Pez Fans, welcome to Gear Break: Fall’s Calling. And fall is not leaving a voicemail. The sun is dipping earlier every day now. The mornings have a bit of a chill to them. We are into that stretch of the calendar nobody names well – not summer, not winter, just the long in-between.
The industry calls it transition. Castelli capitalizes it. Rapha refuses to call it the off season at all. Whatever you call it, it is the hardest six weeks of the year to dress for, and the brands know it. This week we have Castelli’s expanded Espresso range, Gobik going seasonless with Interlude, and Rapha’s AW26 Pro Team and Brevet drop. Pirelli brings wide new Cinturato EVO casings for roads that fall apart this time of year, and DMT launches the IAAN Gravel shoe. Zwift rounds it out with the season roadmap, because when fall calls, the trainer answers. Let’s get into the gear!
Castelli Espresso Range
Covering the shoulders
Castelli has expanded its best-selling Espresso range by launching a new Espresso Thermal Bibshort and TRNSTN Bibtight alongside an updated Espresso 2 Vest and LS Jersey options.
These garments join a nucleus of products built to excel in the ever-expanding transition period. Castelli has designed these to bridges the gap between mid-summer and deep winter.
Espresso Thermal Bibshort
The bibshort is the ultimate Transition product, encompassing warmth, stretch and comfort in a performance-driven design for when the temperature gauge sits between 10-18°C (50-64°F).
From the outside, it maintains the clean, minimalist look of the standard Espresso 2 Bibshort, but on the inside, a brushed, fleece-like thermal fabric delivers essential insulation while maintaining maximum flexibility.
Castelli tailored the front of the short to provide added coverage and insulation, while precise tapering behind the knee eliminates bunching when pedaling. The high elasticity of the fabric also facilitates a comfortable, gripper-free leg ending as the garment sits in place naturally.
The Espresso Thermal Bibshort retails for MSRP €170,00 | $210.00 | £185.00. Colors offered are Belgian Blue, Black, Shadow and Smoky Gray.
Espresso TRNSTN Bibtight
The TRNSTN Bibtight steps in for riders who prefer full leg coverage in temperatures between 8-16°C (46-60°F). Temps too chilly for a standard bibshort but not cold enough for an insulated bibtight. The perfect bridging garment, this bibtight features the same Doppio fabric and Progetto X2 Air seamless seat pad found in the Espresso 2 Bibshort, made available in a long option for the very first time.
The Espresso TRNSTN Bibtight retails for MSRP €180,00 | $210.00 | £190.00. Colors offered are Belgian Blue, Black, Clay and Paprika (men’s), Black and Clay (women’s).
Espresso Long Sleeve Jerseys
The range offers two jerseys: one lightweight to block the chill and one thermal to take into the cold. Castelli refined the Espresso 2 LS Jersey and Espresso Thermal 2 Jersey by adding more reinforcement in the back pockets to prevent sagging while loaded. They both offer a host of new colors add a fresh aesthetic while still maintaining the classic, clean Espresso look.
Both jerseys deliver a close-to-body fit that is neither tight nor constrictive, offering great breathability and moisture management in the process. The Espresso 2 LS Jersey utilizes a summer-weight fabric that is suited to temperatures ranging from 15-25°C (59-77°F) while the Espresso Thermal 2 Jersey — with its thermal, fleece-like inner — is best ridden between 12-18°C (53-64°F).
The Espresso 2 LS Jersey retails for MSRP RRP €140,00 | $170.00 | £145.00. Colors offered are Silver Moon and Garnet (men’s), Silver Moon and Winter Sky (women’s). The Espresso Thermal 2 Jersey retails for MSRP €160,00 | $190.00 | £165.00. Colors offered are Black/White, Garnet, Ivory, Metallic Blue, Shadow and Twilight Blue (men’s), Black/White, Garnet, Night Shade and Steel Blue (women’s).
