What should you wear for gravel riding when it's cold and rainy?

What should you wear for gravel biking in the cold? The answer lies as much in the choice and quality of your products as in how many you wear and how you layer them.
There are two crucial points to understand when choosing your gravel outfit.

- First: the best insulator (from the cold) is air. That's why I sleep on an inflatable mattress - to stop the cold coming up from the ground into my back.
- Second: it's me (my body) that's going to generate any warmth. I can't rely on the sun, wind or anything else to warm me up.

Once you've grasped these two points, it's easier to know how to choose your gravel kit.

It's all very well protecting your upper body, but what about the rest of you?
Another very important thing that I've realised is that we lose a lot of our body heat through our extremities: our hands, feet and head.

Where extremities are concerned, I've found two things:
The first is that it's basically pointless trying to cover up your legs, unless you're someone who really feels the cold. I actually ride in shorts all year round, and only put something longer on when it's wet, using waterproofs to stop the rain streaming into my shoes.

The second is that, if I wear a hat, gloves, warm socks and overshoes, I'll retain the heat I produce in all the right places. This is particularly worthwhile to know for climbs. I tend to sweat mostly through my back, and if I wear three layers, I'll soon end up drenched, which is disastrous in terms of getting coldIn reality, I often wear just a T-shirt on climbs - even in very cold weather - but I'll keep my hat, gloves and overshoes on. Of course, it's really important to put everything back on before I start the descent, because your body doesn't carry on producing heat for very long after you've stopped exerting yourself. 

If it's raining heavily, I always make sure to keep my hands in the same place on my handlebars. Because the more I move my hands around on the handlebar, the more water I'll pick up, rapidly making my gloves sodden. Keeping my hands warm and dry helps me retain control of my bike, and therefore keeps me safer.

Everything that I've said works perfectly well, provided that you're dry. The priority for gravel riding is therefore to avoid getting wet. Otherwise, the entire system falls down.
There are 3 ways that you end up wet:

From above, due to the rain and snow. It's very easy to wear the right things to stop this happening. I do so by simply wearing a waterproof third layer, which protects my two inner layers. It has a hood, which also keeps my hat dry. On my lower half, if it starts raining, I'll pull on my waterproof trousers and overshoes. And if the rain is particularly heavy, I can also add waterproof overgloves.

From inside, i.e. from my body overheating and sweating. This is mainly a problem on climbs. Here, there's no miracle solution. I've simply learned to pace myself so that I produce enough heat to stay warm, but not so much that I end up soaked in sweat. However, I still have a handy tip: take advantage of the vents on your jacket and waterproof trousers, which let the cold air come in and slightly cool your inner layer.

From below. This is the worst, when the ground is totally covered in water and your tyre is throwing water all over the place. Not only is the ground more slippery, which makes gravel riding particularly technical, but the water will gradually work its way into your shoes via capillary action, leaving them sopping. It's even worse with gravel riding than road cycling because your knobby tyres pick up so much more water off the ground. That's the down side. But there are three things you can do:

- Wear waterproof overshoes as I've already mentioned, but you need to make sure your waterproof trousers go over the top of your overshoes. If not, the water can run down your trousers and soak into your shoes.

- I also use plastic bags, which I put over my socks, inside my shoes, as a back-up waterproof layer that also has the benefit of being windproof. Similarly, you can stuff kitchen foil into the ends of your shoes, over your socks, which keeps your toes much warmer. While this solution isn't waterproof, it's still compatible with all of the other solutions, which are.

- Fit your bike with mudguards to hugely limit the amount of water that the tyre kicks up onto your back, shoes and trousers. Make sure to choose a mudguard that's far enough away from your tyre that you don't get a load of mud trapped under it, as this would stop your wheel from turning. You should also check whether your mudguard is compatible with your pannier rack, if you have one.

Now that you know how to choose your gravel biking outfit, the question of durability comes into play. Always check the label to see how to wash your clothing. For waterproof items, it's important to wash them at no more than 30°C because, above this temperature, the fabric will lose its waterproof properties.
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