It’s Sunday morning. The sky was clear and the temperature dropped sharply. Your breath is audible as you chat with the ride staff while you wait for latecomers (yes, there are always latecomers) to arrive. People often rub their gloves, shrug their shoulders and shake their legs to keep warm. As long as you keep moving forward, everything will be fine. Or will you?
As it happens, there is some bad news from Leng Feng. According to a recent study in the Journal of Applied Physiology, letting yourself get cold is a big mistake. This may mean you ride slower. The truth is, there are many reasons why it’s difficult to perform at your best during the winter. But there’s a silver lining to this dark side: You no longer have to beat yourself up because your average speed is a little low on a cold ride. We’ll provide your cycling enthusiast with the warmth to keep you enthusiastic on your winter rides.
hot topics
Many of us may worry that the heat will hinder our progress. But cold is seen more as an irritation, a discomfort, than a hindrance. In fact, a 1999 study in the Journal of Applied Physiology showed that performance actually improved when training at 3°C compared to 20°C. This is because heat is an inevitable and unwanted by-product of burning energy. “We are inefficient human engines,” says Dr. Michael Kennedy, associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Alberta in Canada. “We only use about 25 percent of the energy we consume. The remaining 75 percent is mostly released as heat. That’s why when we exercise, we naturally heat up.”
Go in the cold
New research published in the same journal contradicts the 1999 paper, showing that cold slows us down. In 2024, a team at Canada’s Brock University tested the effects of cold air exposure on endurance capacity using varying degrees of cold strain, from skin cooling to core cooling. “We wanted to look at the dose response at different levels of cold,” said scientist co-author Stephen Zhang. “These levels were thermoneutral, cooling skin only; core cooling -0.5°C; core cooling -1.0°C. The 10 subjects rode at 70% of peak power to exhaustion,” the researchers found , cooling the skin itself can reduce exercise time by about 30%. Two core cooling protocols further reduce this speed by 30%.
Studies show conflicting results
(Image source: Future)
There was one key difference in Brock’s study: The subjects began to feel cold. “Typically, in studies of cold and performance, participants go into a cold laboratory and start exercising,” Zhang said. “In our study, they were cold beforehand and, despite exercising hard, were unable to warm up to maintain performance.” Pre-cooling consisted of 30 minutes in a temperature-controlled chamber at 0°C with a fan generating one meter per second of wind speed until the skin or core drops to the desired temperature. So what is happening physiologically that hinders performance?
At the level of skin cooling, peripheral blood vessels constrict to conserve heat. This reduces blood flow and oxygen flow to the muscles. On a deeper level, tremors interfere with muscle contraction and coordination and may themselves fatigue muscles. “There’s also a change in how oxygen is used,” Zhang said, explaining that oxygen is less efficiently transported from the blood to the muscles. It may not be a surprise that cold temperatures accelerate the onset of fatigue, thereby impairing endurance, but the biggest takeaway from this study is the difference between riding in the cold and feeling cold before you start riding.
go with the flow
Thankfully, there are ways to combat the cold. The first is to warm up before leaving home – making sure the blood is flowing well around you. “Once blood flow is cut off, it’s difficult to reopen the blood vessels,” said Professor Mike Tipton, a thermoregulation expert at the University of Portsmouth. “In our cold study, we had participants walk or jog up and down stairs for about 10 minutes to get the blood flowing. One way to tell if you’re warmed up is to put your fingers to your lips,” he explains. Lips indicate vasodilation, indicating that your body is also warm. A simple pre-ride warm-up is to spend 10 minutes on an indoor trainer. If you’re competing in a winter race, wear all your warm gear until the last minute.
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Of course, cycling clothing is also important. “You know, a person who is in the cold is not necessarily a cold person,” Tipton said. “This is a quote from exercise physiologist David Bass in the 1980s, emphasizing that we are more interested in skin tissue temperature than air temperature.” His point was that cold air can be insulated. “When it comes to the right clothes, we’re talking about layering.”
