Vittoria Corsa Pro TLR tyre review

The Corsa Pro TLR is Vittoria’s new flagship road racing tyre, as used by some of the sport’s biggest stars.

Having been ridden to a number of significant WorldTour victories already, the Corsa Pro TLR promises big things.

For its part, Vittoria claims a number of improvements to key characteristics such as rolling resistance and puncture protection.

In use, the Corsa Pro TLR delivered on high expectations in terms of ride feel, grip and ease of setup.

Poor lab results for rolling resistance were a disappointment, however, especially at this price.

Vittoria Corsa Pro TLR details and specifications

The new Corsa Pro TLR was launched earlier this year as part of a wide-ranging overhaul of Vittoria’s flagship range of road bike tyres.

Tubeless road tyres have developed rapidly in recent years, and the old Corsa TLR G2.0 was showing its age.

Headline developments for the Corsa Pro TLR include claimed improvements to rolling and puncture resistance of 12 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively, while weight is said to be down by 4 per cent.

Vittoria says this has been achieved via a new construction method dubbed 'light vulcanisation', which marries a 320 TPI (Threads Per Inch) cotton casing with an electrically vulcanised tread.

Vittoria says this delivers the improved ride feel and lower rolling resistance of a supple cotton casing, along with the durability of a vulcanised tyre.

Pleasingly, a 700 x 28c Corsa Pro TLR weighs just 274g on my scales, 21g lighter than the claimed weight of 295g.

That’s competitive with other major players in this space, such as the Schwalbe Pro One TLE (264g) and the Continental GP5000 S TR (280.6g).

At £89.99/$99.99/€94.95 per tyre, pricing is less competitive, however.

Prices have risen across the cycling industry in recent years, but this nevertheless makes the Corsa Pro TLR one of the most expensive road bike tyres available.

The Vittoria Corsa Pro TLR can only be bought with classic tan sidewalls, so fans of black tyres will need to look elsewhere.

Vittoria Corsa Pro TLR installation and tubeless setup

The Vittoria Corsa Pro TLR ticks all the boxes when it comes to installation and tubeless setup.

Compared to my experience with previous-generation Corsa Speed TLR tyres, the Corsa Pro TLRs slipped on to a set of Hunt 54 Aerodynamicist Carbon Disc wheels with relative ease.

No tools were required to coax the tyres onto the rims, and I was able to seat both sets of beads using a standard track pump (as opposed to a dedicated tubeless inflator).

Once installed, my set of 700x28c tyres measured a slightly narrow 27.5mm at 65psi/4.5 BAR.

This is surprising given the Hunt rims have a 20mm internal width, and wider rims tend to increase the effective width of a tyre (current ETRTO regulations state a 28c tyre should measure 28mm wide on a 19mm rim).

Vittoria Corsa Pro TLR rolling resistance

With Vittoria claiming big improvements for the Corsa Pro TLR versus its predecessor, I had high hopes for it when we visited the Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub and its rolling resistance rig.

Unfortunately, the Corsa Pro TLR disappointed in this area, producing 16.68 watts of rolling resistance for a single tyre at 30kph.

This put it dead last of the eight tyres we tested. Worse still, the margin of its defeat was relatively significant.

That’s 2.36 watts more per tyre than the next closest competitor, the Specialized S-Works Turbo 2BR, and 4.82 watts more than the fastest tyre on test, the new Pirelli P Zero Race TLR.

Given the performance difference was so stark (the other tyres on test had averaged around 12 to 14 watts up until that point), I queried it with the engineers while the test was running.

We double-checked everything, though, and couldn’t find any faults or anomalies with the test setup. The detailed report from the rig also doesn't show any obvious discrepancies.

Vittoria Corsa Pro TLR ride impressions

Vittoria Corsa tyres have always delivered excellent ride feel, and the Corsa Pro TLR is no different.

The supple casing and grippy compound feels fantastic on the road, offering plenty of vibration-damping, and confidence when cornering or descending.

It doesn’t feel slow, either. Had I been doing back-to-back tests in a controlled environment, then perhaps I’d have been able to detect the differences. However, for regular riding, the Corsa Pro TLR feels brilliant.

That doesn’t mean the deficit doesn’t exist, of course. Were I picking a tyre for racing or chasing Strava KOM/QOMs, this wouldn’t be my first choice.

However, it’s also fair to say that losing a few watts to rolling resistance doesn’t spoil the general ride experience either.

The only other thing of note is that air retention wasn’t brilliant. When I initially set them up, each tyre lost around 30psi/2 BAR within a few hours, but this improved significantly after a short ride to distribute the tubeless sealant properly.

Even so, the Corsa Pro TLR still loses a noticeable amount of tyre pressure overnight, and needs to be reinflated prior to every ride for optimum performance.

If these tyres were to live on your ‘Sunday Best’ bike, that’s hardly the end of the world. It’s no different from using latex inner tubes, for example.

On the other hand, it’s worth being aware that the Corsa Pro TLR isn’t a ‘set and forget’ option for everyday riding.

Vittoria Corsa Pro TLR bottom line

Vittoria can be commended for breaking new ground with the Corsa Pro TLR.

The combination of a traditional cotton casing and a seamlessly attached tread offers easy setup, fantastic ride feel and, in my opinion, looks brilliant too.

Disappointingly, though, it performed relatively poorly in our rolling resistance test.

And while lab results don’t tell you everything about how a tyre performs in the real world, at this price it’s not unreasonable to expect top performance in all areas.