Michelin Road 5 launched in Spain

Latest version of Michelin's legendary sporty-toury road rubber launched in Spain

It's just below freezing outside, and snow is gently falling – not at all the weather you want for riding. But if you had to get somewhere today, you'd want a really good cold-and-wet-weather road tyre – like something from Michelin's excellent Pilot Road range. The firm's Pilot Road 3 and 4 were amazing tyres in crap conditions, making light work of wet, cold Tarmac while lasting about a million miles. They were decent when you pressed on too – I've even had the odd trackday on the old Pilots.

And now Michelin's launching the fifth generation in the range – the Michelin Road 5. They've dumped the 'Pilot' moniker, but we're hoping they've not dumped the excellent performance of the old rubber. Our man Shaun Pope was in Spain over the weekend, thrapping the very cock off various bikes shod with the new tyres, in wet and dry conditions, on road and track.

He's currently being rubbed down by his personal masseuse, and will have some words for us on the new tyres presently. In the meantime, here’s a pic of him going like the wind. He tells us the new tyres are impressive.

"There's a a whole load of new 3D carcass and tread technology which is really smart shit. The one thing that surprised me though was the slick area at the edges of the tread – that's aimed at improving dry grip. The idea is that riders don't use the very edge of the tyre when it's wet anyway, so they might as well optimise it for dry performance instead.

"They’re going for the all-year-round tyre so riders don’t need to swap for summer and winter. The perfect do-it-all hoop, as it were."