Yes, they feel fast for being almost puncture proof. This is subjective of course, but if you search “Pirelli Cinturato Velo review” there are a lot of positive reviews. I haven’t done a back-to-back comparison, say rolling down a hill from a complete stop and seeing how far I roll. That said I recently did a long segment and almost hit PR on that 8 mile segment, in similar (strong) tailwind conditions:
- Pirelli at 80psi / 18:39 / 231W
- Conti GP4000 SII at 95psi / 18:29 / 284W
Totally unscientific, I’d call that tie although power was a little higher on the PR from 3 years ago. The Conti are about ~5W lower rolling resistance on a smooth drum (BicycleRollingResistance). That particular stretch of road is a lightly used county highway, surrounded by fields (no weird wind patterns), and tarmac is older and somewhat rough. I’ve seen enough PRs on the Pirelli Cinturato Velo, on both smooth and rough road surfaces, to say the rolling resistance is not a limiter, and they are plenty fast and corner well in the real world. Racing crits? I’d swap out to Conti 5000 TL or Specialized (for me these have better road feel vs Conti). Everything else? Pirelli Cinturato Velo.