Espresso 2 Vest
The Espresso 2 Vest is a core layering piece for the Transition period. Built for temperatures between 12-20°C (53-68°F), with a large selection of new colorway options, it gives wider clothing choices throughout the season. The front utilizes a premium, stretch-woven fabric that blocks chilling winds while still allowing a controlled amount of airflow to pass through. Riders stay dry because moisture escapes with ease. Castelli takes breathability to another level on the back of the vest. They incorporated the same lightweight fabric that can be found in the standard Espresso 2 Jersey.
Due to that dual-fabric combination, the garment is extremely compact and can easily fit into just one half of a regular jersey pocket.
The Espresso 2 Vest retails for MSRP €130,00 | $155.00 | £135.00. Colors offered are Black/White, Chestnut, Garnet, Ivory, Metallic Blue and Shadow (men’s), Black/White, Clay, Garnet, Ivory and Shadow (women’s)
Complete details for the full Espresso range can be found at Castelli.com.
Zwift
New season, new roads, new bike
Zwift this week announced highlights from its expansive roadmap coming This Season On Zwift. Designed to make the platform easier to use, more personalised, more effective, and highly rewarding, the upcoming updates cater to the full breadth of Zwift’s global community of active riders, from WorldTour professionals to beginner and recreational cyclists.
Zwift Ride 2
The best way to Zwift just got better. Available from today, Zwift Ride V2 brings more adjustability to Zwift’s much-loved smart bike while retaining the same great price ($1299.99 / €1199.99 / £1099.99). The updated Zwift Ride offers more adjustability, with a more compact frame that now accommodates riders from 4’10” to 6’6″ (146 to 198 cm).
Additionally, Zwift Ride will come with adjustable cranks as standard, offering five different crank lengths (160 mm, 165 mm, 170 mm, 172.5 mm, 175 mm). An updated seatpost design also offers more fore-and-aft adjustability, helping Zwifters achieve a more forward saddle position than previously possible. For existing owners of Zwift Ride, the adjustable cranks and updated seatpost will be available to purchase as an accessory from Zwift.com.
Zwift companion home screen refresh
This October, Zwift Companion app will get a fresh new look. Major updates to the home screen will simplify the experience, bringing more of what you need front and centre. Zwift Companion will do more to celebrate what you’ve achieved and highlight progress. The weekly activity graph will be broken into two screens, making it easier to view your week and track your fitness.
WHOOP Integration
Available to Zwifters from today is a new partner integration with WHOOP. This first wearables connection helps Zwifters get a fuller picture of their training, providing insights based on their WHOOP Recovery Score. On red days, Zwift will automatically adjust your Personal Recommendations, so athletes can still get a meaningful session without overreaching.
The WHOOP connection is available within Zwift today. Later this fall, Zwifters with a WHOOP connection will also benefit from an enriched experience within the WHOOP app, where your Zwift rides and runs will be visible.
Zwift Homescreen Update
It’s not just Zwift Companion that is due a makeover this coming season. Rolling out from September 22, the Zwift game home screen will undergo a refresh, bringing planning and progress front and centre. Scheduled content is elevated within the new home screen design, meaning your next activity is just a click away. Additionally, day tags assigned to planned activities help you visualise your week by what’s coming up.
Zwifters will also notice a new Progress Widget, helping them track their progress towards their weekly goals, alongside career progression stats, a much-requested update.
Watopia Expansion
Zwift is set to further expand Watopia, the most popular destination in indoor cycling. Inspired by the West Coast of California and Catalina Island, this expansion adds roughly 18 kilometres of new roads connecting Jarvis to the Jungle. The new environment features a flat bypass option around the Epic KOM, and two crit-style circuits designed specifically for racing.
Watt Lock
Launching this October, “Watt Lock,” will give Zwifters more power to control their efforts. Watt Lock is an ERG mode toggle accessible via the Zwift Action Bar during freerides that lets Zwifters lock into a target power with a simple click. Now Zone 2 days, stay Zone 2. Those using Zwift Game controllers (Zwift Ride, Zwift Click or Zwift Play) can use the controllers to make simple adjustments to the target power on the fly.
