Coach David Ertl

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and owner of Cyclesport Coaching (www.CyclesportCoaching.com) . He coaches individual cyclists, the Des Moines Cycle Club Race Team and the JDRF Greater Iowa Chapter for the Ride to Cure Diabetes.  He can be contacted at Coach@CyclesportCoaching.com.

Bike:  Several things should be done this final week prior to RAGBRAI to ensure your bike is in good working order.  Start off by cleaning it thoroughly.  When you clean your bike you tend to look at it more closely than normal and you may see some things that need attention, such as a worn tire, frayed brake or derailleur cable, wheel or brakes out of adjustment, or even something more serious such as a crack in the frame. Take some time to look over your bike and inspect it as you clean it. If you need work done on it, get it done prior to starting RAGBRAI. There’s also the matter of pride. You just feel better riding a clean bike than a dirty one. 

Check your bike to make sure the gears are working properly.  Run through all the gears in the back cluster to make sure they work and the gears run smoothly and don’t chatter or click, or that the chain doesn’t drop off the small cog or the derailleur doesn’t hit your spokes when in the largest cog.  Also check your front derailleur to make sure it shifts the chain on your chainrings in front smoothly and doesn’t throw the chain off.  Spin your wheels to ensure they are straight and don’t rub your brakes.  The last thing you need is to have your brakes rubbing all the way across Iowa.  Check your tires to make sure they still have plenty of rubber left on the center part.  Look for deep cuts or bulges in your tires and replace tires that have these or you may be doing it on the road next to a corn field. Flat tires always happen at the most inopportune times.  You should oil your chain. It’s recommended you use a lubricant designed for bikes as these work better than household oils.  If something isn’t working properly get it checked out by an expert.  Your first choice is your local bike shop, but be warned, if you live in Iowa, they are very busy this time of year with other RAGBRAI riders so hopefully they can get you fixed up before you have to leave.

Be sure to bring along spare tubes.  You can usually get tires along the way if you need one but if you have an extra, bring it along in your luggage just in case.  Also be sure to bring your tire levers and either a pump or CO2 cartridges.  An all-in-one tool is also handy to bring along for minor adjustments.

It’s advised that you make a list of all the things you will need to bring with you: shoes, glasses, gloves, socks, shorts, jersies, helmet, water bottles, gels, energy drink mix, etc.  Think about everything you take with you when you go for a ride and include that on your list, as well as everything you’ll need after the ride.

Body:  Hopefully you’ve done an adequate amount of riding in preparation for RAGBRAI.  If not, it’s too late now. Any training you do now will not really help you but can possibly hurt you going in to RAGBRAI.  Here’s how I’d suggest approaching training for the last week.  Starting with the weekend prior to RAGBRAI (July 17-18^th), go for one medium long ride.  40-60 miles max is enough.  Remember, your goal is to maintain your fitness while allowing yourself to fully recover and refresh during the week prior to RAGBRAI.  The last week before RAGBRAI, keep your mileage down but do a few short, fast rides to keep your body tuned up, but again, not enough to fatigue you more.  Don’t worry about losing your fitness, you won’t lose very much at all by tapering the week before the ride.  What you want to focus on is resting and letting your legs fully recover. There should be no soreness in your legs this final week.  By being rested, you will be able to take advantage of all the fitness you’ve gained up to this point.  Many of you have to travel for a day or two prior to the start of RAGBRAI and that’s a good thing.  It allows your legs one final rest period before the big ride.   I would suggest going for a spin on Saturday when you arrive, to make sure you bike has made the trip okay and to loosen up your legs. 

You also want to hydrate well the final days before RAGBRAI begins.  Travel can dehydrate you as can the hot summer weather.  Work at drinking (water) throughout the day.  Eat well but don’t overeat or carbo load, especially on days you don’t ride.  There’s plenty of food available during RAGBRAI. Eat as you go rather than trying to store it all up before you go. You can store it, as body fat, which isn’t the ideal way to go.

So as you approach your final week before RAGBRAI, now is the time to get your bike and body prepared for a fun and successful ride.

