There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes.......

It’s mid-winter. That means riding in all weather conditions and making the most of training time. That also means figuring out how to deal with the poor conditions and what are your individual limits/needs for those conditions. Basically, your individual time-temperature curve.

First, let me say I ride in ALL bad weather here in Chattanooga, I do not however ride if I feel the weather is DANGEROUS. The difference to me is in visibility, icy conditions and thunderstorms. The coldest ride start I have had this year was 2 Saturdays ago when it was 7 degrees (Fahrenheit) when I rolled out the door. 3 ½ hours, one climb and a coffee stop later I was still fine when I rolled back in the door.

THE key to me is dressing right. You hear of layers but exactly how do you layer. Here are my key points: Good base layer (especially wool or synthetic fibers that wick away moisture because if you get wet, you’re in trouble), arm warmers on the OUTSIDE of long sleeve jerseys (so you can take them off before a climb- and not get wet!), good gloves and shoe covers (the importance here is that if you wear to many tight layers on your extremities they will get COLDER due to lack of blood flow), a solid chest cover (wind resistant vest or jacket that can again be pulled off if needed), a solid head cover that fits under a helmet (yep- I don’t recommend going without a helmet just to wear a hat- get something that fits under a helmet).

We on the Hincapie Development team are very fortunate to have availability of the best made clothing in the world, I recommend to everyone to compile your winter gear as needed season after season, piece by piece if budget doesn’t allow a big one time purchase

Some Ghetto techniques are plastic bags between shoes/shoe covers, toe or hand warmers, a hot water bottle or warm camel back to make sure you have available water and it can add to the heat retention in the ride, and a “rescue layer” which is basically plastic (rain jacket, bag, etc) you can put on if you run into trouble being wet in a wind.

The recommendation you will hear anyone that rides in cold weather make is you should be cool but not frigid when you leave because you will warm up just from increased heat production from the work. So, if you are warm the first 2 minutes you may get cold later due to sweat.

See you out on the road.

Carp