Zwift Drop Shop Updates
If you’ve earned bonus Drops by participating in Power Play, there will be even more to spend them on this season, in the Drop Shop. Drops are Zwift’s in-game currency and can only be earned by riding. Zwifters can spend their hard-earned Drops in Zwift’s Drop Shop, the ultimate store front in cycling. This year, Zwift has overhauled the Drop Shop, and there are no plans to stop. Coming in October will be a Kona-themed drop, bringing the latest triathlon bikes and wheels to Zwift. Following that, will be a drop many have been requesting. Factor Bikes will be coming to the Drop Shop, along with Black Inc wheels. In addition, the iconic Zwift x Pinarello paint scheme will be made available for Zwifters to purchase.
And more…
Zwift will also be adding two new Halo bikes in late 2026. And racing, training, and just earning drops is going to be more fun with new race series, training options, and something Zwift is calling Power Play. For the rest of the details, check out Zwift’s news release for the coming season.
Gobik Interlude
Unconstrained by time
Gobik this week launched INTERLUDE, a landmark release that marks a pivotal evolution in the brand’s global business and design strategy.
Moving intentionally away from the rigid structure of traditional spring/summer and fall/winter drop calendars, Gobik presents INTERLUDE not through the functional logic of a seasonal collection, but through profound strategic meaning. Guided by its core identity as a “Nonconformist” brand, Gobik is advancing toward a more flexible, community-focused, and market-responsive model that actively reshapes the future of performance cycling fashion.
Strategic Concept & Business Reasoning Beyond the Calendar
In an industry historically bound by strict seasonal cadence, Gobik’s strategic review recognized a fundamental shift in how global cycling communities operate. Cyclists today do not live within uniform climatic or geographic boundaries. By breaking free from conventional calendar constraints, INTERLUDE establishes a business approach driven by real consumer needs and active community listening—placing fashion directly at the service of the cyclist.
An interlude represents the space between acts—not an empty pause, but a deliberate moment that connects scenes, changes rhythm, and prepares what comes next with tension and direction. Through this flexible, seasonless framework, Gobik reinforces its position as a forward-thinking global brand that understands cycling as a shared cultural phenomenon rather than a regional product cycle.
Shaping The Future Of Performance Cycling Fashion
With INTERLUDE, the concept leads and the product serves as its tangible proof point. Gobik takes a clear stance within the B2B and B2C cycling landscape, setting a new benchmark for how apparel brands communicate with their audience and manage product lifecycles. By placing purpose, dialogue, and cultural connection at the center of its growth roadmap, Gobik demonstrates that true innovation in performance fashion requires not only technical excellence, but a visionary business strategy designed for an interconnected world.
The Creative Campaign: Duality & Global Connection
To visually embody this global connection and conceptual duality, Gobik’s creative campaign for INTERLUDE anchors itself across two clearly contrasting yet unified geographies: the tropical, vibrant landscapes of Lombok and Jakarta in Indonesia (Asia), and the refined, contemporary urban architecture of Düsseldorf, Germany (Europe).
Rather than serving as mere scenic backdrops, these locations represent the real-world tension and harmony between diverse riding environments. The campaign captures cyclists navigating distinct cultural topographies while performing the exact same universal gesture: riding. Through this remarkable visual narrative, INTERLUDE demonstrates that while contexts, climates, and territories differ, cycling serves as the single, powerful common thread uniting riders worldwide.
The Full Collection
The Gobik Interlude collection is available now from Gobik.com. Pricing is in EUR regardless of the market. Due to ongoing issues with global trade, tariffs and other duties could apply to your market.
Rapha AW26
Against Better Judgement
Rapha’s autumn/winter range has landed, and the brand’s own framing is worth repeating: the season has shifted, but it has not settled into full foulness. AW26 covers Pro Team and Brevet, and the pieces are built for the intensity of autumn training rather than for survival rides in February. Rapha has also put a launch film — we’ve linked it below.
The rollout is staggered. Autumnal Pro Team styles arrived 7 September. AW26 Brevet followed on 15 September. The MTB GORE-TEX Jacket drops 5 October, and the full Winter Pro Team range lands 12 October. Four pieces stand out.