Have a great time at RAGBRAI XXXVIII and thanks for reading!  – Coach David Ertl

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and NSCA Certified Personal Trainer. He is a coach with the Des Moines Cycle Club Race Team, the Iowa JDRF Ride To Cure Diabetes Team, and he coaches individual cyclists.   He also provides cycling training plans and ebooks at his website:  http://www.CyclesportCoaching.com 

He can be contacted at mailto:coach@cyclesportcoaching.com

Dress appropriately

You might want to invest in a lightweight rain jacket.  If it below 65 degrees (F), rain can be chilly. A rain jacket will retain some of your warmth.  Be sure to bring a long sleeve jersey and tights in case you do run into a cool rainy day – not likely in Iowa in July but you just never know – last year it was actually chilly some mornings. 

Above 65 degrees you are typically warm enough when you get soaked without a rain jacket.  Avoid wearing anything cotton when it’s raining – cotton holds a lot of water and will not keep you warm so save your t-shirt for another day.   Also, be sure to wear bright colors when it’s raining so other cyclists as well as motorists can see you.  Visibility isn’t as good when it’s raining.  

Consider getting a taillight for your bike 

These are small, lightweight and extremely bright. They are great for riding at dawn and dusk and very useful when it’s raining.  These light can either be set to be on steadily or to blink, which increases their visibility for both other cyclists and vehicles.

Be careful when the roads are wet

Wet roads are slippery.  Be especially careful around painted lines and metal manhole covers – these are especially slick when wet.  If you have to ride over these objects, go in a straight line and don’t brake.  Also be very careful crossing wet railroad tracks.  Avoid quick and sharp turns when riding on wet roads.  Also be on the lookout for sand and gravel that may wash across the road during a heavy rain. This typcially occurs on hills where water runs across the roads.

Don’t ride too closely behind other cyclists in the rain

Your brakes don’t work as well when wet and your stopping distance is greater so give other riders plenty of room. When you need to stop, squeeze your brake levers a few times to rub the water off your riims before applying firm pressure.   Also, if you follow too closely the rooster tail coming off their back wheel will hit you right in the face.  You may also want to wear your sunglasses to keep the water and grit out of your eyes.

Obviously if it is a downpour or if there is a thunderstorm, riding is not advised

Find shelter until the worst of it passes.  Do not stand under trees if there is a thunderstorm either.  Try to find a building.

After riding in the rain, be sure to wipe down your bike

This is best done when it is still wet as it will clean up more easily than the road grime dries on.  If nothing else, dry off and lube your chain.  It will rust overnight and your bike will squeak the next day and you don’t want to be ‘one of those riders’.   Be sure to check your tires.  Wet tires pick up sand and grit and glass so be sure they are in good shape after a wet day.  Stuff wadded up newspaper (Des Moines Register preferably!) inside your shoes overnight to help dry them out.  There’s nothing worse than putting your feet into cold wet shoes first thing in the morning.

Ride on, and try to stay dry!     – Coach David Ertl

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and owner of Cyclesport Coaching (www.CyclesportCoaching.com) . He coaches individual cyclists, the Des Moines Cycle Club Race Team and the JDRF Greater Iowa Chapter for the Ride to Cure Diabetes.  He can be contacted at Coach@CyclesportCoaching.com.

This hill is kind of like a parting gift.  It occurs within 20 miles of the finish on Saturday, but it isn’t going to let you escape RAGBRAI XXXVIII without a memory of riding uphill.  Potter Hill is a little more than a mile and averages 6% grade or so, but parts of it are steeper.  It twists and turns some so you can’t see the top thus making it seem longer.  So what’s the secret for riding up large hills without having to walk?  Here are some pointers to help you master hills, or at least survive them.

1) Hills are hard. Not only are you working against the two always present sources of resistance (wind and rolling resistance) but also gravity.  Gravity, especially if you are gravitationally challenged, is a much greater force so you really notice it and you have to pedal harder.  The real secret to riding hills is to accept that they are hard and you will go slower.  Don’t expect or try to maintain your regular pace on hills.  Maintain a pace that will allow you to keep your breathing and heart rate from going through the roof or you legs from seizing up. Know that hills will be hard and accept the fact and ride them accordingly.

