Get Dressed! By Marc Liljgren, Kim Ross, Sarah,
Mike Aderhold, DAve Koesel, and Tom Demerly
Perhaps more than any other sport
cycling is a rolling runway of functional fashion
built for a purpose. Nothing can enhance your enjoyment
of cool weather spring riding more than the right
clothing used correctly.
Get dressed with Sarah, rising
duathlon/triathlon star and personal trainer, while
we walk you through the essentials of learning to
dress for spring time riding and versatile cool weather
comfort.
You already
know layering the right fabrics is the key to
staying comfortable, warm and dry for hours
in cool temperatures. Sarah dresses for a cold
30 degree ride on a damp, overcast day. She
starts with a Pearl Izumi wicking base layer
fitted closely to the skin to maximize insulation
and moisture transmission. The high tech Poly-SENTRIC
fabric actually pulls perspiration off your
skin keeping you dry. Fit in base layers is
critical: They have to be snug to keep you dry.
The Pearl Izumi 3D liner shorts with their advanced
3D chamois pad are made to wear under heavy,
insulated tight and provide all-day saddle comfort
while you stay dry and warm.
Spring time is “knee-season”,
when cyclist’s knees start to act up.
To avoid knee problems Sarah adds heavy Pearl
Izumi stretch Therma-Fleece tights as her main
insulation layer on the bottom. The soft, warm
hand of the fuzzy interior serves double duty
for moisture management and insulation as well
as keeping the cold wind off delicate knees.
This extra layer of insulation surrounds large,
hard working gluteal and hamstring muscles to
maintain flexibility in cold weather and prevent
injuries.
The second top layer provides
insulation and also helps manage moisture. Pearl
Izumi’s Kodiak fabric is form-fitted into
a compressed, moisture management fleece that
traps a layer of dry, warm air between the fabric
and the body even at cycling speeds over 15
mph. You’ll wear a heavy insulation layer
anytime the temperature is below 40 degrees.
This layer works with your base layer to keep
you dry, wick perspiration away and provide
dead air space for warmth.
On really chilly, damp
days the shell layer is the difference between
misery and comfort. Shell layers are a must
have item. They fold small and compact and stuff
easily into a jersey pocket. As the day warms
up, you can peel this layer off and shove it
in your back jersey pocket. This simple Zephyr
fabric shell is inexpensive, lightweight but
entirely windproof and will even shed light
drizzle on a cold, damp day. When the sun comes
out an hour into your early morning ride, stuff
it into your jersey pocket. You’ve heard
that 33% of your head loss is from your head,
so Sarah looks cosmonaut-chic in her helmet
liner that shuts off the helmet vents and covers
her ears. Her windproof, insulated RAV-X cycling
gloves cost less than $40 and keep hands warm
all the way down to 22 degrees. Add insulated
overshoes and you are ready to ride into the
20’s!
Groundhog or not, sooner
or later it does get warm out. The secret to
dressing for early spring rides is a flexible
wardrobe that can temperature adjust on the
fly as the day gets warmer. Starting out at
8:00 AM it may be 35 degrees but by 1 PM your
return trip may be in the lower 60’s.
Sarah starts layering for a wide and changing
temperature range by wearing a wicking, crop
top base layer, therma-fleece arm warmers that
pull off easily on the bike as the sun rises
and her favorite Pearl Izumi short-cut shorts
with wicking Ultra-Sensor fabric. Always put
your arm warmers on first, before your main
base layer and jersey, so your jersey and base
layer sleeves lay flat over the top of your
arm warmers.
Its no wonder cyclists
complain of knee pain when we see so many riders
in 40, 50 and 60 degree temperatures with bare
legs. Nothing screams “novice” like
bare legs in cool temperatures. When it is cool,
shorts are not cool. If it is below 70 degrees,
keep your knees covered. Delicate patellar tendons
surrounding your knee cap have no blood supply
to protect them from chilly winds, stiffness
and injury. Keep them warm by tucking a pair
of knee-warmers under your shorts and prevent
sore spring-time knees. Never ride with bare
knees below 70 degrees!
No one makes base layers
like Craft of Scandinavia. Craft has been known
in the Nordic ski world since 1977 but really
got their start in cycling when Tour de France
riders like the CSC Team starting using their
base layers on cold, damp mountain stages. The
Pro Short sleeve fits snug and uses a fitted,
channel weave of high tech, moisture management
fabric to trap warm, dry air against the skin
and slide perspiration off the skin and to the
outside off the garment where it evaporates,
keeping you dry and comfortable. The $34.99
Craft Pro Short sleeve goes from 35 degrees
to 70 degrees and is the most important layering
piece in your spring wardrobe. Craft is the
big gun in base layers for cycling.
One last check of the
weather before she joins her riding buddies
for two hours on Sunday morning and Sarah decides
its cold enough to trade her knee warmers for
full length, Therma-Fleece leg warmers. Sugoi
and Pearl Izumi both make leg warmers in different
weights but the heavy ones are the most popular.
These cover your calf muscles and prevent cramping.
Sarah adds a Pearl Izumi Podium Jersey of Ultra-Sensor
moisture management fabric over her Craft base
layer and arm warmers. It’s 42 degrees
out and the high is predicted to be 61 by 2
PM. This is the perfect all-day, in between
short sleeve jersey to wear over a base layer
and with arm warmers for versatile comfort in
changing temperatures.
It is the first 30 minutes
when you are always the coldest. Like Michael
R. Rabe used to say, “Any fool can be
cold”. Since Sarah isn’t fooling
around she goes out the door with a Craft windproof
vest over her base layer, Ultra-Sensor jersey
and Therma-Fleece arm warmers. The vest keeps
the chilly morning air away and folds neatly
into a back jersey pocket after the first hour
of the ride. These lightweight, windproof vests
are the difference between relative comfort
and absolute misery during a sudden downpour
on cool days.
For the cyclist more than almost
any other sport clothing is equipment. The right clothing
will keep you comfortable and in the saddle through
a wide range of temperatures and seasons. A few key
pieces of the right cycling clothing make all the
difference between long hours on the indoor trainer,
too much time on the couch or some enjoyable spring
rides.
-Thanks to Marc Liljgren and Kim
Ross of Intuitive Business Solutions, Sarah, our model,
Mike Aderhold for his help with wardrobe and Dave
Koesel at Craft as well as our friends at Pearl Izumi
in Boulder, Colorado.