Pro Team Thermal Jacket – $290 / €240 / £200
Rapha calls this the do-it-all jacket for cold days, and the dual-fabric DWR-treated construction backs that up. You get warmth first, with wind and spray protection layered on top. The fit is engaged rather than relaxed, with targeted articulation so it does not bunch in the drops. Hi-vis elements sit where they matter for dark mornings and post-work training. Rapha is clear about where it lands in the range: more protective than the Pro Team Midweight Jersey, less water and cold protection than the Shadow Winter Jacket. Read that as cold and dry rather than cold and wet.
Pro Team Lightweight Cargo Tights – $285 / €250 / £215
A dense 205gsm, 40-denier warp-knit fabric runs across the legs to block wind chill on cold shoulder-season rides. The draw here is storage. Two integrated leg pockets are made from the same self-fabric, so you can carry extra food without the flap and drag of bolted-on cargo panels.
Pro Team Long Sleeve Midweight Jersey II – $260 / €195 / £165
The workhorse of the range. It uses a 185gsm micro-brushed recycled fabric, 92% recycled polyester and 8% elastane, with a high warmth-to-weight ratio. The hem has been reworked to cut bulk and hold position under a gilet or jacket. This is the base of the layering system, and the Thermal Jacket above is the obvious pairing.
Rapha Overshoes – $120 / €95 / £80
New booties, and they look genuinely good. Rapha uses premium 2mm neoprene to seal out rain and cold road spray, with a streamlined fit over road shoes rather than the usual baggy sock look. A hard-wearing secondary fabric across the underside protects the contact points that normally shred first – walking, unclipping, the coffee stop shuffle. Winter Overshoes ($135 / €105 / £90) cover the coldest days.
Also new in the range
- Pro Team Lightweight GORE-TEX Rain Jacket II – $450 / €350 / £295, a 3-layer PFAS-free GORE-TEX shell that packs into a jersey pocket
- Pro Team Thermal Bib Shorts – $360 / €300 / £260
- Pro Team Shadow Hat – $65 / €51 / £45
- Pro Team Peaked Shadow Hat – $75 / €57 / £50
- Pro Team Shadow Winter Gloves – $120 / €95 / £80
- Brevet GORE-TEX Rain Jacket – $540 / €420 / £350, and at 142g it is Rapha’s lightest ultra-distance waterproof to date
Pricing & Availability: All prices are RRP. Full range details at rapha.cc.
Pirelli Cinturato EVO TLR, 45/50/55mm – $92.90 / €79.90 / £74.99
Road enduro. Pirelli invented the category, then built a 55mm slick to justify it.
The big Cinturato EVO casings have landed. The 45, 50 and 55mm are available now, and they are the reason to care about this tire.
What you are buying
Start with the tread, because it is the whole argument. The centerline is slick. Pirelli borrowed the shoulder treatment from its Scorpion Trail III motorcycle tire, so the cutouts get deeper and wider as you move off the crown. Upright on pavement, you are rolling on a slick. Lean it into a wet corner and the shoulders start working.
Underneath is the SmartEVO AS compound, Pirelli’s best all-season rubber for grip, comfort and mileage. The casing is TechWall+ Road, 60 TPI, with multiple puncture layers in a construction built to stay flexible on rough roads. Tubeless ready, made in Italy, and over half the tire by weight is bio-based or recycled material.
Why the wide sizes change the brief
A 50mm slick sounds absurd until you think about where rims have gone. A big casing on a modern wide rim sits square and supported instead of lightbulbed. Enormous air volume, a broad contact patch, and a tread that still rolls like a road tire.
That opens up terrain this tire was never pitched at. Busted Michigan tarmac in March. Cobbles. Champagne gravel, the smooth fast stuff that punishes a narrow tire and barely registers under a 50. “All road” undersells it.
Check one thing before you order. Pirelli’s tech sheet lists a reference rim per size, and the wide ones run narrower than you might assume: 25C for both the 45 and the 50, and 27C for the 55. That is the rim Pirelli measured on, not a hard ceiling, but if you plan to hang a 50 off a 30 or 35mm internal rim, confirm the fit with your wheel manufacturer. Hookless especially.