2) Use your gears.  God put gears on your bike, use them. (Okay, actually Tullio Campagnolo developed shifters but use them anyway). The steeper the hill, the lower and easier the gear you should use.  Don’t be afraid to use your lowest gear.  I sometimes think I should save it in case a steeper hill comes along.  If you need your lowest gear, by all means use it.  The idea is to keep your cadence up in the 80-90 RPM range.  The faster you can spin your pedals, the less force you have to put out with each given pedal stroke.  Your feet have to go around more but that doesn’t require nearly as much energy as pushing a hard gear slowly.  Plus spinning saves your legs. If you grind away at 50 RPM on hills, your leg muscles will tire more quickly and make future hills more challenging.  Oh, and make sure you shift into your lower gears before your start climbing a hill. Once you’ve started up the hill, it is more difficult to downshift and you may lose your speed trying and have to stop.  There is one thing harder than riding up a hill, and that’s trying to get started riding once you’ve stopped on a hill. If you don’t know how to use all your gears, or you don’t know which are lower/easier and which are higher/harder, ask an experienced cyclist friend or your local bike shop for help.

3) Train on hills prior to RAGBRAI. Don’t avoid hills on your training rides.   As a matter of fact, you should be going out of your way to find hills to ride.  Riding up hills is a very effective way to build fitness.  There’s no slacking on hills – you can cheat and go easy.  They force you to work hard which will get you in shape.  Hills increase your cardiovascular fitness as well as leg strength.  

4) Train your brain.  Training on hills also makes you mentally stronger. If you go out and intentionally ride on hilly routes, when you come to hills on RAGBRAI you won’t be afraid of them.  Often times, I hear people complain when they see a hill coming.  They have already been defeated.  If you think a hill is going to be hard, it will be.   If you see a hill and know that you can conquer it, and even look at it as a challenge, it will be a much more pleasant experience. And you’ll be much more likely to make it to the top.

5) Pace yourself.  Don’t start off going too fast up a hill when you are fresh, especially on a long hill like Potter Hill.  You will die, or at least feel that way, after a minute or two and the rest of the hill will be really tough.   Instead, start out going up the hill a little more slowly than you think you can ride it. Don’t worry, it will feel hard soon enough.  The first objective should be to make it up every hill without having to walk.  There is no contest for fastest up a hill so go your own pace and try to make it up every hill without walking.

I think hills make riding interesting. If all roads were flat, riding would be easier but it would be less interesting and challenging.  So look at hills like the wind and the rain; it’s an aspect of cycling that gives it (and you) character and makes it the wonderful sport that it is.  The ability to ride up a big hill adds to the sense of accomplishment of riding RAGBRAI.  Hopefully there will be more hills next year!

Ride on, and up!     – Coach David Ertl

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and owner of Cyclesport Coaching (www.CyclesportCoaching.com) . He coaches individual cyclists, the Des Moines Cycle Club Race Team and the JDRF Greater Iowa Chapter for the Ride to Cure Diabetes.  He can be contacted at Coach@CyclesportCoaching.com.

With even moderate training, your legs should be able to make the entire ride without too much difficulty as long as you pace yourself.  But there is no getting around the fact that when riding 50-100 miles per day, you will be sitting on your bike saddle for several hours a day.  Several things can happen when your seat is not trained properly.  You may notice soreness under your sit bones after a long ride.  This usually goes away fairly quickly.   The next thing that may happen is chaffing where your seat and legs rub from pedaling.  The worst thing that can happen is development of saddle sores.  These can keep you off your bike and ruin your RAGBRAI.   Here are some suggestions for avoid being a pain in the rear. 

First, you should wear cycling shorts.  These are designed to provide padding to your tender nether region.  The padding also helps absorb perspiration to avoid chaffing and development of saddle sores.  TIP:  DO NOT WEAR UNDERWEAR UNDER YOUR CYCLING SHORTS.  Cycling shorts are designed be worn directly against the skin.  Underwear adds another layer of clothing that can rub and chafe, and even worse, has seams which can irritate your skin.  If you don’t like wearing tight fitting Lycra shorts, there are different types of riding shorts, including baggy shorts.  But they all have an inner lining with a chamois (pronounced ’shammy’).  In the olden days, shorts came with real leather chamois, but modern shorts have synthetic ones which provide more padding and are easier to clean and maintain.  But they are still called chamois. For a ride like RAGBRAI, you will want at least two pairs of cycling shorts, probably more.  The reason being that after each day you need to wash your shorts.  Due to the humid and sometimes rainy weather that occurs in Iowa in July, you can’t always count on your shorts drying overnight.  So bring an extra pair or two so you always have a clean and dry pair available.  What’s wrong with putting on wet shorts?  It’s not a pleasant to put on a pair of cold wet shorts first thing in the morning and it also subjects your groin area to moisture right off the bat and may never dry out during the day.

