Training through winter means dealing with wet roads, cold temperatures, and the debris that accumulates when street sweepers aren't running as often. The Grand Prix 4-Season from Continental addresses these conditions with reinforced puncture protection and a compound formulated for grip when temperatures drop. This tire bridges the gap between summer race tires and heavy-duty winter rubber—it's built to handle year-round training without the rolling resistance penalty of something like a Gatorskin.

DuraSkin sidewall protection covers the casing from bead to bead. This polyamide fabric layer stops road grit and glass from cutting through the sidewall, which is where most winter punctures happen when you're riding through debris-filled road edges. The brown sidewalls aren't just aesthetic—they're the visible marker of this protection layer. The tire uses a 3/330 TPI casing construction, which means three plies at 110 threads per inch that overlap to create 330 TPI at the sidewalls. This gives you sidewall suppleness without sacrificing durability.

A double layer of Vectran breaker sits under the tread. Most road tires use a single Vectran layer, but the 4-Season doubles it for additional puncture resistance. Vectran is a liquid crystal polymer—similar to spider silk in structure—with tensile strength five times that of steel at a fraction of the weight. The double layer stops thorns and sharp objects without making the tire stiff or slow-rolling like puncture-resistant tires from a decade ago.... Read More