Warming up before you go and wearing the right clothes can make all the difference
(Image source: Future)
Proper layering means just enough insulation to keep you warm, but not so much that it causes excessive sweating. “We know that sweating directly affects your thermal comfort,” says Kennedy. “The most important areas of skin for sweating are the upper back, neck, and upper chest.” If you wear too much, exercise a lot, and sweat a lot, the moisture will create a rapid chill once you slow down to cool down. “Wear clothing that is both breathable and windproof,” says Kennedy, alluding to the windchill effect. If the air temperature is 5°C and you are riding at 20 mph with a 10 mph headwind, the windchill temperature is -1°C. “Ideally, you want to have air gaps between the base layer and the cycling jersey, and between the cycling jersey and the jacket,” adds Kennedy. “These gaps maintain microclimate and maintain comfort. Make sure the base layer is close to the skin to help wick away moisture.”
Wicking is the act of drawing sweat away from the body and onto the outer surface of the fabric. Merino wool and polyester are good choices because they don’t absorb moisture. Windproof material keeps out the cold, and sunglasses with clear lenses can keep your eyes from watering. “If it’s really cold, apply petroleum jelly to your lips and nasal passages, as this can also reduce cold exposure,” says Kennedy. Insulated gloves and neck gaiters are essential. “It’s a good idea to cover your mouth and nose, and recent research has found that keeping your nostrils warm can help fight inhaled viruses,” Kennedy said.
In addition to wardrobe, routing options are also worth considering. “Longer, sustained endurance on flat surfaces rather than intervals with lots of starts and stops or difficult descents on hills,” Zhang said. “The latter can make you overheat and then soak with sweat, causing your body temperature to drop too much. It’s also safer to ride at a steady speed on slippery surfaces.” Even more so if your route is flanked by hedges. Well, because the hedges provide protection from the wind and cold.
slow burn
This forward planning will keep you warm, but physics may still dictate that you ride slower. “First, your bike is inevitably heavier and less aerodynamic due to accessories like fenders and lights,” says Cheung. There’s also the fact that colder tires are slower because the hard rubber deforms less easily and therefore has higher rolling resistance.
“While wearing layers can keep you warm, more layers of clothing can lead to greater friction between layers,” Zhang adds. “The fact that there are fewer leaves on the side of the road means you also experience more wind resistance, which slows you down. The physical fact is that the air is denser when it’s cold, which means you face greater air resistance.”
Hot air moving faster is one reason racetracks turn up the thermostat. For example, the temperature for the 2012 Olympic track and field events in Lee Valley was 29°C. How much does denseness and cold slow you down?
Complex math aside, at a summer temperature of 20.9°C, you’re looking at an air density of 1.20 kilograms per cubic meter. At the same time, the winter temperature is 6.9°C and the weight per cubic meter is 1.27 kilograms. This higher air density increases air resistance, which means a noticeable difference of 0.5-1 km/h (0.3-0.6 mph) above 32 km/h (19.9 mph).
frozen by numbers
(Image credit: Andrew McCandlish for Future)
25 times faster – Rate of heat loss from wet feet compared to dry feet. Maybe it’s time to invest in those waterproof boots
10 days – The amount of cold exposure may change your perception of cold. You should be naturally “warming” by February
40% – Cold temperatures can reduce thirst levels, according to research
600 kilometers – Cycling the distance from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole, first achieved by British adventurer Maria Leijerstam in 2013
12% – The number of winter cycling trips in Oulu, a Finnish city bordering Lapland, despite late winter temperatures dropping to -30°C (compared to a 2% drop in the UK)
-0.53℃ – The temperature at which human tissue freezes, also known as frostbite. Keep those little toes warm!
Hit the road for a run
Most club runs slow down during the winter
(Image source: Future)
Where does this leave us as we face the next few months of cold riding? Hiding indoors and anchoring yourself to a coach? Not necessarily, although trainers have their uses, especially as a warm-up tool. Whether you’re sprinting up and down the stairs a few times or doing some intense star jumps, warming up before heading out gets the blood flowing to your working muscles, giving you a head start in the cold.
On the other hand, if you stand for 30 minutes while your punctual partner checks and re-checks their bike, your core temperature plummets and it’s extremely uncomfortable, potentially hurting your endurance performance. Make sure to layer your clothes effectively so you feel warm but don’t sweat profusely. If it’s really cold, cover your mouth with a balaclava. Staying warm is key to enjoying winter riding and minimizing the negative effects of cold temperatures.
You can’t beat nature, just accept it. This isn’t the season of PBs, it’s the season of consistency. Get dressed, warm up, get out there and enjoy.
