The tyre that changed my opinion on semi-slick gravel tyres, but not in the way you might think - The Pirelli P-Zero Race TLR 40, finally reviewed

A black Pirelli P-Zero Race TLR tyre with white writing mounted to a Token wheel in front of a red brick wall.

In recent years, I have become somewhat immune to brands touting their best gravel bike tyres as the best ‘all-round’, ‘do-it-all’ and ‘go-anywhere’ options. Don’t get me wrong, there are a select few that do work well, but they are nearly always left or right of centre. Dig into the data, even just a little. You will quickly discover that the weight and rolling resistance figures of these ‘do-it-all’ tyres are not significantly outperforming much wider cross-country MTB tyres, and it makes you wonder if we could be learning something from them?

Do we need a slightly different approach to gravel tyres? I certainly thought so, which is why I was very excited to put the Pirelli P-Zero Race TLR 40mm to the test.