No gloves? No thanks.
Gloves, it seems, are just not cool. It’s something I will never understand.
Watching Stage 1 of the Tour de Hongrie last week left me with a very uneasy feeling. A hard crash in the final 200 metres brought down several riders, one of whom - Sebastian Changizi from Tudor Pro Cycling - hurtled directly over his bars and speared into the road surface at 50kmh+, arms outstretched, palms first. It was a nasty impact made even worse as Changizi wasn’t wearing gloves. His team later confirmed he’d sustained reasonably significant injuries. “Both hands were injured, making it impossible to hold his handlebar,” they announced. “He won’t take the start tomorrow." No kidding, I’d be surprised if he takes to the start before July. Hands are kind of important for a cyclist.
I’m well aware many riders prefer not to wear gloves nowadays, pros and amateurs alike. But I simply don’t understand why. The advocates I’ve spoken with about glove-free riding say it’s about road feel, freedom and being more at one with their bike. I say, they’re mad! Surely in the vast majority of cases it’s just an attempt - sometimes arrogant, sometimes naive, or just plain delusional - to look a little badass?
To get an idea of just how much damage you can do, check out this video from ex-pro, Phil Gaimon. WARNING: The really gory bits start about 2 minutes in.
Of course, it’s a free world and riders can do and wear what they choose, especially us part-timers who are beholden to no-one other than ourselves (and perhaps our spouses). But, frankly, if I was a team boss paying a pro rider’s six-figure salary, I’d want them wearing gloves. Every time. The designs are so ergonomic and lightweight these days anyway, they’re not exactly a bulky, performance limiting imposition. What is an imposition, however, is when entirely unnecessary hand injuries prevent riders from lining up for their teams and sponsors, or from performing at their best.
In some ways, the logic isn’t so different to wearing a seatbelt in a car or a helmet on a bike. If you could be 100% guaranteed you would never have an accident in your car, or fall off your bike, then clearly you wouldn’t need to bother wearing them. But of course, that’s impossible to know. Shouldn’t the same logic apply to our hands?
It simply doesn’t matter how good you are on the bike. We all come off soon or later and every time we roll out, be it a gentle solo training session, a weekend bunch ride with mates or a high octane crit race, there are so many things that could send us scraping suddenly - and painfully - across the bitumen with arms outstretched, at the complete mercy of the road surface. Surely the least we can do is try to preserve the skin on our palms and hands a little?
(Rant over.)