The Rapha Men’s Pro Team Winter Jacket is a very impressive outer garment for slim-built riders wanting to ride outdoors in cold and showery weather.
The cut is limiting, though – while great when riding, it feels very short when at a café stop and it offers little space for the cake you might wish to consume there.
A couple of other niggles aside, though, the Rapha Men’s Pro Team Winter Jacket is a great protective jacket. It'll set you back £230 / $300 / €260.
Rapha Men’s Pro Team Winter Jacket details and specifications
The Rapha Men’s Pro Team Winter Jacket sports a very slim and short-cut fit – this is designed to reduce unnecessary fabric and the chances of bunching when riding, although the downside is it might not fit unless you go up a size.
This is worth noting from the off, given I just about fitted into a size large despite Rapha’s 106cm chest-size recommendation (I have a 99-100cm / 39in chest).
The fabric is unbranded – unlike Rapha’s Men's Pro Team Insulated Gore-Tex Rain Jacket – but features a DWR (durable water repellent) treatment to resist rain.
Rapha says the front-facing panels are thicker and more densely knitted for protection from cutting winds, while the flanks and rear-facing fabrics are designed to help excess body heat escape.
Inside, the jacket is fleece-lined, with a double-thick collar designed to help keep draughts at bay. The zip is backed by a thick draught excluder too.
The waist hem is broad and has a dotted gripper laid in a reverse Rapha Pro Team six-line design.
The rear features three pockets, while the chest has a zipped security pocket.
The distinctive Rapha armband is reflective, with other reflective tabs and graphics dotted around the jacket.
The Pro Team Winter Jacket is available only in black at the time of writing, although Rapha has a history of releasing seasonal colours.
Rapha Men’s Pro Team Winter Jacket performance
The Pro Team Winter Jacket’s racy cut might not be ideal when you turn up at the mid-ride café stop, but – more importantly – on the bike, it’s excellent.
There’s little-to-no excess, which means flapping is practically non-existent, but the dropped tail holds firm and offers the coverage most will need.
The fabric is a little stretchy too, so although my size-large jacket seemed much smaller than advertised, wearing it is more comfortable than you might imagine.
Inside, the fleece lining throughout the jacket felt cosy and insulating, but the outer fabric allowed excess heat to escape. Overall, this gave the jacket a slightly cold sensation against the skin when I got going on my rides, but made finding a happy temperature equilibrium easy.
Rapha’s 1-8ºC recommended operating temperature is in the right ballpark, then, but a little depends on how hot (or cold) you tend to get.
The zips are easy to work with one hand, thanks to their chunky design, although the chest pocket’s positioning on the rider’s right makes it easier for a left-handed person to reach into on the move. Of course, the same can be said for right-handed people when pockets are positioned on the left.
A quirk of the design is the slightly short arms, which run down to just above my wrist joint, and the loose cuff. Overall, it’s certainly worth trying on the jacket for size and fit, perhaps more so than most other winter jackets.
While they still work well with deep winter gloves from various brands, I’d prefer to have cuffs creating a tighter seal around my wrists to protect against draughts.
I also found the pockets sat quite high up the jacket when in a riding position – perhaps a side effect of its relatively short cut. This made reaching into them slightly trickier, because I needed to pull my shoulder and elbow up higher than I’m used to in order to gain access.
These niggles are a shame in a jacket costing £230 / $300 / €260 – the also-expensive Assos Mille GT Hashoogi Winter Jacket S11 (£265 / $335 / €300) and Santini Vega+ (£250 / $299 / €269.90) have no such flaws, while the Gore Spinshift Thermo Jacket (£159.99 / $220 / €179.95) is a cheaper, and far looser-fitting, alternative.
How we tested | winter jackets
I tested this group of winter jackets through November and December 2024. While these months have been unseasonably warmer than average, I chose the coldest days to test thermal insulation and the warmer days to assess breathability.
Testing temperatures ranged from -2ºC with freezing fog to a balmy 14ºC, and included the usual unpredictable mix of light drizzle and heavy showers. This put the DWR treatments and any waterproof membranes to the test.
I also assessed cut, overall fit and sizing, as well as details of the design such as cuffs, collars, and pocket size and access.
Jackets on test
- Rapha Men’s Pro Team Winter Jacket
- Gore Spinshift Thermo Jacket
- Sportful Total Comfort Jacket
- Santini Vega+ Winter Jacket
- Assos Mille GT Hashoogi Winter Jacket S11
- Van Rysel Men’s Winter Road Cycling Jacket Endurance
- Endura Men's Pro SL 3-Season Jacket
- Altura Men’s Endurance Blast Jacket
Rapha Men’s Pro Team Winter Jacket bottom line
The Rapha Men’s Pro Team Winter Jacket is a very good winter cycling jacket – assuming you want an excess-free racy cut.
The arms are still a little shorter than ideal (better to have a little too much than too little), though, while the cuffs could use being a little more tapered to stop unwanted draughts when not tucked away by a deep-set winter glove.
All of this stops the jacket from being a good choice for everyone, but it remains a well-performing outer layer.
Product
| Brand | rapha |
| Price | 260.00 EUR,230.00 GBP,300.00 USD |
Features
| br_gender | mens |
| Features | Sizes: XS-2XL Colours: Black Fabric - Main body: 54% Polyester, 32% Nylon, 14% Elastane Fabric - Contrast: 55% Nylon, 28% Polyester, 17% Elastane |
