The Rapha Pro Team Lace Up Cycling Shoes are the British brand’s road shoe offering. They are lightweight and a lot of thought has clearly gone into the ‘Speedlace system’ which not only allows you to, well, lace up speedily, but means that also pressure is spread across the whole top of each foot to avoid painful ‘hotspots’.
They certainly hold their own against the best cycling shoes.
Rapha Pro Team Lace Up Cycling Shoes: Arrival
The shoes arrived in an attractive purple box; the high-quality attention to aesthetics we’ve become used to from Rapha. The shoes were accompanied by a cloth bag for transporting them to your next event or posed cafe stop.
In the box were some 'high arch' inserts for people with high arches. These were not needed for me, at all.
As is standard, the shoes did not come with cleats – how would Rapha know which pedals every customer uses? – so I added a pair of Look Keo cleats, admittedly far from new and already fairly worn.
Rapha Pro Team Lace Up Cycling Shoes: Fit
Rapha suggests sizing at least half a size up when ordering as the shoes come up narrow. I went with size 44, which I wear in other brands, but I was once told by a bike fitter that I’m actually a size 43.5, so by habit or default, I sized up by half a size.
I found the size 44 ‘true to size’, insofar as they fitted comfortably, but they do have less wiggle room than my old faithful Specialized Torch shoes, again pointing to Rapha’s assertion that the shoes come up small. You do have to wonder if that note was made on the webshop once the brand started receiving feedback, rather than a fact that was known from the off. Otherwise, you’d just make them true to size, wouldn’t you?
Regardless, when you’ve got the correct size on – even when the number printed inside is different to the shoes you’re replacing from other brands – they do fit and they are comfortable. For the most part.
Rapha Pro Team Lace Up Cycling Shoes: Comfort and construction
For short to medium length rides (it’s all relative, for me this means 20-70km), the shoes were comfortable and I was happy to have them on my feet.
However, for anything over 80km, I did start to feel a bit of discomfort down the outsides of my feet, as the slightly-narrow body and stiff soles took their toll on my feet. A bit of toe wiggling and a loosening of the speedily laced fastening will help with this, much the same way getting out of the saddle every now and again when ‘winning’ a Zwift race will do your undercarriage all kinds of favours.
For anyone with wider feet who’s intending to ride an audax in these shoes, it might pay to even go a full size up to ensure there’s the wiggle room to relieve any side foot pressure over much longer distances.
But it should be kept in mind that these shoes are for ‘racing and training’, so stiffness will win out against comfort whenever there’s a clash, and most of us aren’t likely to be racing a 200km Grand Tour stage.
Somewhere, happily, that the pressure isn’t a problem is across the top of your foot – and it’s by design, not just luck.
As laid out by Rapha, there are three elements of the design and manufacture that contribute to this dispersal of pressure: “a pioneering 3D woven Powerweave upper for a flexible fit and superb breathability; the Speedlace closure system for a pressure-dispersed fit at a minimal weight; the padded tongue, which disperses pressure from the laces across the top of the foot.”
I found this to be borne out in real world testing as the comfort across the top of my foot was never in doubt. ‘Hotspots’ of pressure on the top of my feet is something I have suffered from with other cycling shoes, trail running trainers and hiking boots previously – no doubt I had them done up too tight as well, but even when over-fastened the tightness is spread out with the Rapha cycling shoes.
While the ‘Speedlace’ fastening is good overall, there is a lot of it and even with the elasticated loop and lower little pouch to respectively secure and hold the lace loop once pulled tight, there did seem to be more than enough; maybe even too much lace.
Working in unison with this earlier-explained upper and main body of the shoes is an ultra-light, full-length carbon sole, which “transfers every watt of power to the road.” I’m not sure I’ve got that many watts to transfer anywhere, but it did feel like all the power and effort I could muster were being sent through the drivetrain rather than being lost to a sole reminiscent of a holiday flip flop.
While this was an excellent feature, and suits the ‘training and racing’ vibe, it’s arguable that the stiffness of the sole may have contributed to the diminished comfort found on longer rides.
To top off the construction, the outer material of the uppers has been given a durable water repellent (DWR) treatment “for comfort in inclement weather” – not particularly relevant to me as I ride in shoe covers of varying thermal ratings about 11 months of the year, but a good feature for anyone wanting to both show off their pricey shoes and ride through puddles.
Rapha Pro Team Lace Up Cycling Shoes: Value and conclusion
At $315.00 / £245.00 / €315.00, value is always going to be pretty subjective. The shoes are very good: they look really nice, they fit well, they ride well – but lower costs alternatives might save you more money than they proportionately cost you in performance.
