Clothing and Performance

06 Mar 2003

If you care about your performance on the bike, then you should really take interest in the influence that the proper clothing has. 

For instance, a proper, close-fitting jersey can save you approximately 15 watts (riding alone at 45 km/h) compared to a “flapping” shirt. The advantage you get from the close-fitting one is about 2 seconds/km. 

If you wear a time-trial skinsuit, then the advantage you get is about 4”/km. For example, in Bordeaux, Tony Rominger - pedaling at 420 watts- rode at 51km/h when wearing a normal road jersey and could exceed 53 km/h when wearing a skinsuit. 

Clothing becomes even more important in extreme weather conditions, such as very hot and very cold environments: both hypothermia and hyperthermia can be fought with proper fabric and colors.