Second, ride a lot. Spend a lot of time sitting on your bike saddle.  As mentioned above, this isn’t just about training your legs, it’s training your seat. In many cases, it’s more about training your seat.  Gradually build up to longer rides.  Doing a lot of riding all at once can irritate your tender seat skin.   By gradually building up to longer miles, you will gradually toughen your skin. This is a great reason for riding year round by the way. You maintain your toughened seat skin and don’t have to retrain it each spring.

Third, to avoid chaffing, there are commercial products available that you can use to apply to your skin where it contacts the chamois of your shorts.  There are several brands with rather interesting names such as Chamois Butt’r, Assos Chamois Cream, DZNUTS, Friction Freedom, and Ride EZ Chamois Cream from right here in Urbandale Iowa.  Wipe a thin layer on your skin in your groin area prior to your ride to help provide a smoother ride.

Fourth, keep your groin area as clean and dry as possible to avoid the dreaded saddle sore.  Saddle sores are infections in your skin around your seat area.  These are caused by bacteria getting into your skin and not being cleaned promptly or thoroughly.  These become infected and are usually right under your sit bones where you put pressure on your saddle.  These are extremely uncomfortable and can make it impossible to ride. Saddle sores are so painful they can cause a Tour de France rider to quit the race.  Prevention is definitely the best defense.  Make sure you wear clean shorts every day.  Wash your shorts after each day.  Either bring along a little container of laundry detergent or you can also use shampoo in a pinch.   Just hand wash in a sink, wring and hang out to dry inside out in the sun if possible.  (Be careful with clothslines as they can be hazardous.  Be sure to take down clothslines at night in campgrounds)

TIP: make sure you rinse thoroughly. If it rains and you haven’t rinsed well, your shorts will start foaming.  Watch for this on other riders on rainy days!  You also need to clean your own skin thoroughly and quickly after each ride.  The worst thing you can do is spend the rest of the day in your dirty, wet shorts after you finish your ride.  Shower and change as quickly as possible after you finish riding.  Bacteria love warmth and moisture, exactly the conditions in your shorts after a ride.  When you take a shower be sure to thoroughly clean your groin area.  If you can’t shower right away here’s another great tip that I use.  Bring some individually wrapped wipes and wipe your groin area clean when changing into street clothes.  I use Preparation H Portable Wipes that come in individual packets.  You can find these at your local drug store.  If you don’t have these wipes, you can also use hand sanitizer such as Purell. I suggest you keep a small bottle of it with your bike gear at all times.

Ride on with a comfy bottom  – Coach David Ertl

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and owner of Cyclesport Coaching (www.CyclesportCoaching.com) . He coaches individual cyclists, the Des Moines Cycle Club Race Team and the JDRF Greater Iowa Chapter for the Ride to Cure Diabetes.  He can be contacted at Coach@CyclesportCoaching.com.

You see, RAGBRAI is not a race.  It’s not about speed.  It’s about being on your bike for many hours a day pedaling along at a comfortable pace.  To have the best possible experience while riding RAGBRAI, you need to prepare your body to do just that: sit on your bike and pedal comfortably for several hours.  The best way to train your body to do this is to go for progressively longer rides.  Aim for adding 5 miles to your longest ride each week, and increasing your weekly mileage by 10 miles per week.  Try to work up to a 70 mile ride before RAGBRAI starts.

Now there are some things you can do to improve your cycling ability beyond just the basics needed to complete the ride. If you would like to be stronger on hills or into headwinds, go looking for hills rather than avoiding them.  When you find a hill, attack it.  This will prepare you mentally as well as physically for hills on RAGBRAI. Same with a headwind.  Don’t let a headwind discourage you.  Use it as a training tool to make you stronger.    If you would like to ride a little faster than you do now, pick up the pace for short periods of time, such as for one minute, and then ride normally for several minutes. This is called interval training.

But fancy training techniques will only work if you have your base fitness established, and that is done by getting out and just riding your bike as far and as long as you can.  If you are riding more than 150 miles a week, then you can get fancy.  Until that point, however, just focus on getting in the miles. For a ride like RAGBRAI, that’s actually enough to get you in shape you need, to have a successful ride.

