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40Race Shoe FinderEst. 2023 · London

Head to head

HOKA Cielo X1 2.0vs
Nike Alphafly 3

Cielo X1 2.0

£150

Typical street price · £250 RRP

■ 46mm — over limit
Alphafly 3

£203

Typical street price · £285 RRP

40mm — on the limit

Choose the Cielo X1 2.0 if…

  • You want more shoe underneath you late on: 46mm against 40mm, which is protection over a long race rather than speed over a short one.
  • You want something more forgiving. This is the steadier platform — useful if your form goes late, or if you are on your feet longer.
  • Money matters: it is selling around £150 against £203, and the time difference between them is smaller than the price difference suggests.
  • You want more races out of one pair: about 350km of competitive life against 250km.
  • You are racing Ultra / 50K+ — built for it, where the Alphafly 3 is not.

Choose the Alphafly 3 if…

  • Your race is run under World Athletics rules — this one is legal at 40mm and the Cielo X1 2.0 is not.
  • You want the bigger return: 3.4–4.6% economy gain against 2.8–4%, and that gap widens the longer you are out there.
  • You race off a strong, repeatable stride and want the more aggressive ride rather than the safer one.
  • You are racing Half marathon — built for it, where the Cielo X1 2.0 is not.

What does this
mean for you?

Every figure below is recalculated from your race and your current time. The gap between two shoes is not fixed — it grows with how long you are on your feet.

Over marathon from 3:45:00

Time back
Cielo X1 2.0: 138s–219sAlphafly 3: 179s–260s
Cost per second saved
Cielo X1 2.0: £0.15Alphafly 3: £0.23

Ranges, not promises. Both figures are against a standard trainer, and the honest answer for most runners is that the difference between two shoes of this class is smaller than the difference a month of decent training makes.

Every number.

010203040504639
Cielo X1 2.0
010203040504032
Alphafly 3

What you pay

Street price
Cielo X1 2.0£150■
Alphafly 3£203

What the shoe is actually selling for across the shops we read, not its RRP.

RRP
Cielo X1 2.0£250
Alphafly 3£285

List price. Almost nobody pays it for a race shoe.

Cost per race
Cielo X1 2.0£27■
Alphafly 3£51

Street price divided by the races the foam stays fast for.

Cost per second saved
Cielo X1 2.0£0.15■
Alphafly 3£0.23

The whole-life question: what each second of race time costs you.

What it does

Estimated saving
Cielo X1 2.0138s–219s
Alphafly 3179s–260s■

Against a standard trainer, over the distance and time set above.

Economy gain
Cielo X1 2.02.8–4%
Alphafly 33.4–4.6%■
Built for
Cielo X1 2.0Marathon · Ultra
Alphafly 3Half · Marathon
Best use case
Cielo X1 2.0Enormous, cushioned and surprisingly stable. For heavier runners and slower marathoners it may genuinely be the most comfortable way to cover 42km fast.
Alphafly 3Still the reference marathon shoe. The Air pods give a propulsive forefoot that nothing else quite replicates, and the wider platform makes it manageable late in a race when your form has gone.

How it is built

Weight
Cielo X1 2.0230 g
Alphafly 3218 g■

Manufacturer figure at men's US 9.

Stack (heel)
Cielo X1 2.046 mm
Alphafly 340 mm
Stack (forefoot)
Cielo X1 2.039 mm
Alphafly 332 mm
Drop
Cielo X1 2.07 mm
Alphafly 38 mm
Foam
Cielo X1 2.0PEBA
Alphafly 3ZoomX with Air Zoom pods
Plate
Cielo X1 2.0carbon fibre
Alphafly 3carbon fibre

Rules and fit

Road legal
Cielo X1 2.0No (46 mm)
Alphafly 3Yes (40 mm)■

World Athletics caps road racing shoes at 40 mm of stack.

Fit
Cielo X1 2.0standard
Alphafly 3standard
Stability
Cielo X1 2.0stable
Alphafly 3balanced

Neither is better in the abstract — it depends on your stride.

Race life
Cielo X1 2.0~350 km■
Alphafly 3~250 km

How long the foam stays fast, not how long the shoe survives.

Data confidence
Cielo X1 2.0verified
Alphafly 3verified

■ marks the better figure where one is genuinely better. Fit, foam, drop and stability carry no mark — they depend on your foot and your stride, not on which shoe is superior.

In your size.

Where to buy

Your UK size

Best price today — some sizes£150at Armaghsports — £100 under RRP

9 retailer checks failed on the last run, so their prices are missing rather than wrong.

Prices are captured when the site is built and stamped with the time of that check. We never rank a retailer by what it pays us; where a link earns a commission it is marked sponsored and the price you pay is unchanged.

Where to buy

Your UK size

Best price today — some sizes£199.99at Run North West — £85 under RRP

9 retailer checks failed on the last run, so their prices are missing rather than wrong.

Prices are captured when the site is built and stamped with the time of that check. We never rank a retailer by what it pays us; where a link earns a commission it is marked sponsored and the price you pay is unchanged.