If you are planning to ride a century in early summer, you will be training four to six days a week in the spring. Only problem with that is … April showers! But, if you’re going to ride that century strong, you are going to ride in the rain once in a while.

When you think about buying rain gear, it is the jacket that comes to mind, maybe a helmet cover, and then, the feet. Ask an experienced road cyclist how she keeps her feet dry in the rain, and you are likely to get one of three answers.

a) I wear neoprene booties

b) I wrap my feet in plastic bags

c) I don’t try to keep my feet dry because it is a lost cause

Shall we take these one at a time?

a) Neoprene booties are good insulation for cold weather riding. But they aren’t much good when it is raining. The neoprene absorbs water, it does not repel it.

b) Plastic doesn’t breath, so your feet get wet from the inside when they start sweating. This approach, though popular among racers, is an athlete’s foot accelerator.

c) Don’t give up yet – it is not a lost cause!

Nothing is bullet proof, but here is approach that could keep your feet relatively dry for 100 miles or more. When I say relatively dry, I mean the degree of moisture next to foot is less than that outside of your water barrier; and if all goes well, the only moisture inside the vapor barrier is a small amount of sweat (which is a pretty good compromise).

Here is what you need, from the inside out (click-through to example products):

• Light wool sock. Start with a thin wool sock. Wool is breathable, stays warm when it’s wet, and a thin base layer will protect you from blisters.

• Medium to heavy-weight wool sock. Depending on outside temperature, you will adjust the weight of this second layer. You want to be warm, but not so warm hat you promote sweating unnecessarily.

• Cycling shoes. Buy them one size too big so you can wear two pairs of socks. Select a pair of lightweight, touring or MTB-style shoes – comfortable, but not bulky. These shoes are often priced and promoted ‘down market,’ so you get a lot of shoe for you money. Ignore the ‘recreational rider’ ad copy, and focus on getting a stiff-sole with minimal tread, so you can slide your foot in and out of the bindings easily.

• Toe Covers: Add this optional layer if it is cold – that is about 44 degrees for me. You need this little barrier to cut the wind and keep your toes toastified.

• Waterproof cycling shoe covers. Burley makes a shoe cover that is lightweight, water proof, and does not have a cut out in the bottom for clip-less pedals. This is critical because if you have a hole in the bottom of the bootie, water is going to work its way up and into your shoe and sock.

• Touring pedal – so this is going to be your biggest mental hurdle. In order to keep your feet dry and warm, you will need to unclip. Get over it. If you want a dry foot you cannot use a clipless pedal, because clipless pedals require booties with a cut-out in the bottom, and a cut-out in the bottom allows water to work its way into the shoe.

• Power Grip. Just because you cannot use a binding doesn’t mean you have to give up the benefit of having your foot bound to the pedal, which is important to capture the energy created from your quads during the upstroke. Powergrips are a great compromise. They give you the benefit of feeling locked-in to your pedal, with super easy entry and exit.

The system works great. A side benefit of the program is that you can walk around easier when you get off the bike to do whatever it is you have to do when you stop riding.

Your willingness to take this advice is going to be directly related to how much your personal choices in cycling apparel and components is influenced by peer pressure and magazine advertising. Touring cyclists are already doing this. Roadies who are comfortable training alone are going to be most comfortable making this transition. Dry-weather riders probably will blow this off because they won’t be able to get over the pedal thing; it’s a full-step beyond fenders…

Is it worth it?

That will depend on how important it is for you to keep your feet dry.

If you are riding through a mountain terrain, where mornings and evening temperatures drop below freezing, the need to keep your feet dry is imperative. Wet feet can lead to frostbite, and frostbite to a DNF* in that century ride you’ve been training for over the past 10 to 12 weeks.

* DNF: Did Not Finish

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.