I ride in those temperatures all the time. I wear the following, bear in mind I tend to run hot.
As you can see, big fan of Gore bike wear in the UK winters. I think Castelli also licenses Gore windstopper material.
Was that climb part of a race or an untimed event? Completely different strategy for the latter - layering, stuff the pockets, etc… However, it definitely S***ks not having what you need in cold/wet weather, particularly on descents.
two club rides last year (Jan and April), a handful were racing the Strava segment. Some of the strong climbers packed extra bottles and continued to French Meadows Reservoir. Like many I treated it as an unsupported race in terms of clothing and gear. There is no water on the out-and-back until campgrounds open in May/June. Starts with a 10 mile descent to American river, and then 18 mile climb. We stash extra water at the river for the climb out. Awesome ride if you get a chance - Mosquito Ridge Road - Jay's Essential Bike Rides - and you can make it longer by doing out-n-back to Hell Hole, or doing a loop by going up Corkscrew and down Mosquito Ridge.
+1 on wool knee warmers. I like the Defeet Kneekers because, as you said, not as hot as the fleeced polyester ones. They bunch up less for me because the are thinner. Coupled with some Castelli nanoflex shorts and a windproof fronted jersey, this get up has gotten me through a lot of cold starts which warmed up later.
Warm enough for the win! What did you end up wearing?
Yessir! Definitely one I will boast about for a while, and one that my teammate says I have to stop saying I’m not a climber! Ha!
The sun made it feel a little warmer. I went with wool socks, the embro cream and no leg warmers, wool short sleeve base, with Gore arm sleeves, ditched the wool buff at the start, and traded to a thinner pair long fingered gloves. The first descent was chilly, but the race got heated on the second laps in more ways than one!
Woohoo!! Congrats on the win!!! I looked up the results–did you outsprint your teammate?
The sun really does make a huge difference. Sounds like you were pretty well set! Nice job.
My teammate’s leadout was so strong that we just gapped the other 4 that were in our break. I never look back in a sprint and just go as hard as I can to the line, so I just took off for the sprint and she literally was able to slow pedal in for second place! 
And thank you! I’m so happy I was able to see the hard work in results, compared to my previous two races that weren’t good showings at all.
Exactly how you should do it. 
Nice work between you and your teammate!
It’s always nice when you see such a great outcome from all of the sweat and hard work you put into it!
Hi all, a closely related question to all of this thread, has anyone heard of aero tights or aero leg warmers? I’ve searched around, including most of the big manufacturers and I can’t see any… Seems like we have aero every other bit of kit (jerseys, shorts, helmets etc etc) but not for our lower legs?
I’m off to Strade Bianche gran fondo the weekend after next and I would at least like to have something to wear on my legs (if it is very cold) that is as optimised as possible
Appreciate any suggestions, have taken on board all of the above re knee warmers vs full leg warmers. I think the key point is just establishing if any come in an aero material (dimpled pattern)
Cheers
Something like Castelli nano-flex (more water resistant) or thermo-flex (more heat resistant) will probably be fine if you get the right fit. At the speeds you’re going, especially over uphill gravel sections, you’ll probably lose more time from being too cold than from having un-aero legs anyway.
Nopinz do an aero-optimised legwarmer, but we’re getting into serious “early season TT” territory there.
Signed in to look up this exact topic. I have almost similar conditions for a road race Sunday - 40 degrees, but in this case no decent, pretty much flat. Once I am going I don’t think the temps will be of huge concern it is really the first five minutes, so I tend to lean toward less is better. I’ll definitely have my arm warmers on, and starting with a vest I think is fine since it’s light weight and I can always drop in at the half way mark (start/finish), the real question for me is - knee warmers and shoe covers. I ride in knee warmers often, just don’t love racing in them. And shoe covers definitely seem like too much. Any thoughts appreciated!
knees are unprotected, just a thin layer of skin and nothing. I always use knee warmers below 55F.
I agree with the protection thing, and in training always cover nder 60 - I just think in a two hour race - the trade off of comfort/feeling less burden by clothes and the lack of protection given it’s a relatively short period? Really on the fence. I think my knee warmers are comfortable I just feel like in a race they weigh/drag me down…probably more mental than anything.
I don’t shave my legs, gasp, and right or wrong believe leg warmers or sun covers make me more aero 
Haha, neither do I (as a cat 4 roadie, hopefully 3 very soon)! And actually that is a legit point. I put up a pretty good TT at a stage race last weekend and was thinking, man if I actually did those little things to be more aero I wonder how much of a difference it would have made.
I think the legs will warm up quickly enough that you won’t notice. I ended up investing in some embrocation cream, and am now addicted to that stuff. It’ll be 45F for my race start tomorrow and will be slathering it on.
As for the vest…will you be pinning a number? Will they allow the number to be under the vest once you take it off?
Yeah, I’m interested to learn more about the embrocation, but no time to play with for this weekend. As for the vest, I’d have my number pinned to my jersey and be sure to have my vest stripped by the finish which as far as I know is OK as long as it’s visible at the finish…?
I’m not sure if it needs to be visible at any other time in case something happens during the race and the official needs to reference your number? May be a good question to ask when you get your number just to be sure.
