Pearl Izumi Women's Elite Road IV shoes review

As part of the P.R.O (Performance and Race Optimised) series, the Pearl Izumi Women's Elite Road IV shoes sit at the top of the Pearl Izumi tree, having been designed to be both efficient and aerodynamic.

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When on, I was really impressed by the unidirectional carbon sole which was stiff and gave a sense of direct drive between shoe and pedal, enabling highly efficient power transfer. The concave shaping claims to give a lower than average 7mm shoe stack height, which some say gives a marginal wattage increase, in reality it may mean lowering your saddle a touch.

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The Boa reel closure is innovatively placed on the tongue of the shoe, giving the Pearl Izumi Women's Elite Road IV shoes an overall low profile look and makes for an even pressure distribution across the mid-foot, allowing a millimeter perfect micro-adjustment for fit. However, I was unable to tighten the toe box Velcro closure quite enough across my narrow forefoot, although Pearl Izumi does say that this manmade upper should soften over time.

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All in all, these are a slick pair of race shoes and tick quite a lot of the necessary top end race shoe boxes. With women’s race shoes as rare as the proverbial rocking horse dung, these are one of the best pairs we’ve seen in a long time.

For more information head over to the Madison website.