The Rapha Grand Tour glove has been developed for riders who want the ultimate road racing glove. Grand Tour gloves use African Hair Sheep leather to produce the softest and most durable gloves on the market. African hair sheep live on the arid savannah of Eastern Africa. To cope with the heat and dry conditions, the hair sheep have extremely thin but strong skin. Pittards bring the hair sheep hides to their tannery in the UK where they are graded, treated and dyed. The hair sheep leather is then 'table cut' by skilled craftsmen at Burfield in Somerset and worked by hand lengthways and crossways to give the leather its beautiful texture and suppleness. The gloves are stitched by skilled machinists and pressed on a hand shaped iron. Every glove is tested rigorously before being packaged by Rapha.

Why go to all this trouble? A road rider using gloves made of hair sheep gets the confidence and feel of riding bare handed, but with the protection and comfort of the highest quality glove on the market. The gloves also offer high breathability, sweat absorption and water repellency. These properties led the RAF to use hair sheep in the gloves for their pilots. The Rapha Grand Tour gloves match this highest grade leather with quality construction and should last many seasons if looked after.

Carefully finished with double stitching in key wear points, the gloves have road-specific pads with extra reinforcement around the thumb and forefinger for those hours riding on the hoods. At 2mm, the pads are slim and comfortable. But they offer unrivalled cushioning through super high-density foam, used in the shooting gloves of army marksmen. The Grand Tour gloves are finished with durable stitching around all seams and edges. They are fastened at the cuff with a Velcro strap.

Leather gloves look and feel beautiful and they get better with age. Buy them slightly tight and they will stretch to the shape of your hands for a perfect fit.