel efficient and productive, with good power transfer, yet they retained that feeling of lightness on my feet even when riding.

One tiny niggle, and not anything out of the ordinary really, was that there was little protection for the carbon outsole at the heel edge, meaning that care needed to be taken when unclipping and putting my foot down at traffic lights and junctions etc. The heel quite quickly showed signs of damage when I planted the foot heel first, but as soon as I realized this was happening, it was easy to adapt to a cleat first foot down position. In common with many lightweight race shoes, the soles aren't going to last that well the more time you spend off the bike in them, but then, they're meant for riding!

£159.99 isn't a trivial amount of money for a pair of road shoes, but it's not out of line with the few other pairs of female performance shoes on the market. For the levels of comfort and performance offered by the Espadas, particularly the comfort and light weight, these mark a good investment, provided you're intending to ride considerably more than you walk!

Verdict

Pricy but super light and extremely comfortable performance road shoes for women