When you wear shoes that have a racer vocation, you know what to expect: extreme lightness, responsiveness taken to the limit, and sometimes some compromise. Since these are shoes made to make you develop your maximum performance, they require you to concede something. For example to comfort: have you ever seen a Formula 1 car with leather seats and air conditioning? When everything has to be on the edge and when everything has to weigh the minimum necessary, the sacrifices are mainly about comfort. And there’s more: generally racing shoes have very strong personalities, the kind you either love or loathe. And even when you love them, it is certainly not because they make you love them but because, in return, they give you something else: speed, reliability, pure energy.
A different approach
Topo Athletics developed the Cyclones, its newest racing offering, based on a fast training model, the Topo Zephyr. It’s kind of like if he took an already very fast car and started to eliminate weight: take out the upholstered seats and put in carbon-body seats, eliminate the air conditioning and radio, reduce the weight to the limit. You leave only the engine and the minimum amount of chassis you need to make everything fit together.
The surprising thing is that the one thing that has not been sacrificed is comfort: the Cyclones are incredibly convenient and comfortable.
Yet they are also very light. You can tell by weighing them in your hand and then wearing them. The big weight savings were achieved by eliminating the stabilizing Pebax plate and especially by using a single-mesh upper that is a marvel of lightness: it feels like lightweight stretch gauze, the minimum necessary to keep your foot firmly bound to the midsole and nothing more.
Such is its lightness that, slipping into it, one is almost afraid of tearing it. Which of course does not happen because it is a solid material and yet very very light.
To the feet
That they are light I have already said, and also that they are comfortable. But won’t these two characteristics undermine their aggressiveness? Not at all. First, a note about fit: as mentioned above, the upper is nothing more than “the bare minimum.” Yet it has some very clever solutions that make it incredibly comfortable: the high collar in the back is padded internally-again only to the minimum necessary and sufficient amount-so that your foot position is firm even when you push harder and, above all, comfortable to grip. The tightness of this ensemble based on a 5 mm drop midsole on which is mounted an Ortholite® insole that is odorless and, above all, extremely comfortable. The balance between the mass of the sole system and the evanescence of the upper (so light it is) on paper would seem to be compromised, but instead it is evident: two parts (sole and upper) of very different natures and textures manage to coexist and work very well together.
On the road
I know you want to get there anyway: are the Cyclones fast? And how. But that’s not all that matters: other factors matter, like the confidence they give you, for example, when you decide to accelerate and you feel them following and pushing you. When you then travel at high RPM, the good responsive feel of the midsole and the comfort that never leaves you are priceless. The final and surprising result is that you don’t remember having extreme shoes on your feet: they are comfortable as very protective shoes (a characteristic they have, having very good cushioning and a lot of “rubber underneath”) but without the compromises you sometimes have to accept using super-fast shoes. In short, it is not uncommon for them to make you want to turn your 10km fast workout into 15 or 20, because-why not?
They may not be the fastest racing shoes in the world, but that’s not all that matters. The midsole compound-a mixture of EVA and TPU-is not among the most technologically advanced, yet it provides excellent overall balance. There is also a not insignificant detail that is increasingly omitted in racing shoes in favor of weight containment: the tread has rubber inserts that limit wear, prolonging the life of the shoe. Unfortunately, newer racing shoes, using very light but more yielding compounds directly in contact with asphalt, last less and should never be used on rough surfaces. Not the Topo Athletic Cyclones that just ask you to go everywhere, as long as possible. And to speed up as much as you can.
You can buy Topo Athletic Cyclones in specialty stores or directly from the manufacturer’s website at a price of 150 euros.
