How Skjelmose FROZE out of the Race 

Riding for 15 years in Philly, and now almost 20 in Colorado, the maxim I've always followed is if your hands and feet get cold, you'll never get them warm again. It's just so much easier to over dress and shed, than the other way around. Especially when it gets wet!

I have been that frozen out before. Even in conditions that I did fine in before, but just, I don't know, there was this one race, I got a super chill . Bailed on the race, put on every warm thing I had, drove straight home 3 hours with the heat on max and still no good. I wasn't normal again for days! Other guys in that race were talking about life-changing levels of hypothermia. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't think, I couldn't eat, my digestion got bad, I had super-low temperature, even at home under the blankets, I was weak as a kitten and woozy for days. Never racing in that weather again. Nope. I feel bad for Skjelmose.

Congrats to Stephen Williams! Dressed for the win.

holy fuck, that's BRUTAL...

I feel for him, I got hypothermia in a cyclo x race end of February.Similar conditions but the race was 5 laps, and taking about 1.5 hours. Everyone was soaked from the start and there was water everywhere, and boggy fields. Like Skelmose, I decided not to stop to get more clothes as i would lose places. In the end i had to stop after 3 laps as was shaking so much and couldn't ride the bike. The race organisers and medics were fantastic . It took a long time to get my temperature back up. I'm 68 and very lean and small. You're right about riders not always feeling the same thing. Since I turned 50 I've coped badly with the cold. Look forward to your LBL vid!

I did a winter bike tour a few years ago thinking it would be fun and novel. Camping in the snow was fine, my derailleur froze lol. But man riding downhill in the freezing rain is what did me in. I had never been so cold in my life, I hung out in a portable bathroom on the side of the road for over an hour. My fingers couldn’t even pull the brake levers haha.

I ski all winter in temps down to sub zero. There is nothing more bone chilling than riding a road bike in 35-45 degrees F while its raining hard.

I never care what the fashion of the day is. I look at the temperature and I know what "I" need to do. Period.

The worst thing by far is the cold. Sometimss i cant even grab the handlebar as i cant feel my hands. Id rather be sweating buckets

Not something I'd normally say, but no mention of ladies' Fleche, with Kasia N. winning? Top five in the sport, arguably, and took her first win in five years. Fun moment.

Cheers, Chris. Three points: As a letter carrier in Michigan, a cold, hard rain is absolutely the worst weather. Two, are some of the absolute knucklehead moves, maybe related to betting and gambling. Three, Skjelmose should know better as a northern European. That was surprising to me.

Yes, great explanation. Chris has discussed this before -- UAE riders don't always work together when Pogacar isn't there. A total disaster here, when they had a great chance to win.

Back in '88 Hampsteen won the Giro because of warm clothing. The weather conditions were horrible with lots of wind and snow. On the top of the Gavia, he changed into skiing outfit, and that day he won the Giro.

SkjelFROZE

Very interesting. Generally 40s and raining is treacherous for any outdoor sport. The correct clothing so crucial to avoid hypothermic. Having experience hypothermia a few times it is demoralizing and frightening no matter if you think you are tough as nails. Tough as a wet bike rider at 40 degrees in the wind!

Thanks Chris for this interesting aspect of the impacts of (almost extreme) weather on riders. True, Skjelmose is a small athlete and has probably very low body fat. Hopefully, the weather won't be as bad for LBL!

I'm completely puzzled as a Scandinavian. Skjelmose will for sure be aware of what 3C does to you. At least the UNO-X boys did us proud.

Like I was told one time piss power planning makes for a piss poor performance. They knew the weather could get bad. And once you are wet and chilled and skinny, no amount of clothes isn't going to work. Uno-x actually put their leg warmers on during the race. I would have loved to have seen that. I don't know if they stopped our what, but they got them on, and all 5 finished. Great stuff, Chris.

That boy was hella froze.

Great perspective Chris. If you haven’t raced in the Alps, Pyrenees or Rockies possess a clue. Tyrol in July can be savage.

1st That was a crazy cold and wet race. Rather just have snow and no rain.

As a former pro domestic and a wilderness first responder that level of hypothermia can be fatal ie heart attack brain damage death. That was far more serious than people realize.

Just even doing a casual weekend ride, I ride in my Australian winter in a fleece jersey long sleeve, full leg knicks, full Finger gloves and some really nice thermal socks on feet . I can tell you at 3 Celsius or even lower , oh man, thankfully my core is warm but, my fingers and feet are cold, and this is in fine weather, add rain and sleet, I don’t want to to think about it….

I hit a storm up mt Diablo in northern California about 25 years ago. My hands froze coming back down to where I could barely brake into the turns. Never again. It's easier pealing off excess clothing if it gets warm. Stevie was fully suited as he won.

Looking forward to LBL. Appreciate all the information on gear. Will be handy in watching things in future races where there's bad weather.

Reminded me of the video of hypothermic Bob Roll at the 88 Giro; unconscious, shake, conscious, unconscious, shake, conscious, ect.

I just packed my shoe covers and long finger gloves for my cycling trip! THANK YOU Chris!