Ride on, and on, and on  – Coach David Ertl

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and owner of Cyclesport Coaching (www.CyclesportCoaching.com) . He coaches individual cyclists, the Des Moines Cycle Club Race Team and the JDRF Greater Iowa Chapter for the Ride to Cure Diabetes.  He can be contacted at Coach@CyclesportCoaching.com.

Here’s how it works:

When you push the large gear (hard gear), you are exerting a lot of force with your legs on the pedals every pedal stroke.  This requires you to recruit more muscle fibers every time you pedal which tires the leg muscles out fairly quickly.   If you shift to a lower (easier) gear, your legs don’t have to work nearly as hard.  Therefore, you save your leg muscles and they can go for hours before getting tired when you spin an easier gear.  You can go the same speed, but you have to spin your legs around more times per minute.   The recommendation is to aim for 90 rpm with your legs.  Yes, this will seem fast at first but with training this will be second nature to you.

But doesn’t spinning fast make you more tired too?  Actually spinning your legs around takes very little effort; it’s the pressure you exert on the pedals that makes your legs tired.  So even though you move your legs around 50% more often when spinning at 90 rpm vs. 60 rpm, they are doing the same amount of work, but the amount of force you need to apply is less.  Think of it as breaking the work of each pedal stroke up into smaller pieces.   Each pedal stroke requires less force. You do more pedal strokes, but if your legs are trained to go around in circles, you will find you can ride a lot longer before your legs start complaining.

So try this on your next ride.   Pay attention to your cadence.  Some bike computers have a cadence attachment that goes on your bike down by the crank.  If you don’t have one of these, you can count the number of pedal strokes you make with one leg for 6 seconds and multiply by 10 to determine your cadence in rpm.  If it’s below 80, then you should work at speeding up your cadence.  Do this by shifting to the next lower (easier) gear and increasing your leg speed.  This will feel unnatural at first but over time, you will do it second nature without thinking about it. You can also do spin-ups, where you accelerate your legs to see how fast you can make them spin before you start bouncing on the saddle.  These are good to try on a gradual downhill.  Do these spinning drills frequently when you are out riding and gradually your leg speed will increase.

Finally, do you think that mashing a big gear slowly makes you look macho?  Remember, riding in a sag vehicle doesn’t look very macho. Spinning up hills past other riders at the end of a long day sounds more macho to me!

Coach David Ertl

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and owner of Cyclesport Coaching (www.CyclesportCoaching.com). He coaches individual cyclists, the Des Moines Cycle Club Race Team and the JDRF Greater Iowa Chapter for the Ride to Cure Diabetes.  He can be contacted at Coach@CyclesportCoaching.com.

This chart has two weekday and two weekend rides listed.  With just four days of training a week, it’s possible to get in good shape to be able to ride an enjoyable RAGBRAI.  This plan builds up mileage in a systematic fashion to 150 miles in the week prior to the start of RAGBRAI. There are a couple of easier weeks built in for recovery.  The week before RAGBRAI should be easy to allow you to fully recover and be fresh for the ride.  Don’t worry, you won’t lose your hard-earned fitness in one week!

If you can work up to 150 miles in a week, you will be able to comfortably ride RAGBRAI.  This plan has you building up to 70 miles for your longest training ride.  This will allow you to comfortably ride each and every day during RAGBRAI.

This plan is meant to be a guide, not a hard and fast rule.   If you can’t ride four days a week, and can only ride thee days, adjust the mileage – the main thing is to aim for the weekly total and try to get the longest day in as suggested.  If you need to switch around days of the week, that’s fine.  And, if you can get in more days and more, that’s great.  Just don’t build up to fast – try to increase your weekly mileage no more than 10-15 miles per week max.  There is space in this guide to write down exactly what you were able to ride.  Hang it on your refrigerator and use it to keep you on track for a successful RAGBRAI.  There is a column labeled “Bonus Miles” which you can use if you ride more than four days per week.

In addition to the miles, be sure to find some hills to ride.  Don’t avoid them because you can’t avoid them on RAGBRAI.  Hills force you to work hard so they serve as a good way to get in shape quickly.   Same goes for the wind.  Use the wind as a training tool.   Ride steadily and push into the headwinds and return home with the tailwind practicing your spinning.

Ride on – Coach David Ertl

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach.  He coaches cycling teams and individual cyclists.  He is also an NSCA certified Personal Trainer. Learn more at www.CyclesportCoaching.com.