The numbers
- 45-622: 580g, 25C reference rim
- 50-622: 650g, 25C reference rim
- 55-622: 710g, 27C reference rim
- All three: 60 TPI, TechWall+, SmartEVO AS, tubeless ready
- Black sidewall only. Classic and Retro tanwalls stop at 32mm
Pirelli lists endurance and light gravel as intended use, with performance riding and full gravel both possible. That 50 at 650g is respectable for a casing this size carrying multiple puncture layers.
Pricing & Availability: $92.90 / €79.90 / £74.99 per tire, one price across the range, all three wide sizes in stock now. Some US retailers list an MSRP of $109.90, so the American price may have moved since launch. Run Pirelli’s pressure calculator before your first ride on a casing this big. Full specs at pirellicycling.com.
DMT IAAN Gravel – $389 / €279 / £285
Golf ball dimples for aerodynamics and breathability
The IAAN Gravel is DMT’s most aggressive off-road shoe yet. The upper has gone a different direction from the knitted approach we liked in the GK1. DMT, nevertheless, promises a highly efficient, high-performance shoe.
Dimple Tech
The headline is the upper. DMT calls it Dimple Tech, named for exactly what it sounds like: the surface of a golf ball. Hexagonal dimples across the mesh manage airflow over the shoe rather than simply letting air through it. DMT claims gains in breathability and aerodynamics. Take the aero half with a grain of salt on gravel. Breathability is the claim that matters at hour six of a hot day, and the open mesh looks built for it.
Sole and toe box
DMT has not specified the sole material. European coverage characterizes it as nylon-TPU, and that is no knock at this price. TPU is thermoplastic polyurethane, an injection-molded plastic that shrugs off abrasion and absorbs point impacts instead of chipping. Carbon does neither well. On gravel you walk on rock, so a tough plate that damps a little buzz and survives the hike-a-bike is the better tool. DMT knows it: the GK1 ran a Michelin rubber outsole and still transferred power like a race shoe.
The outsole is gravel-specific and lugged, with standard two-bolt SPD mounting, and the reinforced toe box is the correct answer for a shoe meant to meet rocks.
The BOA connection
A single BOA Li2 dial handles closure, mounted asymmetrically so it pulls the upper across the foot at an angle and keeps pressure off the instep. One dial on a $389 shoe will raise eyebrows, but the Li2 is the right one to use alone. It micro-adjusts both directions on TX4 soft lace, so you can add or shed tension mid-ride, and it carries BOA’s lifetime guarantee.
This is not a new relationship either. When BOA launched the Li2 platform in 2020, DMT was one of just six brands chosen to debut it.
Weight
Reported weight is 620g per pair in a size 42, against DMT’s 600g claim for the GK1 in the same size. Giving away 20g for a reinforced toe box and a full BOA system says the dimpled mesh is doing real work rather than just looking the part. One caution: claimed weights are typically quoted at size 42, and most of us are not a 42. Road.cc scaled a size 46 GK1 at 747g. Adjust your expectations upward.
Pricing & Availability
DMT states MSRP at $389 / €279 / £285, with deliveries beginning from September 18. Sizes run EU 37 to 46 in two colorways, Triple Sand and White Lilac. US buyers take the worst of that spread by about a hundred dollars. Details at dmtcycling.com.
Note: If you have other experiences with gear or something to add, drop us a line. We don’t claim to know everything (we just imply it at times). Give us a pat on the back if you like the reviews. Or, call us out if you feel the need!
PezCycling News and the author ask that you consult the manufacturers if you have any questions about the products you see here. Only the manufacturer can provide accurate and complete information on proper/safe use, handling, maintenance, and or installation of products as well as any conditional information or product limitations.
The post Gear Break: Fall’s Calling – Castelli Espresso, Zwift, Gobik Interlude, Rapha AW26, Pirelli Cinturato EVO TLR, DMT IAAN Gravel appeared first on PezCycling News.