You’re the best Chris. There is no close second to your race reports and commentary.

Cold weather tip - cycling shoes with leather uppers keep your feet warmer.

You nailed it yet again Chris. Bare flesh at 3 rainy degrees C is toxic masculinity. 👍

Skjelmose himself has called it a knucklehead thing to do (or at least called it a major mistake) and said he already have gone over his bag with bad weather clothing 10 times to make sure it doesn't happen at LBL. So he seems to have learned his lesson. But someone on the team for sure should have insisted that he started in better clothing

Did you see stage 4 of the Tour of the Alps? I saw it this morning, and I thought it was intense. I saw Chris Harper come within even 10-15 seconds of catching Simon Carr, and then Harper crashed in a very scary way. During this part of the stage, and until the end of it, the group of GC favorites was seriously putting Juan Pedro Lopez to the test, but he got to stay in the lead. It was a very exciting stage.

I was always the pit women for my husband when he was doinf cyclo cross and handing up bottles in MB and Road races. In winter I the first thing I did when finished was strip him down put the warmest clothes on including gloves and a hat. Always the same routine. If he left the house on a cold day I’d be the verbal checklist - which route, gloves, extra rain jacket and safety foil blanket they weigh nothing. The SD should take some of the responsibility for what the riders wear. It’s all about the drill.

Stevie Williams should be giving lessons on how to dress in the rain and cold.

Way, way back in the day we rode in winter/late fall in Pennsylvania with plastic bags on our feet and ankles and mittens on our hands. Didn't have any fancy gear to use. I can still feel the cold 50 years later.

Shocking to see this occur in mid-April. It’s something you’d maybe expect at the start of Paris-Nice or Milan-San Remo.

I find it hard to get my head round pro riders on a really cold day with wind and rain forecast setting off in light kit and then being surprised they end up freezing. The winner had tights, a long sleeve jersey gloves and at one point 2 jackets. He’s from Wales in the UK so I’m guessing he’s done his fair share of training in bad weather and knew that once he got really cold there’d be no coming back.

As a bike messenger you learn very quickly about your gear choices even wearing Gore-Tex I still needed the best thing to keep my feet dry u.p.s.bags but you gotta put it on before you get cold.Duh.

Great insight, love it!

Whenever I holiday in Spain in the off season all the Spanish riders go out in what you could call Winter gear on what a UK rider might term a pretty nice Spring sunshine day . Sitting in the bunch getting sprayed with cold water off rear wheels for over 200km is no joke ! Not like going out on a solo training rides where u can stop before it gets that bad .

Fantastic Mr Horner. Nobody analyzes the race like you do. Much appreciated.

Steives (ipt) clothing sponsor are Ekoi. They make heatd winter gloves. Amazing piece of equipment

Good analysis, Chris, thanks. Yes, I have those Castelli gloves.

such great content. Thanks 👍👊🦋

Great insight from a top expert tour winner

I didnt realize my left sock slipped down under my tights, ripping down Col de Saxel in France, about 2006(?) ... which was 1st climb, on Stage 14, 2023 TdF on July 15th 😂🎉. So I had frostbite rash for about three years, above my left ankle: a "silver-dollar" rash that took 3 years to heal.

I like that vertical zipper on the gloves--BUT I will say that I've not yet found a claimed 'waterproof' glove that actually is waterproof on the shell. The membrane is always next to your skin, and the damn gloves are like a sponge that collects water. They become sodden, and cold hands.

Hey everyone who is following Chris’ channel: let’s talk each to at least ONE of our friends about how amazing the content on this channel is. For the life of me, I don’t understand how quality doesn’t at least get you to 500 k followers on RU-vid!

I'm always amazed at some of these guys? During a 70 degree training ride, they're dressed in full winter kit, but on (even) a sunny 35-40 degree race day they dress like it's 85 degrees. I always tell people "You can always take it off, but if you don't have it to begin with, you're screwed" (not so much in the way of team cars in P12 amateur races). There's nothing worse than going cold in a race. You never recover from it once it happens. Even on a full summer training day I tuck in a wind jacket, cause if that T-Storm hits it can get cold in a hurry. That was a hell of a race!

Great insight as always Chris! I was amazed at how many teams and riders misjudged the weather risks, seems almost unprofessional to me but maybe the pressure to perform caused an outbreak of knuckleheadery? FOUR teams were 100% DNF, crazy...Losing a race because you're embarrassed to dress up warm is nuts. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it, as they say. Bring on Sunday!!

Yup!! My mates always laugh at me for being over dressed.. till the month of May anyway… here in the northeast you can never know how the weather is going to change… now you can always take off and put gloves and warmers in your pockets…

Tiesj Benoot hadn't slept the night before Fleche ... He was present at the birth of his daughter ....

Great free class on proper clothing; it did make the difference for Stephen Williams...

Skjelmose is 100% OK and will start in Liegi

Too much indoor training these days, they need to go out in all weather so they understand how their body will respond, what clothing to wear and when to put it on.

