A tire has a belt structure, the belt structure includes an overlay ply reinforced by parallel cords oriented circumferentially, the overlay ply having a pattern of cuts within discrete segments. Each segment has a repeated pattern of cuts arranged in six rows R1–R6. Each cut is spaced at least 100 mm from a cut in an adjacent row and is laterally offset from an adjacent cut by at least 3 mm, this distance being smaller than the cut width to ensure that each overlay cord is cut. The overlay cord lengths within the respective rows is of any length in the range 200 to 500 mm. The cut pitch within the respective rows is of any percentage of the tire circumference in the range 8 to 30%. The circumferential offset between two adjacent segments is of any percentage of the tire circumference in the range of 0.5 to 2%.