A lot of what I write about training gets pretty scientific and detailed – heart rate, power, anaerobic threshold, cardiorespiratory this, metabolic that…. but the most important thing to know about getting ready for RAGBRAI is to ride your bike – a lot!  You see, you don’t have to be fast to do RAGBRAI.  Even on the century loop, if you ride along at 10 MPH and stop several times, you can still make it in in 12 hours or less.  Most days aren’t nearly this long, especially this year.  So you don’t have to worry about being fast, as long as your are steady and stick with it.  Rather than worry about your speed, you should concentrate on whether you will be able to go the distance.  You want your legs to be able to go around for hours a day, for seven days in a row.  But you also want to make sure the rest of your body is up to it – your arms, back, neck and seat.  The good news is, to train all these body parts the thing you need to do is to get on your bike and ride it.   

Obviously you want to start out gradually.  Even if you have done as I’ve suggested and stayed active over the winter riding your indoor trainer, doing a spin class or doing other activities, once you get back out on the road it feels different.  It will take a while for your body to adjust.  So start out with just a 10 or 15 mile ride.   Concentrate more on frequency than duration at the beginning. Try to get out several times a week and just do short rides.  On weekends, or when you have the time, start doing a longer ride once a week.  Each week increase the distance of your longer ride by 5 miles, and no more than 10 miles at a time.  Not only will your legs start getting stronger, but the rest of your body parts will too. Don’t worry about speed at this point.  Later in the spring and early summer I will give you tips on how to get faster and how to climb hills better, but for now, it’s all about time in the saddle, not speed.  

One of the more frequently asked questions is how much training does one need before attempting to ride RAGBRAI. The rule of thumb I use is you should aim for at least 1000 miles of riding before the beginning of RAGBRAI.  That may sound like a lot but remember that RAGBRAI is more than 400 miles you’ll be riding in one week. You have almost 4 months to get in 1000 miles. That’s 250 per month, 75 per week.  No sweat (at least not until it warms up).   So get riding and start logging the miles.  

Coach David Ertl

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and NSCA certified personal trainer. He coaches cyclists in person and through his website, www.CyclesportCoaching.com.   He can be contacted at Coach@CyclesportCoaching.com .

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting cabin fever.  The calendar says it is time to ride, despite what the thermometer says. Each day that ticks by means that RAGBRAI is one day closer!  Riding outdoors when it is cold is possible.  It helps if you have roads that are clear and dry.  Riding on ice is dangerous and should be avoided.  Also, watch out for sand that’s been put down on roads for traction – it helps when it’s icy but on dry roads it become slippery.

Here are some tips for staying warm while you ride in the cold:

Feet: I wear wool socks (Smart Wool and Teko) and then wear winter bike shoes.  I only use one pair of socks but some people use two.  I have Sidi winter shoes but there are other brands such as Northwave.  On longer rides, lasting more than 1.5 hours, I put charcoal toe warmers on the outside of my shoes, and then cover with heavy duty shoe covers. Get the heaviest ones you can find.  I have Peal Izumi. My feet are the first things to go numb when it’s cold so I really put a lot of effort into keeping them warm.

Legs:  I have heavy duty bib leg warmers.  These have a covered front which covers my chest which adds another layer of wind protection for my front. 

Upper body:  I start with a wicking undershirt and then put on a heavy turtleneck shirt. Then put on the bib leg warmers.  Over that I wear my wool blend cycling jacket. 

Hands:  I wear heavy cycling gloves. There are several levels of heaviness you can find. I have three pairs and choose the pair depending on the temperature. For really cold days you might choose to wear ski gloves or mittens.

Head:  On cold days, below 35F, I wear my winter cycling cap under my helmet. It’s a Peal Izumi and had a visor and ear flaps. Not the most stylish piece of clothing but keeps my noggin warm. When its warmer, I just use a heavy ear/headband under my helmet. When it’s really cold, some people wear a face mask or ski googles.  When it’s that cold, I go skiing!

This is enough to keep me warm for at least 2 hours when its freezing out, literally. When your water bottle freezes, you know its time to head for home. 

Warmly, Coach David Ertl

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and owner of Cyclesport Coaching (www.CyclesportCoaching.com) . He coaches individual cyclists, the Des Moines Cycle Club Race Team and the JDRF Greater Iowa Chapter for the Ride to Cure Diabetes.  He can be contacted at Coach@CyclesportCoaching.com.