The quality and fit of your cycling shorts can make or break a ride. The right shorts will bring you miles of happy riding, but get it wrong and you’ll be battling saddle sores and pressure points.

8 Essential Things to Think About When Buying Cycling Shorts

The perfect shorts for one rider might be the epitome of discomfort for another, so finding your best lycra will take a little bit of trial and error. However, to help you along the way, we’ve rounded up 10 of the best women’s road cycling shorts to choose from, for less than £80.

Top 10 Performance Bib Shorts for Women

We’ve included waist shorts and bib shorts. Most people start out in waist shorts – they’re easy to pull up and down if you need a comfort break and do the job just fine.

Bib shorts: the joy and the pitfalls

However, many riders prefer the comfort of bib shorts. These have built in straps, which sit underneath your jersey. The design means you’re never in danger of your jersey riding up, and eliminates the chance of the waistband digging in. It does make comfort breaks more tricky, but many brands have a mechanism for counteracting this.