The Road Team Carbon feels buzzy and exciting because you are involved with everything: the feeling of the changing road surface underneath you, or the way it skips over the bumps, leaving the ground slightly under really heavy braking on a rough descent... It all adds to the feeling of being at one with the bike. You want to keep pushing it harder and harder to find the limit so you then know how far you can push it next time.
The handling is quick but never twitchy, so should your tyres break traction slightly front or rear it's really easy to keep control. It's very reassuring, especially if you aren't the most confident of bike handlers and find yourself in a bit of trouble.
The Road Team Carbon isn't quite as racy as its big brother in Boardman's performance range, the Pro Carbon SLR, which was our bike of the year a couple of years back, but consider it as a stepping stone, something to hone your skills on before you maybe consider racing.
The Shimano Tiagra 4700 groupset is lovely kit, basically a 10-speed version of Shimano 105 5800. With a 12-28 cassette you get a decent spread of gears when matched to the 50/34 chainset up front. It’s a shame not to see a Tiagra chainset for a complete look, but Boardman has gone with the FSA Gossamer because it is BB30, which means it uses a 30mm axle for added stiffness over the 24mm axle that Shimano uses.
Overall the Boardman Team is a decent build with a very good frameset at its heart. With a lighter set of wheels and probably an upgrade to those brakes you could easily race this bike right up through the ranks.
Why it’s here: A decently specced semi-race bike with a very good frameset at its heart
Stu Kerton, Road.cc October 8th, 2017