Sports Magazine

As spring and summer get closer, lots of people think about blowing the dust off their bicycles in readiness for long country rides, where they can improve their fitness and also enjoy the warm weather. One of the main problems, especially if you want to travel light, is that the exertions required on uphill climbs, or jaunts that last several hours, can cause you to get hot and sweaty. This can be extremely uncomfortable, not to mention unsightly. One option is to take a backpack with a towel and several clean, dry shirts, and find somewhere to change periodically. You may then feel that you are not really travelling light!

Another far better answer to this problem is to consider wearing cycling shirts. Many dedicated cycle shirts are made from high performance materials which wick moisture away from your body as you sweat. The moisture diffuses through the layer next to your skin, as vapor. The vapor condenses on the outer surface and cannot diffuse back towards your skin; instead it evaporates away. The result is that you always feel dry and comfortable when out riding.

If you need to wear a couple of layers, perhaps because it is fairly cold as you set out in the early morning, remember you will get far more benefit if both – or indeed all – the layers you wear have a moisture wicking ability. This will enable the sweat to work its way to the outer surface and evaporate, rather than getting trapped and soaking a middle garment made from some other material.

A really important tip if you do go riding in a cycling shirt, and would prefer to keep your friends, is to wash it immediately when you get home (or wherever your destination happens to be, if possible). Moisture wicking materials do exactly what the name suggests – they transfer moisture in one direction from your skin to somewhere else. They do not remove salts and other materials exuded within the sweat. So cycle jerseys can become pretty smelly after a long ride if left in a pile of laundry that you only get around to a few days later! And once they become smelly, it is virtually impossible to remove the odor, so be warned.

The benefits to your comfort, though, by far outweigh this shortcoming, and if you buy a cycling shirt which is brightly colored, you will also be more visible on the roads to other traffic, so there is also an important road safety benefit.