A winter classic, the Castelli Alpha ROS Jersey Limited Edition holds its spot in your cold weather cycling wardrobe with vigor. Solving the problem of whether a jacket or jersey is ideal, the Alpha ROS Jersey situates itself as a hybrid between the two, with lightly insulating warmth and weather resistance, but without reaching an overpowering build that doesn't function well when the temperatures are shy of freezing. As we prepare for another season of cold-weather cycling, it behooves us to pause for a consideration of winter climbing. Climbing makes you hot, so your body produces sweat. But then you hit the top, and the fast descent through cold air cools everything off--including the sweat. Since this chain of events usually means finishing a ride in clammy frigidity, confronting one or a series of taxing climbs during a winter ride is a daunting prospect. Castelli's Alpha design seeks to remedy this. Your need to climb may be due to the restrictions of local topography, the desire to interrupt the monotony of winter base miles, or your own inability to just take it easy on a training ride. Whatever the case, the most immediately obvious feature that sets the Alpha ROS Jersey apart from its competitors is also the one that addresses this, the ultimate problem of winter cycling: how to eliminate sweat on the climb without freezing. The Alpha Jersey's thermal layer is detached from the Windstopper layer in the front, so--unlike with other winter jackets--when you unzip the shell to let in the wind, you're only exposing the thermal layer, not your bare chest or baselayer. Since the thermal layer is protective but permeable, it lets the cool in evenly, all over, not just in one frigid blast at your sternum. The thermal layer is also more breathable than the outer Windstopper fabric, which means that it evacuates moisture from your microclimate even as your body creates it on the climb. At the top, you're as dry as possible, so you can zip up and descend without ...