Going out on a cold weather ride? Consider starting out into the wind. This becomes increasingly important as the temperature falls. Why? Wind chill.
The wind-chill effect is why air feels colder than the actual temperature. Here’s an example. If it’s 50 degrees and calm, it feels like, well, 50 degrees. But if it’s 50 degrees and a 15-mph wind is blowing, wind-chill charts tell us that it feels like 36 degrees. Big difference.
Now let’s say you’re riding into that 15-mph wind at 15 mph. This produces a 30-mph head- wind and an effective temperature of 28 degrees. Brrrr!
So, be smart and face the icy blast when you’re fresh and dry. Battle the wind for the first half of the ride. Then when you’re getting tired and damp, you can turn and let it blow you back home. Suddenly it’ll feel a lot warmer.
The colder it is, the more essential this tactic. On a 30-degree day, the windchill created by riding into a 15-mph headwind is a frigid 2 below zero. Holy frostbite! If you encounter that kind of cold on the homeward leg of a ride after you’ve worked up a sweat, they’ll be undressing you with an ice pick.
Remember, even on a calm day the speed of cycling creates a windchill. Make sure your jacket has a full-length zipper that you can run up and down to control airflow and limit sweating. You never know when a cold wind will start to blow.
This is good in theory but when I ride into a headwind blowing more than about 10mph, on the return trip it gives a big push and you are back to an even higher windchill. During winter down here in SE GA the wind almost always comes from the NE or NW and from the SE all summer. My routes in winter I can always start in a headwind or crosswind. But the return, with a steady 10-15mph tailwind causes an increase in speed from 15mph to more than 20mph. This combined with the accumulated chill from the headwind journey causes me to become much colder on the return trip. But, since the summers are so brutally hot and humid down here I try not to complain about the cold. And I figure we have it much better in winter than most of the country.
I’ve never read one of your article that I disagreed with more! I always want to go out on a headwind and get blown backhome,EXCEPT in winter. If you dress right you have to start off cold(layer, layer,layer,layer,..no jackets, they’re for rain). Almost without exception it gets warmer as the day goes on, so the headwind on the way back isn’t as brutal as it would have been earlier in the day. I doubt that the fellow from Georgia has to starts out in the low 30s on a windy day. Want to have an enjoyable ride, don’t sweat. Any and all jackets are going to eventually make you sweat when you warm up. When you start getting hot, stop and remove one or two things, don’t take too much off. On really cold days I might have 4 layers of headgear, sleeveless base layer(super stretch) long sleeve thin zipper layer,heavier long sleeve( underarmor) layer, zipp up stretch fleece sleeveless vest,heavy long sleeve winter Jersey, outer reflective vest, bib shorts,tights and leg warmers over them. JJ, 77, SAINT LOUIS
I too disagree, and not just in winter. Wind is always demoralizing so when I’m not warmed up it is doubly hard.