100% preventable DNF

One other thing you can do Chris. Do some training up here in Canada usually cold in off season freeze your balls off and makes you a cold weather man. Cheers

A lot of the finishers looked like they'd aged about 20 years in a few hours! Stevie Williams had the best pick of clothing but how his feet survived I'll never know!

Tut tut...all that support....still ferked it....energy creates heat

Remember the Dumb & Dumber scene where they arrive at Aspen…?

So, why aren’t you a DS, Chris? I think you’d be great at it.

The poor fitting rainwear for some of the teams really shocked me. Inieos and Total Energy seemed to be the worst. I thought they were wearing parashots! They should take some lessons from Uno-X! 🥶😂

Dressed for winning!!

Wow. I've seen that twice at Iceman Cometh with amateur riders.

Interesting insights Chris. So nowadays it’s not possible to draft off the team car to get back into the race after a mechanical or other issue?

Funny how a video entirely about clothing could be this entertaining

Cold is OK. Wet is OK. Cold and wet together are horrible!!!!!!!

Toms Skujins is one of my favorite riders. Always dependable and (imho) has great race sense.

Start warm - stay warm.

3 degrees centigrade is 37.4 fahrenheit. How fast were they descending - 40 mph, soaking wet at 37.4 degrees

Great show Chris, yeah poor guys frozen all over the place

Hi Chris, thanks for the master class on dressing for the weather. By the way - why were you only wearing one shoe cover? (12:48)

WOW, Poor guy is like Popsicle.

Poor guy, hope he is OK.

I can barely take my shoe covers off sitting down

I have a huge immunity to cold.i always ride in super cold conditions in decades. Even at zero degree Celsius im only wearing a jacket and bibshorts and just long gloves. Cant stand the heat though .anything above 26 degrees is killing me.... My points is,it comes down to the individual.

What’s the recovery look like for hyperthermia? Are you back training? Ready for the next weekend?

A bitter lesson for Skjelmose, is it actually a good idea in terms of his health to ride LBL if similar conditions are likely?

I make it a standard rule. no riding or racing in sub-50 forecast or wet.

You remember that Vuelta 2013 stage 14 correctly Chris (finished 3rd behind winner Daniele Ratto and Nibali) and also I can bet that some of the 20 guys that DNFs (including the legendary IVAN BASSO) were making jokes at you in that morning 😆😆

Incredible...hard to reason any excuse for that decision. If need be, I ALWAYS will tend to overdress if the situation requires.

It’s a shame that there’s no group think to say let’s stop, take 5 and get dressed for this change of weather before 80% of the peloton pull out

This super skinny guys are made for 35 degrees where we bulky ones start to overheat quite quickly. If its cold you can dress up but in heat there is very little you can do. The efficiency of body in heat is a serious disadvantage in the cold. So better keep at least a bit of natural isolation.

Not Niboli, it was Hincapie

12:48 You got one shoe cover on and one off? :-D

Could advertising have a part to play in this? If all the extra gear were branded same as the team, then however dressed the riders were, it won't make a different to screen time for sponsors and also the aesthetic for the viewers.

One time I was riding a long ride. The last 20km I almost couldn't break because my hands were frozen. Once I got home I coulsnt unzip my shirt. Had to go inside the small reception close to where I used to live and put my fingers close to the heater in the room. After 10-15minutes I was able to unzip my shirt and go back home 😂

Dude. I have been there. Not cycling, but swimming in the ocean. Thought I was good, would warm up so I went in without a wetsuit. By the time I realized it I was shivering uncontrollable. Almost full convulsions. Just like his arms. No control. It was miserable. I second the overdressing.

Watching the races on Danish tv the commentators (often retired riders) make fun of riders wearing anything but the standard outfit. “You dont ride the finale like that” they often say. I always wondered about that and when Mads Petersen won the VM in cold weather i had a theory that if someone like Trentin(who came second) had been wearing something varmer he would maybe have beaten Mads inthe sprint. Those guys were shaking even on the podium.

Thanks Chris...yeah. they're all so lean now ...Papillon

these are not the riders mistakes , but the team director and managements mistakes ... someone must know the weather forecast .... t

It rains like that most days in Wales. Trust me I know

LBL will be a Norwegian, Scandinavian, Denmark-ian _ wet dream of a race. Those guys will be in their happy place. UNO-X will come to play!

Rough to see. Hope he recovers well. Certainly wearing nothing like this snuggie on the chesterfield.

Amundsen: "Fine weather all morning" Scott: "We shall march for the depot with or without our effects and die in our tracks." of course Amundsen was Norwegian..

I’m surprised that with all the technology they didn’t see this coming. If you go on a long ride you check the weather for different locations 🤷‍♂️

sidenote_ Chris, did you see Chris Harper (Jayco) wreck on stage 4 @ the Tour of the Alps? bruh....it was 😱 terrifying. I couldnt believe the soigneur took a bike off the team car.

I worked outside most of my life, and one simple fact is that it is easier to stay warm than it is to get warm once you're cold. Take the time to dress for the occasion.

Chris I'm 55 years old. My question is do you sleep as well and or as long as you did when you was younger?

The bigger you are, the lower your surface area to volume. The lower your surface area to volume the harder it is to cool you.