Professional riders may cycle in the cold and rain more often than some of us, but that doesn’t mean they enjoy it any more. On the contrary, with as little as 6% body fat, the world’s best bear the brunt of the harshest conditions faster than anybody else.
The advent of the Castelli Gabba jacket in 2010 (ahead of its commercial release in 2011), however, made things a bit better.
Look back at old footage of bike races and the evolution of cycling clothing is as telling as the bikes themselves. Circa 2010 was a period of revolution for clothing.
Until then, jerseys with flappy arms and billowing jackets that could safely land you on Earth following a skydive were the accepted norms in the peloton. Aerodynamics was something for boffins in labs, rather than a goal for riders.
- More from Icons of Cycling: How the Giant TCR went from young radical to old conservative
The arrival of the Gabba
How did the Gabba come to life? The story is now as famous as the Gabba itself. Back in 2009, Castelli sponsored the Cérvelo Test Team and its riders, led by Gabriel Rasch, were tired of baggy, boil-in-the-bag waterproof jackets that were ill-suited to the demands of high-intensity training and racing.
Rasch had taken matters into his own hands, creating a makeshift jacket he’d wear on wet rides – a green waterproof (but not at all breathable) vest from his former team, Crédit Agricole, adapted with pins to make it tighter-fitting, its logo blacked out with a marker pen.
Nine or so prototypes of the Gabba were tested before Cervélo began to use it in the Classics.
The team initially referred to it as the ‘Rasch’ jacket, but this caused confusion on race radio (did Rasch need his jacket or did someone else want theirs?). So it became the Gabba, Rasch’s team nickname.
‘Flummoxed’
While the concept may be familiar today, the idea of the Gabba was entirely new 15 years ago.
Indeed, our 2011 review of the original Gabba opened on its novelty: “We love a bit of flashy Italian bike kit as much as the next cyclist, but we have to admit to being a bit flummoxed when we first saw this.”
However, like the pros, we were impressed, not least at its suitability for the changeable UK climate: “Despite our scepticism, we couldn’t help but be impressed by this jersey,” concluded BikeRadar’s review, “and in our notoriously changeable climate it has really versatile applications.”
Peloton popularity
Cervélo Test Team riders had started using the Gabba in 2010 and it had drawn envious eyes from elsewhere in the peloton during a particularly foul Spring Classics season.
There are certain touchstones for the skin-tight, crease-free clothing we enjoy today, such as the skinsuits worn by Mark Cavendish and the Great Britain team in ‘Project Rainbow’ – his pursuit of World Championship road race gold in 2011.
The Gabba’s popularity bubbled away quietly within the pro ranks from the moment it landed on the scene, but its watershed moment came in 2013, when it was worn by much of the peloton – whether they were in a Castelli-sponsored team or not – during the pitilessly cold edition of Milan-San Remo.
That race was the point when the Gabba’s profile went sky-high, and Castelli didn’t pass up the opportunity. In 2014, Castelli even launched a Pro version that came with a black Sharpie pen (a nod to the fact that non-sponsored pros would need to scrub out the Castelli logos if wearing the Gabba).
The creation of a new product category
Where Castelli led, others followed, and the Italian brand’s competitors set about developing their own versions of the Gabba.
We covered the rise of the ‘jerket’ (a jersey crossed with a jacket) in 2017, looking at examples from Sportful (Castelli’s sister company), Gore and 7mesh, each with its own take on the water-resistant and breathable design of the original Gabba.
A whole category had been born and, by 2017, Sportful had three different short-sleeve weatherproofs in its Fiandre NoRain range.
“Realistically you can cover 5°C / 41°F up to about 20°C / 68°F with these products, they offer a way of being protected in a variety of weather conditions without having to worry about whether you remembered to pack your jacket, or overheating when the sun comes out,” said a Sportful spokesperson at the time.
The evolution of the Gabba
Castelli has also continued to evolve the Gabba, of course.
The Perfetto arrived in 2016 as a lightweight version of the Gabba, while the current Gabba RoS 2 is the latest take on the original short-sleeve piece.
Castelli continues to innovate, though, and the Gabba R, launched in April 2024, is a completely new interpretation, utilising a thinner, more packable fabric that hugs the body and is said to be faster than a skinsuit.
It’s a high-level piece designed for WorldTour professionals, but one thing’s for sure: cyclists have never had it so good when it comes to kit and the Gabba has played a big part in that.
