Bontrager Race X Lite Isozone VR-CF bars

£219.99, bontrager.com

hile the Classics season is all but over for the pros, the rest of us in the UK are treated to 295 square miles of potholes (on average there’s a road defect every 110m in the UK), which are damaging vehicles at a rate of once every 11 minutes. We’ve repaired 68,773 potholes this year already (says the Department for Transport), but until such time as they all get sorted, Race X Lite bars are a Classics-proven way to stave off wrist-cracking jolts and road-buzzing fatigue.

Using Bontrager’s Izozone high-density foam pads, which sit almost flush on the tops and drops thanks to the moulded recesses in the bars themselves, Bontrager claims a 20% reduction in hand numbness. How they work this out we have no idea, but given how well the regular carbon X Lite bars perform already, we’d trust Bontrager to deliver the goods.